need to know how to set up SATA drives

SDB100 · 02-06-2004, 06:58 PM

My new computer equipment should be arriving monday, and im probably going to need some help. Building a single hard drive system, AMD 64 3400+, 1GB ram, WD raptor 76GB HD, on an ASUS K8V Deluxe.

The WD raptor im buying doesnt have an IDE connector, so it will use the SATA connector.

What drivers off the ASUS download site and the VIA site will I need to get this board running? Ive never used SATA before, so im not sure if I need to do anything special to the board before I install the operating system. Are the SATA sockets ready to go out of the box or do I need to install anything for them to make them work, or to optimise them? Also, since I wont be using a RAID system, will i still need the Promise raid driver and the VIA raid driver? Is there something about these drivers that affect the performance of single SATA drives? If so, do I need to install BOTH of them, or one or the other? (promise or via RAID drivers or both?)

FearFactory · 02-06-2004, 07:15 PM

Im running a single sata here, a Seagate 80GB. I just enabled sata in bios and all gone ok. I was able to install Win XP without problems, no drivers needed. You only need drivers if you got 2 HDD's and put them on raid. I have a P4 2800 and an Epox 4PDA2+ i865PE.

Regs · 02-15-2004, 02:37 PM

You only need to plug in the Sata drive on the sata port. That's it. Just make sure your bios boot options has check for sata drives on. By default it should.

You only need to do special things when you use Raid.

SDB100 · 02-15-2004, 07:53 PM

enabling the sata in bios is just enabling the SATA boot rom right? that's the only setting i seen in bios for sata drives. also, i had to install the VIA raid driver controller (by using the makedisk.exe file on my motherboard disc) in order to get BIOS to recognize my sata drive. after doing that, seemed like everything installed ok.

PePe_T · 02-16-2004, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by FearFactory
You only need drivers if you got 2 HDD's and put them on raid.

How and when I should install the drivers? Should I get to install Win xp and then press f6 when beginning installation if I have drivers in diskettes? Is there any other way, because I don't have possibility to use floppy drive now :/

xgman · 02-16-2004, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PePe_T
How and when I should install the drivers? Should I get to install Win xp and then press f6 when beginning installation if I have drivers in diskettes? Is there any other way, because I don't have possibility to use floppy drive now :/

It is much easier to just go borrow a floppy for a minute to get this doen correctly. yes the F6 thing.

PePe_T · 02-16-2004, 06:10 PM

Hmm. I have set two SATA hard disks to Raid 0. Then I have partitioned and formatted drives with Partitionmagic 8. But when I start Win xp installation it just finds my old ide drive. Anyone know what driver I should exactly use or what kind one? Anyone used some driver that are found from Gigabyte's K8VNXP cd?

Thanks.

Sierra_abx · 02-16-2004, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PePe_T
Hmm. I have set two SATA hard disks to Raid 0. Then I have partitioned and formatted drives with Partitionmagic 8. But when I start Win xp installation it just finds my old ide drive. Anyone know what driver I should exactly use or what kind one? Anyone used some driver that are found from Gigabyte's K8VNXP cd?

Thanks.

You should partition the drives either during or after the XP installation. If you're using PartitionMagic, you should wait until you've installed the OS. Many motherboard CD's will have the RAID drivers on them. If not, you can find them on VIA's website (that is, if you're using the VIA controller).

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=66

Before starting the XP installation process, you need to set up your RAID array. When the installation starts, you'll be prompted to hit F6 if you need to load RAID or SCSI drivers. The drivers are installed in the middle of the installation process.

PePe_T · 02-17-2004, 08:07 AM

Thanks sierra bound!

That link countained right drivers and after installing drivers I was able to see drives, because I had partitioned and formatted drives before. (I had Win XP in IDE-drive)

I copied drivers for disks and I was able to install Win XP to SATA-drives too. I have only one problem now, it will only load Windows if I have IDE-drive connected. Computer doesn't want to boot with SATA-drives. Anyone know what options should I set from BIOS? And must I have boot.ini or something other files in SATA partition where I have my OS (Windows XP)? I have tried with boot.ini, but had no succes. I get only message: "Verifying DMI Pool data", and it stops loading there.

kantak · 02-17-2004, 08:21 AM

I bought the WDRaptor because of all the hype I read online about the enormous speed increases it offers over IDE.

I installed a single SATA WD Raptor 36 Gigs as my boot disk and ran the system for about two weeks.

The drive under multiple benchmarks was getting a miserable
30 Megs per second transfer rate.

My wifes $20 IDE drive gets 55 Megs per second. Whats the deal with SATA??? Seems like a terrible waste of money?

I am running the Intel D875PBZ motherboard which is also supposed to be the latest and greatest.

How can I remedy the 30 Megs per second transfer rate?

Sierra_abx · 02-17-2004, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PePe_T
Thanks sierra bound!

That link countained right drivers and after installing drivers I was able to see drives, because I had partitioned and formatted drives before. (I had Win XP in IDE-drive)

I copied drivers for disks and I was able to install Win XP to SATA-drives too. I have only one problem now, it will only load Windows if I have IDE-drive connected. Computer doesn't want to boot with SATA-drives. Anyone know what options should I set from BIOS? And must I have boot.ini or something other files in SATA partition where I have my OS (Windows XP)? I have tried with boot.ini, but had no succes. I get only message: "Verifying DMI Pool data", and it stops loading there.

Check the boot order in the bios. Make sure the RAID'ed drives are listed ahead of or in place of the IDE drive.

Sierra_abx · 02-17-2004, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kantak
I bought the WDRaptor because of all the hype I read online about the enormous speed increases it offers over IDE.

I installed a single SATA WD Raptor 36 Gigs as my boot disk and ran the system for about two weeks.

The drive under multiple benchmarks was getting a miserable
30 Megs per second transfer rate.

My wifes $20 IDE drive gets 55 Megs per second. Whats the deal with SATA??? Seems like a terrible waste of money?

I am running the Intel D875PBZ motherboard which is also supposed to be the latest and greatest.

How can I remedy the 30 Megs per second transfer rate?

Were you using Sandra to test your drive? Sandra is not very accurate for HDD benchmarking, in my opinion. Try using HD Tach or Atto.

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public...request=HdTach
http://snakefoot.fateback.com/links/files/atto.zip

webdezign · 04-26-2004, 01:38 AM

I am having problems also, as i need to hit f5 to load my acpi compliant pc selection and I need to hit f6 to load my sata drivers, but I can't do both...

I am building a machine based on the Abit KV8-MAX3 with a AMD 3000+ I have 1 DIMM 512M OCZ PC 3200, ATI Radeon 9600 pro 256, THermaltake case and a 500W Aspire atx power supply, windows xp pro with sp1. I have sucessfully completed the construction on my system, but when I boot up
1. I do not have the option to stand by in the windows, and when i "restart" the machine manually or automatically, it doesn't turn my machine off, the case lights, fans, processor, and board stays light up and running. What i have found out is
First, I need to re-install windows and then hit f5 which will give me the option to select my acpi compliant pc because when i originally installed xp and had to hit f6 to install my drivers for my sata drive it bypassed the part where windows looked at my bios for the acpi compliance; ok now here comes the problem, i need to hit f5 to choose 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' HAL but I do that and then windows continues to load and it stops because i did not hit f6 to load my drives for my sata hard drive. Can i preset my bios so I do not need to hit f6? or am i just shat out of luck?

Please help me before i shoot my machine...
Jeff

epicbard · 04-26-2004, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by webdezign
I am having problems also, as i need to hit f5 to load my acpi compliant pc selection and I need to hit f6 to load my sata drivers, but I can't do both...

I am building a machine based on the Abit KV8-MAX3 with a AMD 3000+ I have 1 DIMM 512M OCZ PC 3200, ATI Radeon 9600 pro 256, THermaltake case and a 500W Aspire atx power supply, windows xp pro with sp1. I have sucessfully completed the construction on my system, but when I boot up
1. I do not have the option to stand by in the windows, and when i "restart" the machine manually or automatically, it doesn't turn my machine off, the case lights, fans, processor, and board stays light up and running. What i have found out is
First, I need to re-install windows and then hit f5 which will give me the option to select my acpi compliant pc because when i originally installed xp and had to hit f6 to install my drivers for my sata drive it bypassed the part where windows looked at my bios for the acpi compliance; ok now here comes the problem, i need to hit f5 to choose 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' HAL but I do that and then windows continues to load and it stops because i did not hit f6 to load my drives for my sata hard drive. Can i preset my bios so I do not need to hit f6? or am i just shat out of luck?

Please help me before i shoot my machine...
Jeff

just hit f6 i am sure you can setup how the power button behaves in your BIOS and you can also turn of ACPi and so forth in there as well. For instance i never hit f5 but i can make my power button do whatever i want (read power off or standby). be it through bios or windows

Sierra_abx · 04-26-2004, 01:55 AM

Interesting problem. This article suggests hitting F5 before you're even prompted to press F6.

http://systemsenhancements.com/artic...stallation.htm

02-06-2004, 06:58 PM	#1
SDB100 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 31	need to know how to set up SATA drives My new computer equipment should be arriving monday, and im probably going to need some help. Building a single hard drive system, AMD 64 3400+, 1GB ram, WD raptor 76GB HD, on an ASUS K8V Deluxe. The WD raptor im buying doesnt have an IDE connector, so it will use the SATA connector. What drivers off the ASUS download site and the VIA site will I need to get this board running? Ive never used SATA before, so im not sure if I need to do anything special to the board before I install the operating system. Are the SATA sockets ready to go out of the box or do I need to install anything for them to make them work, or to optimise them? Also, since I wont be using a RAID system, will i still need the Promise raid driver and the VIA raid driver? Is there something about these drivers that affect the performance of single SATA drives? If so, do I need to install BOTH of them, or one or the other? (promise or via RAID drivers or both?) __________________ ASUS K8V Deluxe (v. 1005) AMD XP 64 3400+ (stock heatsink/fan) ASUS GeForce FX5900 Ultra 256MB AGP Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm SATA 76GB (single drive system) 1 GB Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR Ram Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Linksys LNE10/100 TX Ethernet Adapter Samsung DVD/CDRW Combo Drive Antec Case with Antec 430W True Power Windows XP Home Edition
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02-06-2004, 07:15 PM	#2
FearFactory The FC.Porto dragon! Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Portugal Posts: 3,931	Im running a single sata here, a Seagate 80GB. I just enabled sata in bios and all gone ok. I was able to install Win XP without problems, no drivers needed. You only need drivers if you got 2 HDD's and put them on raid. I have a P4 2800 and an Epox 4PDA2+ i865PE.
(Offline)

02-15-2004, 02:37 PM	#3
Regs Registered User Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 4	You only need to plug in the Sata drive on the sata port. That's it. Just make sure your bios boot options has check for sata drives on. By default it should. You only need to do special things when you use Raid.
(Offline)

02-15-2004, 07:53 PM	#4
SDB100 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 31	enabling the sata in bios is just enabling the SATA boot rom right? that's the only setting i seen in bios for sata drives. also, i had to install the VIA raid driver controller (by using the makedisk.exe file on my motherboard disc) in order to get BIOS to recognize my sata drive. after doing that, seemed like everything installed ok.
(Offline)

02-16-2004, 06:10 PM	#7
PePe_T Registered User Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Finland Posts: 4	Hmm. I have set two SATA hard disks to Raid 0. Then I have partitioned and formatted drives with Partitionmagic 8. But when I start Win xp installation it just finds my old ide drive. Anyone know what driver I should exactly use or what kind one? Anyone used some driver that are found from Gigabyte's K8VNXP cd? Thanks.
(Offline)

02-17-2004, 08:07 AM	#9
PePe_T Registered User Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Finland Posts: 4	Thanks sierra bound! That link countained right drivers and after installing drivers I was able to see drives, because I had partitioned and formatted drives before. (I had Win XP in IDE-drive) I copied drivers for disks and I was able to install Win XP to SATA-drives too. I have only one problem now, it will only load Windows if I have IDE-drive connected. Computer doesn't want to boot with SATA-drives. Anyone know what options should I set from BIOS? And must I have boot.ini or something other files in SATA partition where I have my OS (Windows XP)? I have tried with boot.ini, but had no succes. I get only message: "Verifying DMI Pool data", and it stops loading there.
(Offline)

02-17-2004, 08:21 AM	#10
kantak Registered User Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 2	Why is my SATA so SLOW!!!!!??? I bought the WDRaptor because of all the hype I read online about the enormous speed increases it offers over IDE. I installed a single SATA WD Raptor 36 Gigs as my boot disk and ran the system for about two weeks. The drive under multiple benchmarks was getting a miserable 30 Megs per second transfer rate. My wifes $20 IDE drive gets 55 Megs per second. Whats the deal with SATA??? Seems like a terrible waste of money? I am running the Intel D875PBZ motherboard which is also supposed to be the latest and greatest. How can I remedy the 30 Megs per second transfer rate?
(Offline)

04-26-2004, 01:38 AM	#13
webdezign Registered User Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Iowa Posts: 2	SATA DRIVES OR ACPI COMPLIANT I am having problems also, as i need to hit f5 to load my acpi compliant pc selection and I need to hit f6 to load my sata drivers, but I can't do both... I am building a machine based on the Abit KV8-MAX3 with a AMD 3000+ I have 1 DIMM 512M OCZ PC 3200, ATI Radeon 9600 pro 256, THermaltake case and a 500W Aspire atx power supply, windows xp pro with sp1. I have sucessfully completed the construction on my system, but when I boot up 1. I do not have the option to stand by in the windows, and when i "restart" the machine manually or automatically, it doesn't turn my machine off, the case lights, fans, processor, and board stays light up and running. What i have found out is First, I need to re-install windows and then hit f5 which will give me the option to select my acpi compliant pc because when i originally installed xp and had to hit f6 to install my drivers for my sata drive it bypassed the part where windows looked at my bios for the acpi compliance; ok now here comes the problem, i need to hit f5 to choose 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' HAL but I do that and then windows continues to load and it stops because i did not hit f6 to load my drives for my sata hard drive. Can i preset my bios so I do not need to hit f6? or am i just shat out of luck? Please help me before i shoot my machine... Jeff __________________ Jeff
(Offline)

04-26-2004, 01:55 AM	#15
Sierra_abx Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 13,880	Interesting problem. This article suggests hitting F5 before you're even prompted to press F6. http://systemsenhancements.com/artic...stallation.htm
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