Help Me!!! How do I install XP on a SATA Serial HD? Bios detects but Xp doesn't.

Hey rhino, hope you see this, will reply now

I'm seeing

I think that when you install windows you need to press F6 or whatever it is (watch the bottom of the screen), it'll say press F2 for automated system recovery, etc.. I think it's F6 for SCSI or third party RAID devices.. I know it doesn't sound like what you have, but this is what you need to do. It will then prompt you from there.

I also have a WD 36gb raptor drive, and had to buy an S-ATA card to use it. Wicked drive!

PS: you'll have to remove any other HD's, or change boot order in BIOS..

I did the F6 thing several times... it kept asking for a diskette, which I dont have since the drive was OEM... so you're saying the only way I can use it is if i have a ATA Controller card?

What kind of motherboard is it? model, etc

Do you know if I'm supposed to have a specific driver or boot disk? I looked on WD's web site but I couldn't find anything at all

Asus P4S800D

If your Serial ATA (SATA) controller is a bootable controller (the vast majority are) you may boot from the SATA drive. You may need to enter Setup and change the boot sequence so that the SATA controller is the first boot device listed. In most cases, if the SATA controller is hahahahahaded (not an add-on controller card) on the motherboard, the BIOS Setup utility will have an option to choose the SATA drive as the first boot device. Look for Boot Sequence, Boot Options, Boot Order or a similar setting to make this change. If Setup does not allow this change, your system BIOS may not allow the SATA controller to be designated as a boot device at the BIOS level. In such cases, you still may be able to boot to the SATA drive as long as there is not a bootable EIDE drive installed in the system as well.

Note: When installing Windows 2000/XP to a Serial ATA drive, you may need to specify the SATA controller drivers early on during the installation. For specific details, see Answer ID 127.


From Answer ID 127: Resolution:
During the initial installation of Windows, you will need to press F6 almost immediately when "Setup is inspecting your hardware..." appears on the screen. You will then be asked to provide any mass storage controller drivers you may have. At this point, use the drivers supplied by your controller manufacturer. After performing the steps above, the drive will be recognized and the install should continue without problems.

Note: In many cases, specialized ATA or RAID ports, SCSI ports, and SATA ports integrated directly into the motherboard must have their drivers installed as shown above.

Also go through all your "boot device" options to see if you can select SATA on it. If not it might be SCSI or something else that will make it work. And I'd really recommend removing any other HD's, only use that HD during the windows install

Well, here is the problem, I dont have a Controller card. it is just the Hard Drive and the Serial ATA Cable that connects to the MoBoard. Nothing else. I purchased it OEM and thats all it came with.

Do I HAVE to have a controller card for it to work? I can't just use it by itself?

Note: In many cases, specialized ATA or RAID ports, SCSI ports, and SATA ports integrated directly into the motherboard must have their drivers installed as shown above.

i did remove the other hard drives

They kinda worded it wrong. You're not setting the "controller card" as your boot device, you're setting the drive itself as your boot device, controller card or not..

No, you don't need a card if A> your motherboard supports S-ATA, and the motherboard's BIOS also supports S-ATA.

okay, then my only dillema is that I need to find the disk for it... i looked all over wd's web site but I couldn't find the boot disk that it needs... do you have the disk? Or know where I can dl it from? Thanks for helping btw, really nice of you!

http://www.asus.com/support/download...S800D&Type=All

It might be that you need the BIOS update, or perhaps the RAID controller drivers.. But those are for windows, so I kinda doubt that's the problem since you can't even get that far. But maybe! I think you need to be looking for something from Asus rather than from WD though.

I think you'd do well to signup at www.anandtech.com to their forums, and ask in "general hardware" forum. Usually people are very helpful there.. I needed a card so I had the disk, but it wouldn't help you

Okay, Socks, I'll try that. Thanks a lot for your help!!

No problem. Now go check my site out. ;)

LoL

I just had almost the same problem, the difference being that I was attempting to install XP on a SATA HD in a new PC. I tried every driver on the motherboard CD, downloaded the drivers mentioned on the board manufacturers FAQ, but nothing worked. Apparently XP doesn't support SATA out of the box, you'll need a specific driver for whatever SATA connection you have on your board. The first task is working out what that is. ;)