How do I make my sata drives work?

[brian.sykes]

I've tried everything i know to make my new sata drives work here's my specs right now

Mobo: ASUS P4P800 SE
CPU: P4 3.0Ghz
Ram: 1GB OCZ platinum
SATA Drives: 2x Samsung SP2504C 250GB
OS: Windows XP Pro Corp SP2

I have all the power connecters and sata cables hooked up the bios see's my drives but nothing i do at all and i've tried using the windows CD to put drivers on nothing works. Windows cant see my drives not even in the disk management so if anyone can tell me whats going on or how to fix this little problem i'm having i'd be very greatfull, many thanks in advance.

Brian Sykes

Edit:

Also i don't know if this is relivant or not but the hard drives never came with canything just screws no instructions on how to set the drive up so if someone could help me i'd be really greatfull

Edit: Please use proper thread titles from now on. Thanks.

 

[fastco]

DId the system come with SATA drives or did you add them? If so you need to load RAID/SATA drivers for those drives from a floppy or cd. Or if you did a fresh install if Windows you need to press F6 when prompted to load RAID drivers.
To load Windows XP onto a SATA drive you need to proceed as follows:

1/ Copy the SATA drivers (these can usually be found on your pc or motherboards support disk. Usually these consist of PIDE/SATA Folders and TXTsetup.oem files. Alternatively they may have been supplied on a separate CD that accompanied your SATA drive, assuming you purchased it separately from the pc.)

2/ Insert the Windows XP CD (full retail version – you should not need to follow these instructions if your pc came with a recovery disk) into the CD-ROM and Reboot your PC

3/ Watch carefully as the Windows XP installation progresses and look carefully at the text at the bottom of each screen.

4/ At the Windows Setup Screen (this should be the second screen after installation starts) you should see, at the bottom of the screen) a message saying “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver.”

5/ At this point press the F6 button

6/ When the next screen appears press S to specify an additional device

7/ Now insert the floppy disk containing the SATA drivers into your floppy drive

8/ Windows will next ask you to select a driver from the provided list

9/ Select VIA Serial (or whichever controller your motherboard supports) ATA RAID Controller (Windows XP)

10/ The SATA drivers on your floppy disk should now load

11/ After the drivers have loaded Windows XP will recognise your SATA hard drive and you can continue installing the Windows XP operating system

 

[brian.sykes]

I dont want to install windows onto my SATA drives i just want them as extra storage and i never got any sata/raid drivers with my mobo or the drives. I have no clue where i'm supposed to get these friggin drivers from.

Edit:

Ok i looked on my mobo CD and found VIARAID drivers and they are for a windows setup not a dos setup.

 

[fastco]

Google for Samsung or Generic RIAD/SATA drivers or call the company that sold you the drives. I'll search also and if I find anything I'll post it.

 

[brian.sykes]

I've been looking for drivers for it for the entire night i have yet to sleep.

 

[Rik]

If the drives are brand new then they are probably not formatted. If you right click on your "my computer" select "manage" then "disk management" you should be able to format them from there.

Let me know if you have any problems with that and i will do my best to help further.

(Sorry it took a while, but i had a lot of techspot emails to sort out).

 

[brian.sykes]

I found VIA RAID drivers on my mobo cd but i need a floppy drive and i dont have one handy anything you can recommend?

 

[brian.sykes]

No i have been to the disk manager they dont show up at all i have nothing in there except my ide drives my sata doesnt work at all only in the bios do i see them.

Edit: Sorry about the double post.

 

[fastco]

Go to the Add New Hardware Wizard in the control panel and add Hard Disk or Hard Disk controller and when it asks for the drivers point it to that VIA folder on the cd, or just copy the drivers to a folder on your hard drive and point it there.

 

[W35T0N]

i have had a very simillar problem and found that the new SATA drive was SATAII and was not backward compatible. i would personnaly double check this first

 

[brian.sykes]

Fastco, Thank you very much it worked and i can see them in the disk manager now and i'll partition and format them, again thak you very much.

 

[fastco]

No problem glad it worked!!