SATA help

[oz13ms2000]

I have an MSI K8N neo2 platinum, and I am trying to get a Hitachi SATA drive to work with it. The problem is, whenever I plug in the hd and turn on the computer and reach the first screen, it freezes. I can't select to go to BIOS, I can't go to the boot screen, and I can only go into POST right when the screen comes on. I don't have this problem when the hd isn't plugged in, but I need to be able to format the hd and install WinXP.
I appreciate any help on this situation.

 

[Apokalipse]

does it complete the POST?

 

[oz13ms2000]

No it doesn't, it completes Primary and Secondary, then it goes to "Detecting IDE devices", and it freezes.

 

[silence782]

Try adding a small IDE drive to you box and use the OS on it to format the SATA drive. Perhaps ssomething like this will help?

1. Beg, borrow, or beg some more to get you hands on an extra IDE hard drive drive that is big enough to hold your copy of windows.
2. Install your IDE hard drive to IDE 1 slot and set it to Master.
3. Leave your newly created Raid array alone; leave both drives attached to your SATA ports.
4. Enter BIOS.
5. Set first boot device to CD Rom and set the onboard SATA to enabled.
6. Boot from CD rom and do NOT hit F6 to load 3rd party drivers.
7. After booting from CD Rom, load windows on your IDE drive. I would go into more detail but IÂ’m sure you know how to install Windows on an IDE hard drive or you probably would not be reading this.
8. Once Windows is installed, get to the desktop.
9. Go into device manager and you will probably see one of those yellow question marks next to the Mass Storage Controllers. Go ahead and install the SATA drivers at this point and reboot. DonÂ’t worry about any other drivers, because were only using this drive temporarily. We only loaded the SATA drivers so we can access your Raid array from Windows.
10. Once you are back in windows, go to control panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management. In the left window click once on disk management (near the bottom). In the bottom right window you should see a list of all the drives you have attached to your computer. Find your Raid array there, right click on it, choose format. A window will pop up asking you to label it, what file system you want, and the allocation unit size. You can label it anything you want, such as “MY DRIVE” or whatever you want, leave the file system at NTFS, and set your allocation unit size to 16K (This is your cluster size). Proceed to format the drive. NOTE: you can also create any partitions you want prior to formatting from here as well. Just make sure you format all partitions using the 16K allocation unit size (cluster size).
11. After the format procedure is finished, shut down the computer; remove the IDE drive that we just used to format your Raid array. Install all of your CD roms, setting them to the appropriate master/slave configuration, and any other NON hard drives you have on your IDE ports. It is important not to have any other IDE hard drives attached to your computer as we move on to the next step of loading Windows on youÂ’re newly created and formatted Raid array or single SATA drive. You can install your IDE hard drives after Windows is loaded on to the Raid Array or single SATA drive

 

[oz13ms2000]

Thanks for making that long list.
I just tried using my old IDE, but when it starts loading windows(2k), at about half way on the bar, I get a blue screen saying that there is something wrong with my IDE hd.
No where in my BIOS can I find the settings for SATA. I will probably try this on my friend's rig later on, although he has tried to install SATAs before but failed.
Again thanks for the help.

 

[silence782]

Have you checked your ram and things like that to rule out a separate hardware problem?

 

[oz13ms2000]

How do I do that.

 

[Nubius]

using a program like memtest86+ that you create a bootdisk from and then restart your computer and let it do it's thang

 

[YanBooth]

Couldn't you just get a floppy drive with the driver loaded onto it?
Yan

Try adding a small IDE drive to you box and use the OS on it to format the SATA drive. Perhaps ssomething like this will help?

1. Beg, borrow, or beg some more to get you hands on an extra IDE hard drive drive that is big enough to hold your copy of windows.
2. Install your IDE hard drive to IDE 1 slot and set it to Master.
3. Leave your newly created Raid array alone; leave both drives attached to your SATA ports.
4. Enter BIOS.
5. Set first boot device to CD Rom and set the onboard SATA to enabled.
6. Boot from CD rom and do NOT hit F6 to load 3rd party drivers.
7. After booting from CD Rom, load windows on your IDE drive. I would go into more detail but IÂ’m sure you know how to install Windows on an IDE hard drive or you probably would not be reading this.
8. Once Windows is installed, get to the desktop.
9. Go into device manager and you will probably see one of those yellow question marks next to the Mass Storage Controllers. Go ahead and install the SATA drivers at this point and reboot. DonÂ’t worry about any other drivers, because were only using this drive temporarily. We only loaded the SATA drivers so we can access your Raid array from Windows.
10. Once you are back in windows, go to control panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management. In the left window click once on disk management (near the bottom). In the bottom right window you should see a list of all the drives you have attached to your computer. Find your Raid array there, right click on it, choose format. A window will pop up asking you to label it, what file system you want, and the allocation unit size. You can label it anything you want, such as “MY DRIVE” or whatever you want, leave the file system at NTFS, and set your allocation unit size to 16K (This is your cluster size). Proceed to format the drive. NOTE: you can also create any partitions you want prior to formatting from here as well. Just make sure you format all partitions using the 16K allocation unit size (cluster size).
11. After the format procedure is finished, shut down the computer; remove the IDE drive that we just used to format your Raid array. Install all of your CD roms, setting them to the appropriate master/slave configuration, and any other NON hard drives you have on your IDE ports. It is important not to have any other IDE hard drives attached to your computer as we move on to the next step of loading Windows on youÂ’re newly created and formatted Raid array or single SATA drive. You can install your IDE hard drives after Windows is loaded on to the Raid Array or single SATA drive

 

[oz13ms2000]

Couldn't you just get a floppy drive with the driver loaded onto it?
Yan

That isn't my issue. My issue is that my computer freezes.