SATA Motherbord Not recognizing SATA HDD

[Fat Man Stan]

• Motherboard - Sockets 478 Elite Group # PT800CE-A
  • FSB 800
  • DDR 400
  • Serial ATA
  • ATA133
  • RAID0, RAID1 support
  • USB 2.0
• Ram - 2x256mb DDR PC 2700
• Processor - 2.4 Intel P4 533MHz
• Power Supply - 300w P4 ready
• Hard Drive - Maxtor 100gig Sata drive

I have put the components together and everything else works correctly. I start up the computer and it says it is checking the IDE Primary Master and Slave even though I do not have anything plugged into the IDE Primary or the Slave. I have a Maxtor 100 gig Sata drive that is plugged into the SATA1 plug and started the computer up. During the start up it does not see the hard drive. If I hook up a IDE hard drive it will recognize the IDE drive with no problem.
Could you help me?

Thanks

[Jarhed7276]

Hi Fat Man Stan, welcome to TechIMO.

Have you installed the SATA drivers? Or are you saying that the drive is not recognized in your BIOS?

[stroyal]

Did you press F8 at the very beginning of XP setup, so setup would ask for the SATA drivers lated in setup?

[carl33p]

If the SATA HD isnt being recognized, maybe a bad Sata connection. Try another sata port on the mobo, and maybe a different sata cable.

[Fat Man Stan]

I tried the F6 to install the RAID party or what ever it is and it still did not see the HDD. I did not know about the F8 to install drivers. Do i do that when i am installing the os?

I have an identical system i am building with the same mobo, ram, processor, but a 400w p.s., 100 gig SATA Maxtor drive and have got the same response. I also tried plugging it into both SATA connections and nothing on either of them.

When it tells me it is searching for my Components it says IDE Primary Master and Slave, should it say SATA Primary Master and Slave?

[Jarhed7276]

Is the drive recognise in your BIOS? If it is then you may need to enable SATA in your BIOS settings. After this is done when installing your OS, when it first starts to install it will ask you if you want to install SCSI or third party drivers and to press F8 if you do. Press F8 then a minute or two later it will ask you to insert the floppy disk with the SATA drivers on it. Insert the disk and it will install the drivers for you and finish the OS installation.

[Fat Man Stan]

It does not say anything in the BIOS about SATA and i have no floppy or floppy drive.

[Jarhed7276]

When you first boot up the BIOS does a memory test then detects the hard drives and optical drives. Is you hard drive detected at this point?

No floppy makes it a bit tougher. As I see it you have two options.

1. There is a way to slipstream the drivers on to a CD. You will need to be able to burn a CD, have a copy of XP, and be able to alter the instructions for your particular SATA driver (unless your board uses Silicon Image drivers).

2. You can get a floppy drive and install it. They cost around $10-15.

I would do number 2. It's easier than the other method.

[Jarhed7276]

I looked at your motherboard manual (page 34) and SATA is enabled by default so I would think that your problem is just getting the SATA drivers installed.

[sweeper2]

yes, you need to install the SATA drivers ... my bios does not show the SATA drive... it will however show IDE drives...

once you boot up... (installing your operating system) ... you will need to click F8 or what ever it says to do to install the drivers...

but you might have to get the drivers off the interenet... and put them on a floppy disc .. that's the easiest way..