n00b help

entropy

OK, i have a gigabyte GA8IPE1000L revision 2. I'm incredibly new to sata, and i have a sata 120 gig seagate hdd. however, it isn't recognized when i do a cold boot. only after i do ctrl alt delete is it recognized. this is very frustrating, please help. thnx

Straight_Man

Do you want to BOOT off of it??? IF so, it needs to be defined in the SATA BIOS as drive but not part of an array (only one drive), and the boot order needs to be SATA first, and the SATA BIOS functions need to be active. That is it in a nutshell, but I do not have your board so will let someone with it get mroe into details.

Telling us if you want to RUN Windows off of it or use it mostly for large file storage, or BOTH, would help define the details more for answers. Also, knowing what IDE devices are also in box might come into consideration when solving problem in long run.

Let's start with what you want to do and what else is in box (like CD-RW AND DVD, oine combo drive, two other IDE (IE regular HDs, not SCSI or SATA) HDs, etc).

John D.

entropy

ok, everyone keeps saying that, but in my bios (award ... from gigabyte GA8IPE1000L revision2) i **CANNOT** select to boot from scsi device or raid or sata or anyting of that sort. for boot order i can see it on the help menu on the right, but CANNOT select it, it just skips over it like it wasn't there. i want to run windows off it and use it for storage, as it is my only hdd. only other ide devices are sony crx230e (with f/w qs0b from a liteon..perfectly ok) and an iomega zip drive - the zip was not installed before this happened, and it's been happening ever since i first turn the computer on. some other idiot told me to install intel's raid drivers so i could use the raid application accelerator...so i did that, reinstalling xp and selecting 3rd party blah blah .. and ****ed over my whole comp. sry for the language but i'm extremely stressed because of this. also, when i boot, in bios for 'detecting ide devices' even though i have sata0 set to native sata0, it doesn't say sata. it says ide channel 3, and sata1 is ide channel 4. that can't be good. please help me figure out what's going on, and now that my comp is more or less in pieces, i AM willing to format the hdd after saving some files, but really only as a last resort. i occasionally get a resfresh error when i shut down .. not sure if related but idk. and when in bios i do auto detect, the cylinders/heads etc do not equal what sisoft sandra says and what aida32 says. i'm at a loss, but i want my sata to run at sata speeds, not sub-eide speeds (because right now it's running at ata100). if either the board or the hdd (or both) are just pieces of ****, please let me know so i can either scrap them or pass them off on ebay to some other poor shmuck. lol, any and all help is appreciated. THANK YOU!!

entropy

oh, and what sata drivers, if any, should i install? there's 3 of them, how do i know which ones to use? i got the drive oem and did not recieve any disks, let alone any documentation or any *proof* that it was even a seagate drive. I have been told it is by several ppl but no idea. thnx

profdlp

Try temporaily unhooking all the IDE drives and see if anything changes.

The driver you need is the Chipset driver.

entropy

ah, so the sata drivers are in the chipset's drivers? fantastic .. then i reamed my entire computer for nothing...joy. well then why in bios, does it say ide channel 3?

ryko

Have you flashed to the newest bios yet? Maybe a new BIOS will take care of some of those problems

---

just a shot in the dark though since i don't actually have a gigabyte.

entropy

yep, newest bios in there...FF i think it is. is there ANY thing i can do? maybe my chipset doesn't fully support sata even though it says it does? idk, at a loss...thnx

profdlp

Running the risk of overstating the obvious, you either have a bad board, bad drive, bad cable, bios problem, or configuration problem.

Do you know someone who could loan you a drive and cable for testing?

Also, did you buy the board new? If you can't borrow a drive and cable it might be simplest to just RMA the board. On the other hand, many of us (myself included) have discovered that our "bad" board turned out to be nothing more than a configuration problem. Do you have an IDE drive you could do a clean Windows install on? If so, you may be able to Ghost the image over to the SATA drive (after making sure that your chipset drivers were installed) and swap drives.

What are the exact steps you are taking when you install Windows?

entropy

Bought the board new, and i can rule out the cable, as i've tried 2 sata cables , both w/same results. it's a new board and new hdd as well. it isn't a bios problem, either. i installed windows (the first time WITHOUT trying to install 3rd party scsi / raid drivers, the second time trying to use intel's...the second time crapped my machine so i plan on formatting soon and starting over ) and it told me my drive was running at ultra ata100 ... even tho i had it set to native sata0 port. also tried switching to sata1, same problem. i don't know anyone who has a sata drive that i could swap out (not to boot, just to see if it is detected on boot) but i could look around a bit more. it isn't a spin up time problem, as i set boot delay to 8 secs with same result. and i COULD install xp on and ide drive...and ghost it...i'd need major help with that, and that would be dead last option, and even then i don't think it would matter because my hdd doesn't seem to want to be detected. i think it has something to do iwth the fact that my bios won't let me choose scsi/raid/sata for a boot order, but idk tho i'm pretty sure. any ideas on how/why this is, let me know, thanx.

profdlp

entr0py wrote:

...it told me my drive was running at ultra ata100 ... even tho i had it set to native sata0 port...

What told you? Windows, or another program (such as Sandra or ATTO)? If it's just Windows saying that I would benchmark it with one of the other programs I mentioned. (Obviously you'll have to get things running first... )

What exact bios version are you running?

Also, did you try temporarily disconnecting the IDE drives?

entropy

HD Tune told me it's running at Ultra ATA/100. bios version - F.F. (that's the name of it...dumb i kno). in sandra, if i go to ata/atapi info, lo and behold, my hd is listed there. in bios i DO have it set to be at native sata0, and yet windows thinks it isn't. but why in bios would it say ide channel 3? and now sata channel 1 or something equivelent? the serial number of my drive is 0BROKER0 .. kinda odd. revision 2.01 (firmware i'm assuming). when i do drives info in sandra, the serial says Serial Number : 506B-4431. very strange. when i do auto detect in bios, the cylinders/heads aren't the same as sandra claims. again, very strange. to me it's starting to sound like my hdd is heading for the trash....but if there's anything i can do...thnx. and PLEASE help me figure out why i can't select scsi or sata device for boot order, unless that means a pci card. thnx

entropy

quick note, on this dirty install of xp pro, under device manager, i do see a scsi / raid controller now. it's D346PRT SCSI controller. idk, might help someone, but it wasn't there before.

profdlp

In the two attached pics taken from the manual, what do your settings look like in the places I marked in blue?

entropy

for the first pic it looks just like that. the second pic looks like it's just definitions of what they all are...

profdlp

Did you try temporarily disconnecting the IDE drives? It looks like maybe when you are using a combination of SATA and IDE drives you might have to do some remapping. It could be something as simple as having to configure your IDE drives differently. Temporarily disconnecting them would eliminate the possibility of a conflict which could help in the troubleshooting process. Make sure you set all IDE drives to NONE in the bios.

I'm not giving up on this thread, but one idea might be to start a new thread named "Gigabyte SATA trouble". This might wake up a few of our resident Gigabyte experts and get someone involved with more experience with your problem.

entropy

I tried turning off all ide device, but it didn't matter. sata hdd still wasn't recognized from a cold boot. lol, i have all my files ready to be transferred in order to format this hdd :S need some help quick anyone!! thnx

profdlp

entr0py wrote:

I tried turning off all ide device, but it didn't matter...

Shut down. Unplug compter. Remove IDE cables completely and unplug power connectors to your IDE devices.

Reboot. Enter bios and set all IDE channels to AUTO. Save changes and reboot.

Then cross your fingers. :bigggrin:

entropy

comp shut down. comp unplugged. ide cables completely removed and power removed from said devices. rebooted. ide set to auto. changes saved. rebooted. knuckles white from crossing too hard. head sore from bashing against the wall due to frustration that the hdd still wasn't detected from a cold boot. :|

profdlp

With the IDE drives still disconnected, go into the bios and make sure the On-Chip SATA is set to Auto (SATA controller should then automatically remap to IDE controller). Make sure "Hard Disk" is set as the first boot device.

I'm going for help - hang in there.

entropy

all disconnected, sata remapped to ide1 master ... and no luck from a cold boot :S. i'm really starting to run out of ideas lol

Dragstk

entrOpy;
While I don't have an answer for your problem, I certainly understand your frustration.
Things seem incredibly frustrating, when it should be working, but it's not. But I can say, hang in there. I have been hanging around this forum for several months now. And when I have "issues" with my computer, these guys either have the answers or have given me a direction to go in.
Don't give up yet. There will be an answer, and you'll be smarter for hanging in there.

entropy

OMG!! thank the lord for stupid companies:D apparently i figured it out. i was reading another forum (i'm a traitor!!lol) and ppl with an asus board had this prob, several fixed it by changing the 2nd number in their ram timings. i tried it, no luck. tried again, *skipped the memory test* and viola! then it hit me. change the timings back to default and see what happens. nothing, but that was good. totally powered down yet again and tried hitting escape when the memory test was running! POOF!! tried this about 10 times (pain in the butt, lemme tell ya) and it never failed. for some reason when it's memory testing it can't find my hdd!! that would explain the warm boot always working, because it already has the memory tested from the cold boot! now i either need to play around in bios to turn off the auto memory test or forever be stuck to hitting escape when turning on my comp (which is almost as bad as doing control alt delete!) now i just need to figure out how to get it to run at sata speeds instead of ata100....:D thanx all :D thank you very much profdlp! you tried ur best and gave me every idea you had!! any other anyone might have as to why it isn't running at full speeds, post away!! :D this made my entire week, cuz last week was ruined due to the fact that i have to start all over (xp install failed, broke all my progs) cuz i didn't push escape in bios ! ah well ... thnx again, and if there's any way to turn of the auto mem test (so i dont have to go play around lol) let me know!!!!!!!!

Spinner

now i just need to figure out how to get it to run at sata speeds instead of ata100.

Discussion continued here: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11491

I tried turning off all ide device, but it didn't matter. sata hdd still wasn't recognized from a cold boot

Discussion continued here: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11458


Please don't create un-necessary new threads on the same topic you're already troubleshooting in another.