WD sata not detected on k8n neo4

[mcrrcw]

Ok, i really have no idea what to do or what is happening now.

Originally, when setting up my new system at boot up, the drive was only being detected about half of the time in the bios. If it was detected and i didnt mess around with any cables or connections, the system ran fine, the harddrive was detected at startup and things were alright for about a week. (throughout this time, i did not open the case or mess around with connections or cables)

Then, I tried to install a second ide harddrive to transfer some files, that didnt pan out so i scrapped that idea and decided to just have the one WD sata drive.

Unfortunatly, the mobo does not recognize the sata drive at all now. I was told to install the raid drivers, there were sata raid drivers presumably allready installed (afte the bios screen on startup, i was presented with an option to fiddle with sata raid)

I tried to install the nvidia raid drivers that come with the mobo but upon the F6 option to install drivers in windows startup, pressing F6 does nothing, i am not allowed to install the drivers from the floppy.

This is extremely frustrating and now i am starting to think that the problem is a dead hard drive or mother sata connections.

In bios, when i originally installed windows xp, it seems that the sata connections were disabled. Upon enabling them, it still did not produce a result. The hard drive is still not detected.

Any info? I tried searching the forums, didnt find anything of help.

thanks
Alex

 

[pat]

I cannot believe that... WHY RAID DRIVERS WHEN YOU DONT USE RAID???

I suggest you to go to the Hard disk section and READ the FAQ about RAID... you'll have a better clue about what is RAID. And the FAQ at the top of this section is a good reading too.

I would check that RAID is disable for your SATA connector in BIOS. If you have read the faq about RAID, you now know that you need 2 HDD to have RAID. Which you dont have. Having RAID enabled in BIOS for the connectors will create some problems.

Pressing F6 does not immediatly bring a screen. It comes later on the install. Anyway, you dont have to press F6 anyway, as you dont use RAID or third party controller.. Or do you?

Is your board equipped with something like a Promise or Sil SATA/RAID controller? if yes, you need drivers for it. Not because it is RAID or SATA, because it is a third party controller, on the PCI bus, without being a PCI card, but instead an onboard solution. Your manual will give you clues about that. Then check on which connector your HDD is connected to and make the adjustement necessary. If you have only one HDD, I suggest you to plug it on the nvidia controller, on the first SATA connector.

Then, if is is not recognized, you may have a defective motherboard, which might very be the case as it is a MSI... I still have to find a motherboard with nforce3-4 chipset that will require special trick to have a SATA drive working. Oh..sure, I never will use a MSI board again, after the problems I had with one board, my first and only and last one ever.


-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[mcrrcw]

Thanks for the reply

Yes, i know about raid, i know that it involves two or more hard drives. (i have also read both faqs and search the forum extensively, thanks for the caps) I went to canada computers where i purchased the components for my system and talked to them about replacing the harddrive and or motherboard due to this problem. The technical support dude told me that i needed to install the sata raid drivers, even after i asked him if it applied to just one drive. (funny enough, as you say it i unnecessary to install the drivers due to me only having one drive, he said it was vital to install them Because i only had one drive hooked up)

anyways, i will try out your suggestions, thanks for the reply. Im obviously a system building noob 😛

Alex

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mcrrcw on 03/19/05 08:28 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[pat]

It is vital to install them, as I said, if you are using third party controller. native controller are recognized by windows. What maight happen is that, like my Gigabyte board, RAID is enabled for SATA connector in BIOS as default and if you dont disable them, then your system expect a RAID when there is none.. That cause problem. Or, having the drive hooked to the onboard controller, if your's has one, without enabling it in BIOS will cause problem. Having the onboard RAID disabled in BIOS is like having the card removed from the computer.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[mcrrcw]

If you can believe this, it seems to be that the problem was a faulty power cable from my thermaltake butterfly 480w psu.

I switched the powercable to another sata connection and i also switched up the sata cable itself.

I installed the drivers as the mobo does use third party raid/sata controllers but i have raid disabled right now and the hard drive was detectd and windows booted up

I will see if i can detect the drive with it enabled as you have recommended

thanks
Alex

 

[pat]

"I will see if i can detect the drive with it enabled as you have recommended"

Woooooo hoooo.. With what enabled? RAID? no, I do not recommand to enable RAID if you only have one drive. I might have done an error, I will check back.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[mcrrcw]

Whoops, i misread your post 😛

you said that on your old board it was enabled but that is wrong if you only have 1 drive, that you should disable it

thanks
Alex

 

[pat]

Ok...I did a quick check. If you have the neo4 platinum, it has effectively a third party controller.. BUT it also has a native controller. The native controller are the BLUE slots, the ONBOARD are the ORANGE slots. In BIOS, the SIL controller (orange connectors) should be disabled, if you dont use it. It will clear one interrupt and shorten the boot time.

The drive should be connected to the first BLUE connector. In BIOS, the nvidia SATA controller should be enabled, while RAID should be disabled. I dont want to download the manual for your board, so I guess that you should figure it by yourself.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[pat]

"Whoops, i misread your post 😛"

That what I was sure... I rarely make mistakes.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Guest]

Geez Pat, you've really been tackling the hdd/raid questions like a mofo recently.

<font color=green> Woohoo!! I am officially an <b> Addict </b>!! </font color=green>
<i> <font color=red> One new Firefox fan </font color=red> </i>
<pre> Always remember to keep testicles away from live wiring </pre><p>