Problems installing Vista w/ Sata

[hlftopdog]

Hi All,

Have just put together a new machine and having problems installing the OS (Vista Premium x64)

Specs are

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P
Q6600
4GB DDR Ram
2 x 500GB Maxtor SATAII HDD
1 x DVD/RW (IDE)
8800GTX

---

Problem occurs on the screen during installation which asks me to select HDD to install on. Both show up, correct sizes, but it says can't install on them (no compatible hardware or something)

Says to check controller (or something along those lines) in BIOS.

I've looked in BIOS and can't see anything obvious... is this a common problem? Does anyone know a way around it.

I don't have RAID or anything like that setup, just 2 SATAII drives connected normally without any special setup. I inserted Mobo disc with SATA drivers on it to see if that needed doing (or could be done) but windows didn't find anything that needed installing.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Madrox]

Well first off, make sure you only have 1GB of memory in the machine .

Second make sure that the Sata drive is set to be the main boot drive.

And yes Vista is touchy with SATA... took me 3 installs to figure out wtf was wrong.

 

[htoonthura]

Hi All,

Have just put together a new machine and having problems installing the OS (Vista Premium x64)

Specs are

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P
Q6600
4GB DDR Ram
2 x 500GB Maxtor SATAII HDD
1 x DVD/RW (IDE)
8800GTX

---

Problem occurs on the screen during installation which asks me to select HDD to install on. Both show up, correct sizes, but it says can't install on them (no compatible hardware or something)

Says to check controller (or something along those lines) in BIOS.

I've looked in BIOS and can't see anything obvious... is this a common problem? Does anyone know a way around it.

I don't have RAID or anything like that setup, just 2 SATAII drives connected normally without any special setup. I inserted Mobo disc with SATA drivers on it to see if that needed doing (or could be done) but windows didn't find anything that needed installing.

Thanks in advance for any help

Hello

Take out 2gb of ram and a hard drive. if you can format and partition the drive,please do. Then install it again. Let me know.


Also, make sure you have updated motherboard drivers from the web site.

Good luck.

 

[hlftopdog]

Hi,

How come you both say to remove some memory? Can I put it back in afterwards?

Will try this now anyway and report back

thanks for help

 

[Madrox]

For some reason that I don't know, Memory messes up the install of Vista.

I would take out all but 1 stick of memory or a max of 2GB. (For the install)

Reason being, it just works...

And yes you can put them back when its all installed. but i would wait until the OS is installed AND all Microsoft updates are installed.

 

[hlftopdog]

excellent, i've just done it - took out 2 sticks, left 2 gb in, and took out 2nd hdd, worked perfectly. all installed now and the hardware put back in.

5.9
5.6 (memory, 4gb 6400 4-4-4-12, memory coolers - is this right, was expecting 5.9)
5.9
5.9
5.8

Very chuffed. Thank you very much for the advice

 

[evongugg]

Upgrade the Bios. The Bios is not recognizing you hard disk properly.

 

[Madrox]

LOL don't you love how installing Vista is like getting reception on an old T.V.

One leg up and your arm extended to the left ONLY while holding the box of tin foil and your holding a box of tin foil it because your head is wrapped in it.

thats how it goes in a matter of speaking.

 

[hlftopdog]

Indeed I encounter that daily as still using an old tv & old aerial in the bedroom

Have hit some issues now though... nothing to do with Vista however

Following on from previous post, I moved the PC into it's new home (from my home office, into the spare room), plugged it in, pressed on and... one of the fans illuminated, spun for about 1/2 a second and then went off. That was it, checked inside to make sure nothing had come loose and tried again, still the same.

Took it back into home office (maybe something wrong with plug socket?) but same thing happened again. Removed the graphics card (8800GTX as mentioned) and now it works... though the CPU fan is spinning very slowly now and can't speed it up using fan controller (just stops it when trying to speed it up).

So suddenly, it's gone from working correctly to not working with G-Card installed... any ideas?

For the record, I am using Coolermaster Xtreme Power 650W - but surely can't be down to this as it worked fine for about an hour

 

[Madrox]

What kinda CPU cooler do you have?

And the funny thing is i have had allot of similar problems.

If my Ultra is EVEN TOUCHED the system wont work, and i have to open it up and push on it until i think its ok and then re-try.

 

[hlftopdog]

Zalman Flower Cooler for 775 - CNPS7700

I'm using the AM2 version on my AMD rig (w/ 6000+) with no similar problems though - that does only use an 8600GT though so no PCI-e power connectors used.

Computers can be so odd sometimes :/

I've got it going now, but (get this!) I had to manually spin the CPU fan to get it started...

 

[Madrox]

I have 8 Thermaltake fans that have power controllers. some of them went bad.

Contact Zalman and say the fan controller is bad, or take the one from the other case and see if that one works OR you can http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118217

 

[MadHacker]

the reason the fan isn't spinning is because you CPU isn't hot enough...
a setting in you bios will change it. under power managment or system temperatures.

as for removing a stick of ram to install vista... there is a bug in the installer that crashes the installer of vista when you have more then 3 gig of ram (i think, might be 2 gigs)
I had the same problem a while back...
at teh time it was just a hot fix. I imagine now it is part of windows update.

 

[htoonthura]

excellent, i've just done it - took out 2 sticks, left 2 gb in, and took out 2nd hdd, worked perfectly. all installed now and the hardware put back in.

5.9
5.6 (memory, 4gb 6400 4-4-4-12, memory coolers - is this right, was expecting 5.9)
5.9
5.9
5.8

Very chuffed. Thank you very much for the advice

I am glad it works out for you. Vista has issue with 4gb of ram during initial installation. Aslo, you do not need two hd at the time of installation. In fact, it can give problem, like you have, during installation. update your motherboard drivers such as bios ,controllers, then you will be fine.

 

[hlftopdog]

Thank you everyone for all comments, brilliantly useful - love this site for how helpful everyone is on the forums

I moved the comp again (back to spare room) - plugged it in, and it did the same, I left it for half hour, came back and it worked fine - very odd. No problems with fan this time either, it reboots and everything ok, so I guess as long as I don't move it about it should be ok - I can live with that

 

[k2gremlin]

However for Raid-0 I would strongly recommend leaving both HDD's in Not that your doing raid-0 but someone out there might be reading this.... lol