Is there a trick to installing a SATA HDD?

My newly built pc is giving me problems, I decided to try and put in the cd that came with the mobo and now it allows me to boot from this mobo cd but it tells me that my HDD is installed incorrectly. Here are some pics, what am I doing wrong?

 

Stick Floppy you got with Hard drive in floppy drive and install SATA drivers for it.

 

I didn't get a floppy drive with it, just a CD that contains the drivers, but I can't install that because I can't get access to the cd? This SUCKS..! You would think it would be easier to install this stuff in the year 2005.

 

I think you need the floppy, check your motherboard for SATA drivers

 

You absolutely need a floppy with the sata drivers on it if you wish to install Windows XP on your sata hdd.

I got an IDE set as master which is disabled in the BIOS.
I got two optical drivers on the secondary channel, which are enabled.
And I got 1 sata hdd on the sata1 connector, enabled in the BIOS.

The IDE controller for the IDE hdd is enabled, but the hdd itself is disabled in the BIOS, yet, Windows still detects it.

So maybe you can try that.

 

If you're trying to install XP from an OEM drive image, you more than likely will not be able to do so to a SATA drive. The reason for this is that you must install the drivers before the setup can even recognize that there is in fact a hard drive there. You've got to have an actual OS install disc, not an imaged copy.

Actually there is a way I can think of to get it working with an OEM image disc, but it involves a non-SATA HDD and Ghost.

 

By the way, I can't really tell from the pics, but do you have more than one power connector hooked up to the HDD? If so, disconnect one immediately! You can severely damage your HDD that way, if you haven't already. There are two connectors so that older PSUs can still acommodate power to the newer SATA architecture. You should only use either the SATA-power connector or the older 4-pin type, never both.

Like I said, I can't see it too well in the pics, so if only one is connected I apologize.

 

Thanks for the tip, I actually do have both power plugs in that HDD.

 

Not a problem, I just hope it still works after that... it needed +5v and +12v, and it was actually getting +10v and +24v! :swt:

 

I tried to install the SATA drivers, but it still doesn't want to work. I got access to my CD-ROM, but when you try to install the drivers, it says "Cannot run this program in DOS mode". I then copy the files to a diskette and run them from the disk and I get the same error message. This is messed up.

 

What kind of SATA controller are you trying to install the drivers for? It should've come with a driver floppy explicitly for this purpose. If not, you can more than likely download a floppy image from the manufacturer's website and make one yourself.

 

It is for Gigabyte's new GA-K8NF-9 motherboard.
It did not come with a disk for some reason, just a cd.

 

Yeah, I've been noticing that with basically every motherboard that comes out now. Seems rather silly. You'll need to make the floppy disk on another machine.