Can't install Vista... please help!

Chong Warrior · 24 Dec 2008 at 15:11

Currently can't even get Vista to start installing:

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1,
ASUS P5 K Deluxe,
HIS IceQ 4850,
2x 2gb OCZ PC6400,
1tb WD Green 32mb SATAII,
640mb WD Black 32mb SATAII.

In the BIOS it won't even see there are any HDD's. When I try to install Vista it see's only the 1tb Green drive but not the 640g Black. I've partitioned and formatted the Green but when I try to install it says this drive doesn't meet windows criteria for installation!

I've tried it with the SATA controller in AHCI mode and IDE and it makes no difference. Latest 0902 BIOS installed on the motherboard.

As far as I can tell there are no drivers available that need to be loaded during install for SATA when using Vista.

I'm all out of ideas and been struggling with this for hours and am just about ready to throw the lot out of the window lol!

Nanobot · 24 Dec 2008 at 17:16

Download the SATA drivers from Asus. Looking at them now it does give instructions in the zip file on how to make a pre-installation floppy.

coupe69 · 24 Dec 2008 at 18:27

Chong Warrior said:
In the BIOS it won't even see there are any HDD's.

It's a bit worrying the board doesn't even recognise them at BIOS level :eek:

Chong Warrior · 24 Dec 2008 at 19:08

Nanobot said:
Download the SATA drivers from Asus. Looking at them now it does give instructions in the zip file on how to make a pre-installation floppy.

I don't have a floppy drive

Surely by now these aren't needed anymore??

Chong Warrior · 24 Dec 2008 at 19:10

coupe69 said:
It's a bit worrying the board doesn't even recognise them at BIOS level

It now see's the green drive in the BIOS but won't see the Black drive no matter what I try... very frustrating!

PhillyDee · 24 Dec 2008 at 19:12

Tried different ports / sata cables? Could be a cable problem. Or possibly ram related?

swinnie · 24 Dec 2008 at 20:49

Nanobot said:
Download the SATA drivers from Asus. Looking at them now it does give instructions in the zip file on how to make a pre-installation floppy.

Chong Warrior said:
I don't have a floppy drive

Surely by now these aren't needed anymore??

You can use a USB Memory Stick.

Chong Warrior · 24 Dec 2008 at 21:26

PhillyDee said:
Tried different ports / sata cables? Could be a cable problem. Or possibly ram related?

Tried all 6 SATA ports.

I've been using Windows XP for months problem free with those cables and RAM so I know they work fine....

Chong Warrior · 24 Dec 2008 at 21:31

swinnie said:
You can use a USB Memory Stick.

Tried the memory stick.... doesn't work. All the drivers on the stick are seen but they don't help or work. I've downloaded the Intel ICH9 drivers and the ones from ASUS website.

Fillado · 24 Dec 2008 at 22:13

There's a lengthy discussion on the issue here with lots of things to try

Chong Warrior · 24 Dec 2008 at 22:29

I've read lots of threads like that but they're all with the old BIOS and not the latest 0902 like I have. Also I'm using the latest Western Digital models with 32mb cache and SATA II.... it's these drives I'm having problems with.

The motherboard will see my old 500AAKS (WD blue 16mb cache)

Other problem is the montior keeps going into standby and the fan on the brand new 4850 stops spinning! Just no end of problems... I think the graphics card is a lemon tbh.