Vista on SATA

chrislocalboy

chrislocalboy

chrislocalboy

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The company I work for has got hold of the full version of Windows Vista (before it is released to the consumer in January I believe)

Basically I cant get it to install on my SATA HDD's, I'm sure I know why its failing as at first I have the same problem installing XP

Its the SATA drivers for my Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLi, the only way I can install XP on this is to slipstream every SATA driver I could find into the XP installation, putting them on a floppy and doing the F6 thing just wont work.

I thought Vista would be a lot more geared up to support SATA but it seems not as I'm getting the exact same problem with it not being able to detect either of my SATA drives.

Has anyone else got this problem, tried getting someone at Gigabyte but thats like pulling teeth and as of yet I cant find any Vista drivers on thier site.

Any suggestions/comments will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
 
How are your drives configured - RAID or single drives?

If they're just single drives it should just be a case of configuring the SATA ports in non RAID mode and then the XP or Vista setup will treat them in the same way as IDE disks and install without the need for drivers.
 
rpstewart said:
How are your drives configured - RAID or single drives?

If they're just single drives it should just be a case of configuring the SATA ports in non RAID mode and then the XP or Vista setup will treat them in the same way as IDE disks and install without the need for drivers.
Click to expand...

Yeah one is 250Gb and the other an 80Gb, both set to single withing the RAID setup utility, however as mentioned Vista cant see them and neither could XP.

How do I configure SATA ports in non raid mode? from memory of last night I simply have an option that says 'Enable RAID 5' in the bios, this is currently on as I dont even think bios detects them if this is turned off.

What kind of option should I be looking to change, problem is every bios is different and has different options and names etc so its sometimes very hard to find what your looking for.

Any suggestions?

Cheers
 
If you have them configured as single drives in the RAID config then they are effectively RAID arrays, albeit single disk RAID0. As a result you'll need to give Windows the appropriate drivers during the install.

What problems are you having with the F6 method? Are you sure the floppy has the correct drivers on it?
 
Upgrade your BIOS, I have that problem with Vista on my server.

The other thing is and I might have this wrong, is that you've not set up a RAID and trying to use the HDDs sepratly (there so missmatched that its not worth RAIDing them) If so Just trun off the RAID function on the BOIS for the SATA ports that your using, but keep then enabled, and now they relised from the RAID hold and you should be able to see them both. If they are on the single drive side of the RAID setup screen it means that they are awating RAID and resurved so they can't be accessed as a single drive.
 
rpstewart said:
If you have them configured as single drives in the RAID config then they are effectively RAID arrays, albeit single disk RAID0. As a result you'll need to give Windows the appropriate drivers during the install.

What problems are you having with the F6 method? Are you sure the floppy has the correct drivers on it?
Click to expand...

This is not XP is Vista so no F6 method, have tried loading the drivers in but they dont work.

As for my bios and RAID setup, as mentioned I had to set them both to single within the RAID confing thing (F4 at startup) else they wont work at all, as mentioned its hard to just tell you what settings I have within BIOS as they are all different.

So are you saying that because they are set as single in the RAID config Windows setup still see's them as being in some kind of RAID mode?
 
chrislocalboy said:
So are you saying that because they are set as single in the RAID config Windows setup still see's them as being in some kind of RAID mode?
Click to expand...

Yeah, set up in that manner they have to be accessed via the RAID controller and hence extra drivers are required.

As for the BIOS it depends on which ports the disks are connected but in the
Integrated Peripherals section for single disk operation you'll need to set:

NV Serial ATA 1: Enabled
NV SATA 1 Primary RAID : Disabled
NV SATA 1 Secondary RAID : Disabled
NV Serial ATA 2: Enabled
NV SATA 2 Primary RAID : Disabled
NV SATA 2 Secondary RAID : Disabled
SATA RAID-5/ATA Controller: Enabled
SATA controller Function : ATA

You need to be aware, however, that if you have the disks set up as any form of RAID then flip the controller(s) to ATA mode then chances are you'll not be able to access any existing data on either disk.
 
rpstewart said:
Yeah, set up in that manner they have to be accessed via the RAID controller and hence extra drivers are required.

As for the BIOS it depends on which ports the disks are connected but in the
Integrated Peripherals section for single disk operation you'll need to set:

NV Serial ATA 1: Enabled
NV SATA 1 Primary RAID : Disabled
NV SATA 1 Secondary RAID : Disabled
NV Serial ATA 2: Enabled
NV SATA 2 Primary RAID : Disabled
NV SATA 2 Secondary RAID : Disabled
SATA RAID-5/ATA Controller: Enabled
SATA controller Function : ATA

You need to be aware, however, that if you have the disks set up as any form of RAID then flip the controller(s) to ATA mode then chances are you'll not be able to access any existing data on either disk.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this mate, to answer your question I have no RAID setup at all and have no interest in setting it up, I just want a main drive for my OS with a second one for storage and backup.

So once I have changed the above settings will the RAID boot option dissappear or will I ned to enter it again and remove the drives from it?

Cheers for you help mate.... really appreciated.
 
Is the NV at the start of all those lines referring to the Nvidia controller? the board has 2 sets of x4 SATA ports, one is controlled by the Silicon Image set and the other by the Nvidia Nforce 4 controller, cant remember what I'm connected to at the moment (sure its the Silicon Images ports)

Does it matter which ones I use?

Cheers
 
Well just a quick update for you!!!

I was checking the settings you had noted and from the manual I downloaded and printed off and they were not quite the same so I figured a bios upgrade was in order.

Downloaded Gigbyte's @BIOS utility and upgraded the bios via the internet! dead easy!

This sorted me out straight out, changed the relevant options and noticed that when I rebooted noticed it was detecting my SATA drives under IDE's.

Booted into Vista setup and hey preseto the drives were there!!!

Only problem is as I've flashed the bios I've lost my overclocking settings (putting a post in the relevant forum for that)

So Stewart thanks again mate you have been a great help!! dont think I'd of figured it without you!

Nice one fella!

Chris
 
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