Installing Windows on SATA drives on A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo

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marshahu

marshahu

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Mar 2, 2003
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I'm going to be installing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 form scratch onto a 320GB SATA Hard Drive. However I have heard that installing it is extremely convoluted and complicated, one guy even said I would need to make a boot disk with the SATA drivers on and press the F6 key to install them beforehand.

Could someone please tell me what I will need to do so I can successfully install Windows XP MCE 2005 onto a 320GB SATA Drive, and what boot disks I will need to make and how I can go about making them as I cannot seem to find the stuff I need to make SATA boot disks on Asus website or on the CD

Thanks
 
All OS installs try to include as many drivers as possible to support a wide verity of controller cards. In this case, or the guy you speak of, MCE 2k5 did not contain the driver for the sata controller. So in this case you need to make a disk or other media with the correct drivers on it in order for windows to see the drive. You may have the same issue, so to avoid any questions, before you start your build, create a diskette loading the drives of the controller. When the OS starts to lead, press F6 repeatedly as it instructs you on the bottom of the screen until it says press F2..balh blah. Follow the instructions on the screen and direct the OS to the driver on the diskette... and off you go.
 
OK - so where can I obtain these files to create an SATA Controller Floppy Disk for my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard. Asus Website only gives me drivers for Windows 98/ME/XP and the CD tells me instructions that I need to insert the SATA controller diskette but I dont have the damn thing with my motheboard.

Coudl somebody please give me an exact link where I can download the files to create an SATA Controller Diskette for my A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard?
 
PCcashcow needs to read up 😉 You don't need a boot-flopyy..

As far as I can understand from your text, you do NOT want to raid this drive.

And if that is the case, you will need to go into the BIOS of your mobo, and choose IDE-mode on your sata controller, and that's it.

Now you can install with no extra drivers or floppies.
 
Thats rite I don't want to install any complciated raid shit - so once i set that option I can install MCE without ne complications right?
 
Yes, absolutely, it makes the sata system look like an old-school IDE, very useful.

You can still choose to install drivers afterwards, wich you should to gain some performance. But it's not neccesary.
 
However I have heard that installing it is extremely convoluted and complicated, one guy even said I would need to make a boot disk with the SATA drivers on and press the F6 key to install them beforehand.
Click to expand...

OMG. That sounds just totally beyond imagination. Time to upgrade. Who wants to go through that convoluted mess to install an OS? :wink:

It's been a while since I isntalled an OS on that MB, but I think you might need the drivers on diskette to load the os on SATA. Not sure though.
 
You've got these things confused from the start I believe.

S-Ata is just an interface, the cable is the most obvious difference from the old P-ata.
To the operating system the two drives don't look any different at all.
They're still IDE drives.

What needs a driver is when you enable this "RAID" chipset, wich comes in between the IDE system, and the OS, adding more features like combining harddrives for safe data storage, or faster data transfer or both.

Unfortunately, Raid is enabled by default in all bios I've come across, so people think a S-ata drive always need drivers.
Wich is not needed if you disable the raid chip.

Hope you understand more with that =)
 
I believe you will have to use the F6 procedure to boot off the Silicon Image controller. Windows can install all drivers for all of your devices after it's up and running with the exception of one: The storage controller driver. Windows must have the storage controller driver for the boot device installed using F6 during installation if the storage controller is something that the Windows CD doesn't have drivers for.

In most cases of Windows installation, it is not necessary to use F6 because you are booting from a chipset that has standard IDE controller support and your boot device is on the IDE controller. This applies for all Intel chipsets/south bridges and most VIA, nForce, SiS chipsets as well -- they can all emulate a standard IDE controller, so Windows can boot with no special drivers installed. This is also the case if your storage controller is a common one that Windows has drivers on the CD for (like an Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller).

However, the original poster in this thread is using an Asus A7N8X-E motherboard. This motherboard uses an nForce2 chipset. The south bridge of this chipset contains 2 standard PATA/IDE channels, but no SATA. The SATA connectors on this motherboard are connected to an embedded Silicon Image SATA controller.

However, Windows does not have the drivers for the Silicon Image SATA controller on the CD.

If you want to boot off of a hard drive connected to the Silicon Image ATA controller on this motherboard, you have to install the Silicon Image SATA drivers during Windows installation using F6.

So, your procedure is as follows:

1. Download the Silicon Image SATA controller drivers for Windows XP for your motherboard from the Asus website.
2. Copy the driver files to a floppy disk. I downloaded the package myself, all the files you need are in the root directory of the folder after you unzip it. (silsupp.cpl, txtsetup.oem, si3112r.cat, si3112r.sys, si3112r.inf, siwinacc.sys, readme.txt, silsupp.vxd).
3. Connect your 320GB drive to the SATA connector on the motherboard. Make sure the BIOS settings are such that the Silicon Image SATA controller is enabled. Boot the Windows XP CD to install.
4. Press F6 when the text-mode installation says at the bottom "Press F6 to install a 3rd party SCSI or RAID driver".
5. It will prompt you to insert the floppy you made.
6. Insert it, it will read the oemsetup.inf file and copy the driver files off the disk.
7. You will know you're successful, because the 320GB drive will appear as a blank drive to install Windows on. If Windows replies that it can't find any storage devices connected to your computer, the driver didn't install correctly (probably you don't have all the necessary files on the floppy).
 
Go to Maxtor and look at their recommendations for installing SATA.. It sez install the drives first then do the sil Image drivers. Also sil image drivers are on your ASUS CD.
 
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