Trouble Installing a SATA Drive

D

DanMattia

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
354
Hello,

Pardon my ignorance, but I just purchased an OEM WD Caviar SATA-II 250gb Hard Drive. I'd like to use it as a secondary hard drive, and leave my Maxtor DiamondMax 200gigger as the main hard drive (without reformatting).

I never installed SATA drivers on my A8N-SLI Deluxe, and I suspect that is the problem, but like I said, I have no idea what I'm doing. The manual of my mobo's very broad.

I've plugged the HDD in (with the SATA cable and power), using no jumpers whatsoever. The drive is NOT detected by Windows XP.

What my question is: how can I install the SATA HDD as a secondary HDD without reformatting my primary IDE? Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
First off.
Can you find it in your bios.
Check in the boot options that it shows up there.

If it does, and it should, then go into Windoze and right click "My Computer" -> manage -> Disk Management.
Does it show up in the.
If it does then just format it.

If it don't then you need to install the SATA drivers.

Luck........... :D
 
You shouldnt need the sata drivers unless you want to do raid.
 
Does it show up under device manager.

If not install sata drives through windows. Does not format anything. If it is under device manger, follow the instructions in my sig.
 
No, does not show under Device Manager or Computer Management.

Anybody know where I can get the SATA drivers for the WD Caviar 250gb, or do I use the ones on my motherboard CD? I don't want to reformat my main IDE drive or make a RAID array.
 
DeChache said:
You shouldnt need the sata drivers unless you want to do raid.
Click to expand...

Yes and no. There are only a few SATA controllers that are native to XP. If you use an Intel motherboard, you can set the SATA controllers to legacy mode but you lose one of the regular ATA channels in the process. Basically it takes the SATA controler and makes it the Primary or Secondary channel.

Back to DanMattia, there's no such thing as drivers for a hard drive. The drivers for your SATA controller are on the motherboard CD but before they load, you'll have to do some research first. In your Device Manager do you have a device listed with a ? icon? If not you're going to need to look at your motherboard manual to find out how to enable/disable the SATA controller in the motherboard BIOS. If you do have something listed, pop the motherboard CD in and run the installer for the SATA controller drivers.

After that, you'll have to partition and format the drive. It won't simply show up in My Computer ready to use. You may want to try these steps first before assuming the SATA drivers aren't loaded. Right-click My Computer, select Manage, then click Storage and Drive Management to partition and format the drive. ALL hard drives are blank and have to be partitioned and formated before they can be used.
 
Tigerbiten said:
First off.
Can you find it in your bios.
Check in the boot options that it shows up there.
Click to expand...

Here's the answer..... ^^^^
 
Drive is not found in BIOS, only detects my IDE drive. Also doesn't show up in Windows via any methods mentioned.

I have it plugged into the SATA A or 1 or I (whichever it is) on my A8N-SLI Deluxe. Power's provided via the molex-->SATA cable, and no jumper is present.
 
DanMattia said:
Drive is not found in BIOS, only detects my IDE drive. Also doesn't show up in Windows via any methods mentioned.

I have it plugged into the SATA A or 1 or I (whichever it is) on my A8N-SLI Deluxe. Power's provided via the molex-->SATA cable, and no jumper is present.
Click to expand...

Check in your BIOS and make sure the SATA controller is enabled. If it's not detecting in the BIOS, the controller sounds like it's turned off.
 
I got it to work. At first, I didn't have the extension molex plug plugged into the PSU, and secondly, I didn't have it installed correctly.

Thanks for all your help, everyone.
 
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