SATA Hard Drive Not Detected In BIOS

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I just built a computer but the SATA hard drives aren't detected in the BIOS.
They show up on the boot screen and they are listed in the BIOS under the
Boot Device Properties tab but they do not show up in the Main Bios Setup
Utility screen. On that screen it lists Primary and Secondary IDE but both
are labled: NOT DETECTED. Under Primary IDE Master it shows:

Primary IDE Master: Not Detected
Type: Auto
LBA/Large MOde: Auto
Block: Auto
PIO MOde: Auto
Smart Monitoring: Auto
32 Bit Data Transfer: Disabled

PS: On Chip SATA Controller is "Enabled" on the Main BIOS Menu


Would really appreciate some help with this problem. This is the first
time I've built a computer with a MB that had RAID and SATA HD's. Does it
have something to do with configuring the RAID?

Thanks for the help.

Mac

Pent4 - 3.0 gig, 1gig ram, Asus P4S800D-X MB, Western Digital SATA Caviar
250GB HD's, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. (Will be installing Windows XP Hm SP2 if I
can get the SATA HD's up and running.
 
Yes there is a RAID controller. I opened it up but have no idea how to set
it up. Is that what I have to do to get the SATA drives running? I know
nothing about SATA drive or RAID. Thanks for the help.
 
I started up the SIS RAID BIOS Setting Utility that shows up in the Boot
screen. It shows me two SATA HS's. If I go into the RAID Setup it show
something like this.

RAID SETUP
Raid Type:<1>JBOD <2>RAID 0 <3>RAID 1: "I'm supposed to type someting
here I think but I don't know what.

Thanks.
 
Mackenrick said:
I started up the SIS RAID BIOS Setting Utility that shows up in the
Boot screen. It shows me two SATA HS's. If I go into the RAID Setup
it show something like this.

RAID SETUP
Raid Type:<1>JBOD <2>RAID 0 <3>RAID 1: "I'm supposed to type
someting here I think but I don't know what.
Click to expand...

If you just want to use your hard drives as normal, you'll be wanting to
configure the RAID controller for "JBOD" (stands for: Just (a) Bunch Of
Disks). And devices attached to the RAID won't show up in the BIOS. That's
normal if somewhat confusing if you haven't done this before.

What matters is whether or not Windows can find them during setup - the
manual for the system may well specify you need to install a driver by
putting the driver onto a floppy disk and then pressing F6 when Windows
starts the setup process. If so, follow those instructions closely, and you
should be fine.
 
Thank you Robert. That is what I needed to know. You explained it well.
The part about SATA drives not being listed in the main BIOS was one of my
main concerns. I'm glad to learn that is normal. I want to use the drives
as "normal" drives so I was guessing that I should select JBOD but you
confirmed that part for me too. Thank you.

As for instructions in the manual... the MB manual has nothing on installing
the SATA HD's (only a diagram on where to connect the SATA cables on the MB).
There is nothing about how to install the OS (for SATA HD's). When I try to
intall Windows (XPhm), I get the error message about the RAID drivers. The
MB CD does have the SiS RAID utilities such as the SiS RAID driver and "Make
SiS RAID Driver Disk" but how are you supposed to use this disk if you can't
load an OS? I can't load the OS because it needs the RAID drivers and I
can't load the RAID drivers because I need the OS to access the MB CD.
"Catch 22". I guess I have to use a second computer to make the SiS RAID
Driver Disk (onto a 1.44 floppy?), then use floppy when Windows says to use
F6 for the drivers? I wonder what people with only one computer are supposed
to do.

I'm going to try to make the RAID driver disk now and try the F6 method.
Hope it works. Thanks again Robert.

Mac
 
Andrew,

One of the main uses of this forum is to help people with questions. In
most cases they were unable to find the answer elsewhere. In my case, I did
read the MB manual. There was nothing in the manual that explained how to
install the OS for SATA HD's or RAID drivers. I also spent some time
searching the internet without success. I'm still waiting for a reply from
ASUS support.

There are many very helpful people here that take time out of their day to
help less experienced and less knowledgeable people like myself. Their help
is very much appreciated.

Your comments however, were totally useless and unneccessary. If you don't
want to help you don't have to. Giving help here is totally volunary.
Replies like yours only cause bad feelings and offer no help at all.
 
Back
Top