Help!! HDD isn't seen by new mobo/CPU combo

M

mdlestat

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 29, 2005
Messages
132
I need some help here everyone:

My 6800GT fried last week (MSI) and since I had more money than I did in Feb. when I bought the card, I decided to upgrade some other stuff wit it--

I went with the $2000 guides suggestion of the Abit AN8 Ultra, and also the X2 4400 processor-- with this I added an ASUS 7800 GTX TOP.

Remember that I didn't plan on these upgrades-- but in order to enjoy current graphics I had to switch to a PCI-X mobo... this means that I didn't do any preparation to my Hard drives prior to these hardware changes.

Now that I have everything put together, the mobo will not see any of my hard drives, except the DVD (which is IDE-- the HDD's are SATA)

PLEASE help me get my system back up and running-- I can't just erase the drive-- it has everything on it--

I don't know why it won't boot-- but it won't even see the drive(s), let alone start Windows...
 
Well for the windows part...XP is not like 98 or linux for that fact...It will only run on the computer it's installed on....
 
No idea why you bought the Abit board. Didn't read the HardOCP review?

"The ABIT AN8 Ultra was a pain in the ass to work with. Reviewing it was simply not an enjoyable experience. I simply cannot suggest any enthusiast or non-enthusiast user purchase this motherboard based on the experiences that Morry and myself had to deal with."

Anyway, are you using a PATA to SATA adapter for your HDs?
Plug your HDs into the PATA port and see what happens. The BIOS should see the HDs.
However, kiss booting from them good-bye. A Windows re-install is in order.
 
Thanks for the replies so far--

[rant]

I bought this mobo based on the review I read here

You know-- the one from just over a month ago, that recommended this exact board as it's ONLY AMD option for it's upgrade guide.

Had I known that the powers-that-be here would be so stunningly contradictory as to suggest a mobo as an excellent upgrade solution for mid-upper-end systems in one article,and then fucking crucify it in another review, I might have questioned the honesty/accuracy first article and chosen differently. Especially if they had bothered to cross-reference the articles, once they learned that they disliked the board.

I had to get back up running quickly, and trusted the reviews of this site, as I have now for quite some time. I never thought I would have to second-second-guess this site, and now I know better. [/rant]


Besides, I don't plan on much OCing, if any, on this setup.

I don't understand why I would have to wipe the drives and start over...all that's changed is hardware-- why would it make a Windows OS not run-- it's like saying that switching a a CPU requires a clean install... doesn't make sense to me...

If It *could* see the drive, why wouldn't Windows just note the driver changes and boot normally?

Thanks again for the continued help--
 
Because WinXP are just not built that way. It's like changing your bakebown.
btw. U don't have to erase the disk, just the Windows portition of it. Use ERD, but what I didn+t tell U is that U can easily get it on TORRENT
 
I actually have a Norton Ghost backup of C: on my recovery ( R: ) drive-- (one of the three total in my system), but I can't get the com to see any of my sata's to perform the backup, so until I can get the mobo to see the drives in the first place, the utilities wouldn't do me any good...right?.
 
mdlestat said:
Thanks for the replies so far--

[rant]

I bought this mobo based on the review I read here

You know-- the one from just over a month ago, that recommended this exact board as it's ONLY AMD option for it's upgrade guide.--
Click to expand...
Oh man, that sucks!
Yeah would have been good if they had edited the $2000 systems post.

Ah well. As far as changing hardware goes, for a CPU upgrade you do not need to reinstall windows, but when you upgrade your motherboard, than you have to reinstall windows most of the time. In your case it seems like you changed chipsets, and thus Windows is unforgiving.

Though it's a mute point if the drives aren't recognized. Are you usuing Parallel ATA to Serial ATA adapters for your drives? Also, what power supply are you using? The DFI boards won't run properly unless they have at least 420W, perhaps the Abit needs some certain wattage as well before it powers the SATA controller up?
 
My experience with changing mobos w/ different chipset, Windows always has locked up, t never even reached DESKTOP. Just got the infamous BSOD
 
After you get the bios setup to recognize your drives, you can try a "repair install" of Win XP. That has worked for me when changing hardware. You won't lose any data that way. All you lose is the "Windows update patches". It will reidentify your new hardware and require you to activate again because of it.
 
I just changed MB on my system from an amd NF2 to intel 915p and the system booted fine, after redetecting all the new hardware I just had to re-activate.. Your problem has nothing to do with the OS as far as it sounds. You need to get the drives recognized in the bios first.
 
Thanks guys--

I am thinking I can't go wrong whatever I do since I have the recovery drive with an image of my primary HDD that's only 2 weeks old-- so I could just erase the primary with a fresh Windows install and recover it to its prior state through Ghost-- (this is only if Windows still doesn't operate after getting the mobo to recognize the drives)


Keep the excellent input coming though-- it's very helpful-- :cool:
 
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