Folks the problem has just been resolved and I have had no internet access to get back to you for a day or so.
There was no need for addittional drivers at the F6 floppy stage. The Raid had to be set up in stripes in the Bios with the one drive. Windows XP with service pack One wasthen used for the install.
Spinner & Binsoutonfriday - Thanks for all your help and to clarify I was attempting to load drivers from a floppy disk at the F6 stage. the floppy was constructed from the utility in the Mobo disk which self extracted.The drivers were native however and it was the setting of the Raid to stripes in the Bios that was the problem. I have now found out that MS have a downloadable floppy utility for this and when I find out more details I will post them here if people are interested. It was only after the raid was set that the drive was recognised.
As yet Gigabyte have still not replied which teaches a lesson in itself.
Thanks again.
I am stuck with the exact same problem and I can't work out whether its a config problem or a hd/mobo fault.
Can you post details of the installation guide and make up of the 2 floppies you used? Also, which SATA ports did you use? 0, 1, 2 or 3. What bios settings for the K8NF-9? E.g. What SATA Channels did you enabled?
I never go tmy GA-K8NF-9 MB to see it. I had to install the IDE drive first then it was SMOOTH sailing.
Not sure what you mean.
I am sure the problem I have should be easily fixed. I'm pretty new to building PCs (only my second), and completely new to SATA, so I made sure I installed a standard IDE drive to start with, so XP Pro (actually MCE 2005) was installed easily (with SP2).
But I just cannot get my SATA drives recognised even in the BIOS, let alone in the SATA Raid setup or XP.
E.g. I have seen a couple of screen shots describing the steps I should be able to follow, and in CMOS setup, alongside IDE Channel 0 Master and Slave, and IDE Channel 1 Master and Slave, there should be IDE Channel 2 Master and IDE Channel 3 Master. I can't get these to appear. Does this sound like a hd or mobo problem to you?
I have also heard that installing XP with SP2 can sometimes cause a problem, but I don't have access to anything else at present.
My problem seems to be intermittent - In the 10-12 times I have tried reinstalling XP etc, I have managed to get the two 300Gb Maxtor hd recognised and into an array twice, but they disappear after the next boot.
I am stuck with the exact same problem and I can't work out whether its a config problem or a hd/mobo fault.
Can you post details of the installation guide and make up of the 2 floppies you used? Also, which SATA ports did you use? 0, 1, 2 or 3. What bios settings for the K8NF-9? E.g. What SATA Channels did you enabled?
I am desparate - please help.
--->For you to install onto your single SATA drive (on a GA-K8NF-9 specifically and probably uniquely) you simply have to setup RAID striping on the single disk in the BIOS which should then in turn make the disk capable of being a boot device. You then simply install the OS as standard without the need for the F6 method because the disk should be automatically detected without additional drivers being provided. (The SATA controllers integration with the mobo chipset probably made this possible by letting the OS setup detect the disks as if they were standard IDE's)<---
I think that is how bluethree solved his problem, however I can't confirm the finer points (as I tried to) as he disappeared the second he found a solution to his problem. Try the above and if you have any trouble just post back. As I've said, the above may not be definitive.
However the above does not apply when installing onto a RAID array, if that is your intention. You will probably need to make up a driver disk for that and use the F6 method at the start of the Windows XP setup.
Let me know exactly what setup you're trying to get running, then we can go from there.
Ive installed my sata drives and connected them to the power and sata ports 0 and 1.
When I boot up only my ide drive and dvd drive are detected.
In bios if I disable sata/raid but enable sata channel 1, when I reboot it takes ages to display the ide drives detected, and then says no drives detected on ide channel 2 and 3.
So this suggests to me that there is a problem with either both my drives, the mobo sata controller or the leads.
I have checked the drives are spinning but what annoys me is that on two occasions, I have managed to boot and the drives were detected.
Ive installed my sata drives and connected them to the power and sata ports 0 and 1.
When I boot up only my ide drive and dvd drive are detected.
In bios if I disable sata/raid but enable sata channel 1, when I reboot it takes ages to display the ide drives detected, and then says no drives detected on ide channel 2 and 3.
So this suggests to me that there is a problem with either both my drives, the mobo sata controller or the leads.
I have checked the drives are spinning but what annoys me is that on two occasions, I have managed to boot and the drives were detected.
Any ideas?
So you're not trying to install Windows onto the SATA disks as single disks or as a RAID array, you're just trying to get Windows to detect them? Windows being installed on the IDE drive you spoke about?
Either way you want SATA/RAID enabled with all the SATA channels enabled.
Have you ever got the SATA drives to detect in Windows? Have you got the latest BIOS revision for your board flashed? Have you tried to see if the SATA disks detect more readily by disconnecting the IDE devices?
You need to let me know what disk configuration you're trying to setup. Are you trying to setup a RAID array? or do you plan to just use the two SATA disks individually? Have you setup RAID striping, either on each or one individual disk or on both as an array, as I originally suggested?
So you're not trying to install Windows onto the SATA disks as single disks or as a RAID array, you're just trying to get Windows to detect them? Windows being installed on the IDE drive you spoke about?
Either way you want SATA/RAID enabled with all the SATA channels enabled.
Have you ever got the SATA drives to detect in Windows? Have you got the latest BIOS revision for your board flashed? Have you tried to see if the SATA disks detect more readily by disconnecting the IDE devices?
You need to let me know what disk configuration you're trying to setup. Are you trying to setup a RAID array? or do you plan to just use the two SATA disks individually? Have you setup RAID striping, either on each or one individual disk or on both as an array, as I originally suggested?
Yes XP is installed on an ide drive.
Long term aim is to set up a raid0 array.
Yes I have been able to get XP to detect the raid drive, but as soon as I rebooted, it disappeared.
Ive checke the bios and I have the latest version.
Not tried disconnecting the ide drive to see whether sata drives are more readily detected. Ill try this.
Yes I have been able to get XP to detect the raid drive, but as soon as I rebooted, it disappeared.
Ive checke the bios and I have the latest version.
Not tried disconnecting the ide drive to see whether sata drives are more readily detected. Ill try this.
What drivers are you using for the SATA? It's the nForce 4 MCP so you'll need to supply the OS with the correct ones (should be on a CD which came with your mobo, or you could download them).
To be fair though, I don't believe you're doing anything wrong. The intermittent symptoms you are describing don't comply with the way it should work. Consumer Gigabyte boards are a load of crap when it comes to SATA. Typically your SATA controller will work when you've got it setup right, or it won't work when you haven't. The middle ground is not an end-user problem. It's a hardware problem. At least that's the general rule. If something works and then doesn't work without user intervention, it means it's not working the way it should or is supposed to.
I'll quite happily persevere with your problem and try to find some quirky way to get them damn thing working, but at the end of the day, I can guarantee you, you wouldn't be having this problem if it was a MSI, or an ASUS, or even an ABIT board.
I hope for once I'm wrong about this, and there is something obvious we have overlooked, but until we find it, I'm saying your problem, as with so many other Short-Media forum members, is Gigabyte!
Try what I suggested though (like you said) and we'll go from there.
Just to clarify then for the benefit of everyone else..
--->For you to install onto your single SATA drive (on a GA-K8NF-9 specifically and probably uniquely) you simply (I say that ironicly) had to setup RAID striping on the single disk in the BIOS which (I imagine) then in turn made the disk capable of being a boot device. You then simply had to install the OS as standard without the need for the F6 method because the disk was automatically detected without additional drivers being provided. (The SATA controllers integration with the mobo chipset probably made this possible by letting the OS setup detect the disks as if they were standard IDE's)<---
Correct?
i just wanted to confirm that this worked perfectly for me in the same situation. after setting the drive up as RAID/Striping in F6, it is recognized in the boot sequence. check the Hard Disc Boot Priority if you need to set it up, but i think it is set automatically as soon as you set it up as a RAID. no floppy's needed.
i just wanted to confirm that this worked perfectly for me in the same situation. after setting the drive up as RAID/Striping in F6, it is recognized in the boot sequence. check the Hard Disc Boot Priority if you need to set it up, but i think it is set automatically as soon as you set it up as a RAID. no floppy's needed.
thanks
Thanks for that confirmation mate. Much appreciated.
I got my Maxtor SATA DiamondMax 10 drives checked out on Thursday and the problem was with the drives. Apparently the 10 series of drives are a nightmare to setup with the mobo manufacturers not providing the right drivers in time or something like that.
Anyway, I exchanged my Maxtor SATA drives for a couple of Western Digital 250Gb drives and I installed them without any hitches whatsoever. Went like a dream. The drives were recognised by the BIOS straightaway.
I got my Maxtor SATA DiamondMax 10 drives checked out on Thursday and the problem was with the drives. Apparently the 10 series of drives are a nightmare to setup with the mobo manufacturers not providing the right drivers in time or something like that.
Anyway, I exchanged my Maxtor SATA drives for a couple of Western Digital 250Gb drives and I installed them without any hitches whatsoever. Went like a dream. The drives were recognised by the BIOS straightaway.
hi everyone, I've just purchased the k8nf-9 two days ago. Having the same problem bluethree did. I want to follow the same solution but I need a bit of clarification. How do I setup RAID striping... in the F6 for xp?
I've read the whole thread and I'm stuck at this point.
I agree with Spinner I don't think drivers are needed just the stripping option.
hi everyone, I've just purchased the k8nf-9 two days ago. Having the same problem bluethree did. I want to follow the same solution but I need a bit of clarification. How do I setup RAID striping... in the F6 for xp?
I've read the whole thread and I'm stuck at this point.
I agree with Spinner I don't think drivers are needed just the stripping option.
As far as I can tell the option you need to set to striping should be in the motherboard CMOS BIOS or if there is one (I'm not sure there will be in this case) the RAID controller BIOS.
Pressing F6 at the start of the Windows XP setup just tells the installation program you're going to be installing onto a third party controller, e.g. a RAID controller or SCSI controller. However in your case, if you're using a single disk, you don't need to use the F6 method. As long as the RAID controller is set to striping mode in your BIOS on the K8nf-9 uniquely, the hard disk should be detected as a standard IDE drive by the Windows XP setup program without the need for additional drivers, which the setup program would typically prompt the user for if F6 is pressed upon the start of the Windows XP setup program.
I am using the same gigabyte motherboard with a WD sata 120g drive. I continue to get file errors when large files are copied from one drive to the sata drive. The SATA drive is set up simply as another drive and not as part of a raid array. This is possible is one disables the raid access in the bios. The motherboard then sees the drive as a type of ata drive at boot. Windows sees the drive with no problems.
I have tried this drive with many different boards and I always get the same result.....file corruption.
I waited past the warranty period so I am sol there. Could this be another one of those many stories about sata drivers or is there real solution. The Nforce 4 motherboard from gigabyte is the one that has the sata controllers on the nforce chip. the board is the k8nf-9.
Any suggestions would be appreciated as the drive is absolutely useless now.
I am using the same gigabyte motherboard with a WD sata 120g drive. I continue to get file errors when large files are copied from one drive to the sata drive. The SATA drive is set up simply as another drive and not as part of a raid array. This is possible is one disables the raid access in the bios. The motherboard then sees the drive as a type of ata drive at boot. Windows sees the drive with no problems.
I have tried this drive with many different boards and I always get the same result.....file corruption.
I waited past the warranty period so I am sol there. Could this be another one of those many stories about sata drivers or is there real solution. The Nforce 4 motherboard from gigabyte is the one that has the sata controllers on the nforce chip. the board is the k8nf-9.
Any suggestions would be appreciated as the drive is absolutely useless now.
jcbyte
Have you installed the nForce 4 driver package either from off the web or from off the CD that came with your mobo?
You want to enable RAID striping in your BIOS for the SATA drive in question (regardless of the fact you're not setting up a RAID array and are just using an individual disk).
Have you installed the nForce 4 driver package either from off the web or from off the CD that came with your mobo?
You want to enable RAID striping in your BIOS for the SATA drive in question (regardless of the fact you're not setting up a RAID array and are just using an individual disk).
Try the above and then post back.
Cheers
Right now I have RAID disabled in the boot bios so the bios setup for the RAID array does not come up when booting. Should I enable raid then set up striping then disable raid in the boot bios? Also yes I have installed the most recent version of the drivers, I believe it is 6.12.
Right now I have RAID disabled in the boot bios so the bios setup for the RAID array does not come up when booting. Should I enable raid then set up striping then disable raid in the boot bios? Also yes I have installed the most recent version of the drivers, I believe it is 6.12.
jcbyte
Enable RAID in the motherboard BIOS (boot BIOS), then setup striping on the drive in question in the RAID boot dialogue (or where ever). You want to keep RAID enabled in the motherboard BIOS (boot BIOS) after you've setup striping, otherwise it will just disable striping again.
Going by what people have said, that is what you need to do. Hopefully it will cure you're problem. If not post back.
There's a chance after you've made these changes the OS will have trouble booting from POST because you're effectively booting off a new device, but we'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it.
In any event the changes I've asked you to make are completely reversible.
Enable RAID in the motherboard BIOS (boot BIOS), then setup striping on the drive in question in the RAID boot dialogue (or where ever). You want to keep RAID enabled in the motherboard BIOS (boot BIOS) after you've setup striping, otherwise it will just disable striping again.
Going by what people have said, that is what you need to do. Hopefully it will cure you're problem. If not post back.
There's a chance after you've made these changes the OS will have trouble booting from POST because you're effectively booting off a new device, but we'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it.
In any event the changes I've asked you to make are completely reversible.
First I am not trying to use the drive as a boot drive just as a data storage drive. Secondly, I tried your suggestions but to no avail. I enabled RAID support and then using nvidia raid setup made the drive a striping device. Windows sees the drive with no problem. I copied a new large file to the drive with a rar extension. I then ran the test function in rar and it tested with no errors! Hey, I thought this had fixed the problem. So I then copied another large file (around .5 gig) to the same drive and ran the rar test again. It tested fine. Was I happy. Then I tested the first file again and got numerous crc errors. So I then tried the second file again and received crc errors. This seems to be the pattern that I have been experiencing by the way. Whenever more than one large file is copied to the drive and checked it seems to corrupt the first file.
I dont know what to do next. I am using the latest drivers from nvidia and have changed the cables but nothing seems to help. Right now the drive is just an expensive paper weight.
I hope you have some further suggestions and I am at my wits end.
First I am not trying to use the drive as a boot drive just as a data storage drive. Secondly, I tried your suggestions but to no avail. I enabled RAID support and then using nvidia raid setup made the drive a striping device. Windows sees the drive with no problem. I copied a new large file to the drive with a rar extension. I then ran the test function in rar and it tested with no errors! Hey, I thought this had fixed the problem. So I then copied another large file (around .5 gig) to the same drive and ran the rar test again. It tested fine. Was I happy. Then I tested the first file again and got numerous crc errors. So I then tried the second file again and received crc errors. This seems to be the pattern that I have been experiencing by the way. Whenever more than one large file is copied to the drive and checked it seems to corrupt the first file.
I dont know what to do next. I am using the latest drivers from nvidia and have changed the cables but nothing seems to help. Right now the drive is just an expensive paper weight.
I hope you have some further suggestions and I am at my wits end.
You stated in your first post that you've tried the drive on various different motherboards? (Sorry I missed that earlier) Presuming of course they weren't all nForce 4 boards, that would actually indicate a malfunctioning drive.
Go to the WD website and download their drive diagnostic utility. Run it and see what it comes up with (Backup any data on the drive in question before you run the utility). You said it had run out on the warranty didn't you?
I have a simmilar problem. I'm trying to setup xp on a stripping raid array of 2 WD 200 gb sata disks on a GA K8NF9 mobo.
On primary ide 1 I have only a DWD RW and on sata ch 1 and 2 I have installed sata disks. In bios raid for IDE is disabled (raid enabled only for SATA drives)
The aray is setup ok, and a floppy disk with drivers is also ok.
My problem is that if I install class driver and bus driver together the setup comes only to the point where it should bring up the screen where you should press F8 for the licence agreement but instead of this the PC resets before that.(at the screen on the bottom says beginning xp setup and on the keyboard I see that all the 3 leds are lit for a moment so I think ctrl alt del command is issued)
If I load ONLY the class driver from floppy setup goes on normaly to the next screen (the partition can be made ok) but after first reset when the Pc should go to the VGA mode and beginning of XP setup I get the message disk read error occured! press ctrl alt del
You stated in your first post that you've tried the drive on various different motherboards? (Sorry I missed that earlier) Presuming of course they weren't all nForce 4 boards, that would actually indicate a malfunctioning drive.
Go to the WD website and download their drive diagnostic utility. Run it and see what it comes up with (Backup any data on the drive in question before you run the utility). You said it had run out on the warranty didn't you?
Well sorry to take so long to get back but this has been one of those weeks. The following is my system:
Athlon 64 3200+
Video Nvidia 6200+ 1218 meg
Gigabyte motherboard
1 gig dual channel pc3200 memory
Primary boot drive 80 gig WDC ide 100
Secondary Storage drive 200 gig Maxtor ide 133
DVD rom Drive
DVD read write drive
120 gig Seagate SATA drive striping on 1st primary SATA channel
I believe that covers the setup. I am trying to use the sata drive as additional storage and remove the 200 gig maxtor but as I said before I have never been successful in using this drive. In my system before which was a barton 2500 I initially used a PCI SATA card from ACARD. That didnt seem to work so I tried the VIA chipset card. Neither worked and displayed the same problems that is corrupt files per my previous description.
I have spoken to Seagate numberous times and every time they suggest something else. Well, I forgot when I ordered the drive so now it is beyond the warranty. I am going to call tech support one more time because I spoke to them before the warranty expired so maybe they can assist in a replacement. I am not sure that the drive is bad but I have tried everything else.
Well sorry to take so long to get back but this has been one of those weeks. The following is my system:
Athlon 64 3200+
Video Nvidia 6200+ 1218 meg
Gigabyte motherboard
1 gig dual channel pc3200 memory
Primary boot drive 80 gig WDC ide 100
Secondary Storage drive 200 gig Maxtor ide 133
DVD rom Drive
DVD read write drive
120 gig Seagate SATA drive striping on 1st primary SATA channel
I believe that covers the setup. I am trying to use the sata drive as additional storage and remove the 200 gig maxtor but as I said before I have never been successful in using this drive. In my system before which was a barton 2500 I initially used a PCI SATA card from ACARD. That didnt seem to work so I tried the VIA chipset card. Neither worked and displayed the same problems that is corrupt files per my previous description.
I have spoken to Seagate numberous times and every time they suggest something else. Well, I forgot when I ordered the drive so now it is beyond the warranty. I am going to call tech support one more time because I spoke to them before the warranty expired so maybe they can assist in a replacement. I am not sure that the drive is bad but I have tried everything else.
Hope this description is sufficient.
What happened to the Western Digital drive? It's suddenly become a Seagate!
I'm sorry to say, if you've tested your drive in various different systems and the drive behaves the same on all of them, then that's a pretty firm indication that your the hard drive is knackered.
I have a simmilar problem. I'm trying to setup xp on a stripping raid array of 2 WD 200 gb sata disks on a GA K8NF9 mobo.
On primary ide 1 I have only a DWD RW and on sata ch 1 and 2 I have installed sata disks. In bios raid for IDE is disabled (raid enabled only for SATA drives)
The aray is setup ok, and a floppy disk with drivers is also ok.
My problem is that if I install class driver and bus driver together the setup comes only to the point where it should bring up the screen where you should press F8 for the licence agreement but instead of this the PC resets before that.(at the screen on the bottom says beginning xp setup and on the keyboard I see that all the 3 leds are lit for a moment so I think ctrl alt del command is issued)
If I load ONLY the class driver from floppy setup goes on normaly to the next screen (the partition can be made ok) but after first reset when the Pc should go to the VGA mode and beginning of XP setup I get the message disk read error occured! press ctrl alt del
So i think I have a problem with BUS drv.
Have you tried it without using the F6 method. Try it with no drivers. (Just a long shot).
Have you tried it without using the F6 method. Try it with no drivers. (Just a long shot).
Just to clarify, the WDC drive is the boot drive and the seagate drive is the sata drive that I am trying to use for additional storage. I agree that it is probably bad but I hate to invest in another drive and have the same problems.
Just to clarify, the WDC drive is the boot drive and the seagate drive is the sata drive that I am trying to use for additional storage. I agree that it is probably bad but I hate to invest in another drive and have the same problems.
I know, it sucks big time. But if it's out of warranty you sadly have no other choice. You've tried the drive in question in several different systems, the problem follows the hard drive to which ever system you put it in. Going by what you've said, it has to be the hard drive. Your other two drives transfer data between each other fine right? Run the Seagate Diagnostic tool before you do anything, if only for your peace of mind.
I know, it sucks big time. But if it's out of warranty you sadly have no other choice. You've tried the drive in question in several different systems, the problem follows the hard drive to which ever system you put it in. Going by what you've said, it has to be the hard drive. Your other two drives transfer data between each other fine right? Run the Seagate Diagnostic tool before you do anything, if only for your peace of mind.
Cheers
Well, I have tried all the seagate tools in both the dos mode and the windows mode and get strange results. I wont describe in full detail but it looks as though in the dos mode their drivers will not fully access the drive so I can only do limited testing not including the ability to test the read write test.
I am going to try and call tech support and see if they will interceed because I started calling before the expiration date.
I just want to say "THANK YOU" to everyone who contributed to this thread. I have just spent 8 hours tearing my hair out trying to get my SATA drive working with the Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 mobo, several formats & re-installs = nothing. Read this thread (Goooogle found it) set up RAID striping & XP installed & booted 1st time ! You guys rock, wOOt !
Comments
Can you post details of the installation guide and make up of the 2 floppies you used? Also, which SATA ports did you use? 0, 1, 2 or 3. What bios settings for the K8NF-9? E.g. What SATA Channels did you enabled?
I am desparate - please help.
I am sure the problem I have should be easily fixed. I'm pretty new to building PCs (only my second), and completely new to SATA, so I made sure I installed a standard IDE drive to start with, so XP Pro (actually MCE 2005) was installed easily (with SP2).
But I just cannot get my SATA drives recognised even in the BIOS, let alone in the SATA Raid setup or XP.
E.g. I have seen a couple of screen shots describing the steps I should be able to follow, and in CMOS setup, alongside IDE Channel 0 Master and Slave, and IDE Channel 1 Master and Slave, there should be IDE Channel 2 Master and IDE Channel 3 Master. I can't get these to appear. Does this sound like a hd or mobo problem to you?
I have also heard that installing XP with SP2 can sometimes cause a problem, but I don't have access to anything else at present.
My problem seems to be intermittent - In the 10-12 times I have tried reinstalling XP etc, I have managed to get the two 300Gb Maxtor hd recognised and into an array twice, but they disappear after the next boot.
I'm lost and I'm getting a bit frustrated.
Any ideas?
I think that is how bluethree solved his problem, however I can't confirm the finer points (as I tried to) as he disappeared the second he found a solution to his problem. Try the above and if you have any trouble just post back. As I've said, the above may not be definitive.
However the above does not apply when installing onto a RAID array, if that is your intention. You will probably need to make up a driver disk for that and use the F6 method at the start of the Windows XP setup.
Let me know exactly what setup you're trying to get running, then we can go from there.
Cheers
When I boot up only my ide drive and dvd drive are detected.
In bios if I disable sata/raid but enable sata channel 1, when I reboot it takes ages to display the ide drives detected, and then says no drives detected on ide channel 2 and 3.
So this suggests to me that there is a problem with either both my drives, the mobo sata controller or the leads.
I have checked the drives are spinning but what annoys me is that on two occasions, I have managed to boot and the drives were detected.
Any ideas?
Either way you want SATA/RAID enabled with all the SATA channels enabled.
Have you ever got the SATA drives to detect in Windows? Have you got the latest BIOS revision for your board flashed? Have you tried to see if the SATA disks detect more readily by disconnecting the IDE devices?
You need to let me know what disk configuration you're trying to setup. Are you trying to setup a RAID array? or do you plan to just use the two SATA disks individually? Have you setup RAID striping, either on each or one individual disk or on both as an array, as I originally suggested?
Long term aim is to set up a raid0 array.
Yes I have been able to get XP to detect the raid drive, but as soon as I rebooted, it disappeared.
Ive checke the bios and I have the latest version.
Not tried disconnecting the ide drive to see whether sata drives are more readily detected. Ill try this.
To be fair though, I don't believe you're doing anything wrong. The intermittent symptoms you are describing don't comply with the way it should work. Consumer Gigabyte boards are a load of crap when it comes to SATA. Typically your SATA controller will work when you've got it setup right, or it won't work when you haven't. The middle ground is not an end-user problem. It's a hardware problem. At least that's the general rule. If something works and then doesn't work without user intervention, it means it's not working the way it should or is supposed to.
I'll quite happily persevere with your problem and try to find some quirky way to get them damn thing working, but at the end of the day, I can guarantee you, you wouldn't be having this problem if it was a MSI, or an ASUS, or even an ABIT board.
I hope for once I'm wrong about this, and there is something obvious we have overlooked, but until we find it, I'm saying your problem, as with so many other Short-Media forum members, is Gigabyte!
Try what I suggested though (like you said) and we'll go from there.
Cheers
i just wanted to confirm that this worked perfectly for me in the same situation. after setting the drive up as RAID/Striping in F6, it is recognized in the boot sequence. check the Hard Disc Boot Priority if you need to set it up, but i think it is set automatically as soon as you set it up as a RAID. no floppy's needed.
thanks
Anyway, I exchanged my Maxtor SATA drives for a couple of Western Digital 250Gb drives and I installed them without any hitches whatsoever. Went like a dream. The drives were recognised by the BIOS straightaway.
Thanks for everyone's help.
I've read the whole thread and I'm stuck at this point.
I agree with Spinner I don't think drivers are needed just the stripping option.
Pressing F6 at the start of the Windows XP setup just tells the installation program you're going to be installing onto a third party controller, e.g. a RAID controller or SCSI controller. However in your case, if you're using a single disk, you don't need to use the F6 method. As long as the RAID controller is set to striping mode in your BIOS on the K8nf-9 uniquely, the hard disk should be detected as a standard IDE drive by the Windows XP setup program without the need for additional drivers, which the setup program would typically prompt the user for if F6 is pressed upon the start of the Windows XP setup program.
I hope that answers your question.
I have tried this drive with many different boards and I always get the same result.....file corruption.
I waited past the warranty period so I am sol there. Could this be another one of those many stories about sata drivers or is there real solution. The Nforce 4 motherboard from gigabyte is the one that has the sata controllers on the nforce chip. the board is the k8nf-9.
Any suggestions would be appreciated as the drive is absolutely useless now.
jcbyte
You want to enable RAID striping in your BIOS for the SATA drive in question (regardless of the fact you're not setting up a RAID array and are just using an individual disk).
Try the above and then post back.
Cheers
Right now I have RAID disabled in the boot bios so the bios setup for the RAID array does not come up when booting. Should I enable raid then set up striping then disable raid in the boot bios? Also yes I have installed the most recent version of the drivers, I believe it is 6.12.
jcbyte
Going by what people have said, that is what you need to do. Hopefully it will cure you're problem. If not post back.
There's a chance after you've made these changes the OS will have trouble booting from POST because you're effectively booting off a new device, but we'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it.
In any event the changes I've asked you to make are completely reversible.
I dont know what to do next. I am using the latest drivers from nvidia and have changed the cables but nothing seems to help. Right now the drive is just an expensive paper weight.
I hope you have some further suggestions and I am at my wits end.
Thanks
They were recently released.
Could you ellaborate a bit more on your setup.
You stated in your first post that you've tried the drive on various different motherboards? (Sorry I missed that earlier) Presuming of course they weren't all nForce 4 boards, that would actually indicate a malfunctioning drive.
Go to the WD website and download their drive diagnostic utility. Run it and see what it comes up with (Backup any data on the drive in question before you run the utility). You said it had run out on the warranty didn't you?
I have a simmilar problem. I'm trying to setup xp on a stripping raid array of 2 WD 200 gb sata disks on a GA K8NF9 mobo.
On primary ide 1 I have only a DWD RW and on sata ch 1 and 2 I have installed sata disks. In bios raid for IDE is disabled (raid enabled only for SATA drives)
The aray is setup ok, and a floppy disk with drivers is also ok.
My problem is that if I install class driver and bus driver together the setup comes only to the point where it should bring up the screen where you should press F8 for the licence agreement but instead of this the PC resets before that.(at the screen on the bottom says beginning xp setup and on the keyboard I see that all the 3 leds are lit for a moment so I think ctrl alt del command is issued)
If I load ONLY the class driver from floppy setup goes on normaly to the next screen (the partition can be made ok) but after first reset when the Pc should go to the VGA mode and beginning of XP setup I get the message disk read error occured! press ctrl alt del
So i think I have a problem with BUS drv.
Athlon 64 3200+
Video Nvidia 6200+ 1218 meg
Gigabyte motherboard
1 gig dual channel pc3200 memory
Primary boot drive 80 gig WDC ide 100
Secondary Storage drive 200 gig Maxtor ide 133
DVD rom Drive
DVD read write drive
120 gig Seagate SATA drive striping on 1st primary SATA channel
I believe that covers the setup. I am trying to use the sata drive as additional storage and remove the 200 gig maxtor but as I said before I have never been successful in using this drive. In my system before which was a barton 2500 I initially used a PCI SATA card from ACARD. That didnt seem to work so I tried the VIA chipset card. Neither worked and displayed the same problems that is corrupt files per my previous description.
I have spoken to Seagate numberous times and every time they suggest something else. Well, I forgot when I ordered the drive so now it is beyond the warranty. I am going to call tech support one more time because I spoke to them before the warranty expired so maybe they can assist in a replacement. I am not sure that the drive is bad but I have tried everything else.
Hope this description is sufficient.
I'm sorry to say, if you've tested your drive in various different systems and the drive behaves the same on all of them, then that's a pretty firm indication that your the hard drive is knackered.
Go to here: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ and test your drive using Seagates official diagnostic tools.
Cheers
I am going to try and call tech support and see if they will interceed because I started calling before the expiration date.
I will let all know the results.