Can't install SATA drive on P4C800 Deluxe

  • Thread starter Thread starter GLeger
  • Start date Start date
G

GLeger

Anyone else having problems installing a SATA hard drive using ASUS P4C800
deluxe?
I checked many things. It seems the drive is ok. At first I thought the
drive may be defective, in fact, it still may be.
But I've determined it powers up with no problem. May be something else
with the drive??

I downloaded the latest drivers for the Promise SATA378 IDE controller.
In hardware manager, it shows it as working properly.
Also when the computer boots, it shows the controller as one of the first
things, but it says nothing is connected to it.
So, I can't get the computer to recognize the drive upon bootup or in
windows!


Any ideas?

thanks
Gary
 
GLeger said:
Anyone else having problems installing a SATA hard drive using ASUS P4C800
deluxe?
I checked many things. It seems the drive is ok. At first I thought the
drive may be defective, in fact, it still may be.
But I've determined it powers up with no problem. May be something else
with the drive??

I downloaded the latest drivers for the Promise SATA378 IDE controller.
In hardware manager, it shows it as working properly.
Also when the computer boots, it shows the controller as one of the first
things, but it says nothing is connected to it.
So, I can't get the computer to recognize the drive upon bootup or in
windows!


Any ideas?

thanks
Gary
Click to expand...
When you said you "checked many things", what things did you check? SATA
enabled in bios? What version of Windows? Cables (both power and data)
correctly installed and not defective? Hard disk defective?

I would, if you can, swap out items to try and narrow the culprit down.
 
Clark Griswold said:
When you said you "checked many things", what things did you check? SATA
enabled in bios? What version of Windows? Cables (both power and data)
correctly installed and not defective? Hard disk defective?

I would, if you can, swap out items to try and narrow the culprit down.
Click to expand...

Many things like just what you said. I changed out each cable, power, and
data.
SATA is enabled in bios, using winxp. This is what I'm trying to figure out
if the
drive is defective. Not sure though.
 
You don't have it connected to the Intel Controller do you (easy mistake to
make)--just curious??

MikeSp
 
What do you mean, Intel controller? Is there one on this board?
I recently got this thing to recognize the drive by plugging it into the
"raid sata connection".
I was trying to connect it to the "Sata connections". Is this what you are
talking about?
I'm not sure to continue using it like this and install os, etc... I
wasn't trying to use it in a raid configuration.
Just a normal Sata config.

Gary
 
Mike, are you familiar with this motherboard? Just wondering because when I
install the drivers for the
controller, it has 2 choices. One is a Promise 378Raid controller, the
other is Promise 378ata controller.
I'm thinking I may have selected the wrong one. I picked the 378ata
controller. Now in the device manager it shows
under 'scsi and raid controllers' a "winxp promise SATA378 ide controller".
I just tried to connect the drive to the Raid connectors on the motherboard,
which I didn't really want to use a raid configuration.
But I guess I can. Is this the way it should be? Or should I go back and
install it with the 'promise 378 raid controller"??

thanks
Gary
 
"GLeger" said:
Many things like just what you said. I changed out each cable,
power, and data. SATA is enabled in bios, using winxp. This is
what I'm trying to figure out if the drive is defective. Not sure
though.
Click to expand...

Drive visibility in the BIOS depends on which chip you are connected
to, and what mode the chip is running in.

If a drive is connected to the Southbridge, you should be able to
see it in the BIOS. Since your board uses the ICH5 (and not the ICH5R),
there is no need to worry about whether the BIOS is set to RAID
mode or not, on that chip. When set to [Enhanced Mode] and [S-ATA]
(the BIOS defaults), either WinXP or Win2K should be able to install
with no F6 driver needed. The drive should show up in the BIOS
as third or fourth master.

On the Promise, you can either run it in RAID mode or not. If you
enable RAID mode in the BIOS, the RAID BIOS code will be loaded.
Depending on whether the Promise RAID code needs two drives to
be present, to load, will determine whether the RAID code will
allow you to see the drives when you press <cntrl F>. If the RAID
BIOS code is disabled, you won't see anything in the BIOS.

If you disable the Promise RAID mode, and get a copy of the
"ATA" driver for the Promise, you should be able to install on
a single disk when using the Windows installer. You would need
to make a floppy driver diskette, and use F6 to load the driver
during the install. (Same is true when running the Promise in
RAID mode, it will also need a driver, but a different one.)

The easiest install should be via the Southbridge. No driver
should be needed while using the SATA in non-RAID mode on the
Southbridge. If using the Promise 20378 ports, you can try the
chip in RAID mode first, and see if the RAID BIOS will load or
not. If it won't load for you, then get the "ATA" driver and
make a driver floppy. Sometimes Asus has a "makedisk" program
on the motherboard CD, to create a driver floppy diskette in one
step. I see a makedisk in this ATA driver package for the 20378:

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ide/pdc20378/378ata_100104528.zip

Paul
 
Paul, thanks for the reply. When you say southbridge, which ports
(connectors) are you talking about?
Did you read my other replies?

thanks
Gary


Paul said:
"GLeger" said:
Many things like just what you said. I changed out each cable,
power, and data. SATA is enabled in bios, using winxp. This is
what I'm trying to figure out if the drive is defective. Not sure
though.
Click to expand...

Drive visibility in the BIOS depends on which chip you are connected
to, and what mode the chip is running in.

If a drive is connected to the Southbridge, you should be able to
see it in the BIOS. Since your board uses the ICH5 (and not the ICH5R),
there is no need to worry about whether the BIOS is set to RAID
mode or not, on that chip. When set to [Enhanced Mode] and [S-ATA]
(the BIOS defaults), either WinXP or Win2K should be able to install
with no F6 driver needed. The drive should show up in the BIOS
as third or fourth master.

On the Promise, you can either run it in RAID mode or not. If you
enable RAID mode in the BIOS, the RAID BIOS code will be loaded.
Depending on whether the Promise RAID code needs two drives to
be present, to load, will determine whether the RAID code will
allow you to see the drives when you press <cntrl F>. If the RAID
BIOS code is disabled, you won't see anything in the BIOS.

If you disable the Promise RAID mode, and get a copy of the
"ATA" driver for the Promise, you should be able to install on
a single disk when using the Windows installer. You would need
to make a floppy driver diskette, and use F6 to load the driver
during the install. (Same is true when running the Promise in
RAID mode, it will also need a driver, but a different one.)

The easiest install should be via the Southbridge. No driver
should be needed while using the SATA in non-RAID mode on the
Southbridge. If using the Promise 20378 ports, you can try the
chip in RAID mode first, and see if the RAID BIOS will load or
not. If it won't load for you, then get the "ATA" driver and
make a driver floppy. Sometimes Asus has a "makedisk" program
on the motherboard CD, to create a driver floppy diskette in one
step. I see a makedisk in this ATA driver package for the 20378:

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ide/pdc20378/378ata_100104528.zip

Paul
Click to expand...
 
"GLeger" said:
Paul, thanks for the reply. When you say southbridge, which ports
(connectors) are you talking about?
Did you read my other replies?

thanks
Gary
Click to expand...

Next to the Promise 20378 chip, are two connectors SATA_RAID1
and SATA_RAID2. If you connect a single disk to either of
those connectors, and use the ATA driver, you get a non-RAID
drive install. You can install up to four drives in non-RAID
mode (two SATA and two on the IDE cable labelled PRI_RAID).
I think the ATA driver will cause a "SCSI emulation" entry
to show in Device Manager, as that is how foreign controller
drivers are typically written.

The SATA1 and SATA2 connectors are connected to the ICH5
Southbridge. No driver should be needed, and the default
Microsoft driver should work. No F6 during the install.
The drives in this case, are clever emulations of an
ordinary IDE disk drive, and will likely show up that
way in the Device Manager. (I don't own any SATA drives,
so I cannot test that for you.)

If this was my motherboard, I would connect the drive to
the SATA1 or SATA2 of the Southbridge. The Southbridge
is not limited by the bandwidth of the PCI bus. You might
also get more information about how the drive is operating,
by connecting to that port. That is because the "SCSI
emulation" used for controllers like the Promise chip,
tends to hide details of what is going on.

Paul
 
Paul said:
Next to the Promise 20378 chip, are two connectors SATA_RAID1
and SATA_RAID2. If you connect a single disk to either of
those connectors, and use the ATA driver, you get a non-RAID
drive install. You can install up to four drives in non-RAID
mode (two SATA and two on the IDE cable labelled PRI_RAID).
I think the ATA driver will cause a "SCSI emulation" entry
to show in Device Manager, as that is how foreign controller
drivers are typically written.

The SATA1 and SATA2 connectors are connected to the ICH5
Southbridge. No driver should be needed, and the default
Microsoft driver should work. No F6 during the install.
The drives in this case, are clever emulations of an
ordinary IDE disk drive, and will likely show up that
way in the Device Manager. (I don't own any SATA drives,
so I cannot test that for you.)

If this was my motherboard, I would connect the drive to
the SATA1 or SATA2 of the Southbridge. The Southbridge
is not limited by the bandwidth of the PCI bus. You might
also get more information about how the drive is operating,
by connecting to that port. That is because the "SCSI
emulation" used for controllers like the Promise chip,
tends to hide details of what is going on.

Paul
Click to expand...

Thanks again Paul. I did in fact plug it into the raid connector next to
the promise chip. Now it does show the drive as being scsi in device
manager.
This is the only way I can get the computer to recognize the drive. I
initially tried to connect the drive to the
Sata connection but could never see the drive that way. I even tried to use
maxtor's maxblast software to format and partition the drive while hooked up
like that, but it didn't even see the drive. It said I had no drives in the
system, when in fact I had the drive hooked up to the thing you call
southbridge. (sata1)

Gary
 
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