SATA hard drive complications!

[Swick]

I will start off by saying that I am not good with computer hardware, but I know my way around a tiny bit, at least well enough to follow simple instructions. With that being said, I will provide you with as much info as I can about my problem.

My friend works at a bookstore/pawn shop, and a customer brought in a computer he wanted to get rid of (Cicero with an AMD Athlon 64 Processor). My friend gave me this computer to me because I'm looking for a computer that doesn't suck nearly as bad as my laptop! (Keys are missing, adapter is screwy, etc.) So he brought the tower over to my house, and he had to leave on some other business. So I hooked everything up and it powered up just fine.

I immediately attempted to do a clean install of Windows XP on the computer, and then it would go on to say that it didn't detect a hard-drive, when there is clearly a SATA drive in there (I opened the side of the computer). Now I have no idea what's wrong with the drive but I know that's the problem. I ensured that all the cords were hooked up and nothing was loose.

I then attempted to boot the "BBS-0(RAID):ST3250823AS" (Clearly the hard drive) from one of the menus. It then showed an Ubuntu logo with a frozen loading bar. I knew then everything was frozen. So whoever owned the computer last had attempted to install Linux onto it, and it just doesn't work. I attempted to format the hard drive using a Windows Vista boot disc but it wouldn't let me.

The HD is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200G Serial ATA

This is how it looks in the Standard CMOS Features (with everything set on auto):

Primary IDE Master: Not installed
Primary IDE Slave: Not Installed
Secondary IDE Master: SONY DVD RW DW
Secondary IDE Slave: Not Installed

Current boot sequence:

1. CD/DVD-0:SONY DVD RW DW-D22A
2. BBS-0(RAID): ST3200826AS
3. BBS-1 (Network): Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 082
Try other boot devices: Yes

I can also see that there are no floppy drives installed onto this computer.

My main objective here is to format the hard drive that's in there, and do a clean install of Windows XP so I can begin using it, but I have no idea what the last owner did to the drive!

Any help would be appreciated! Sorry if I'm being unclear about everything, I'm a huge noob and I don't want to spend any amount of cash on it being repaired just yet.

 

[Benny26]

Hi Swick,
maybe the guy wanted to get rid of his computer because the hard drive didn't work?...
Problems could either be: 1: Hard drive is dead and broken. 2: There's a dodgy lead (Sata leads can be fragile sometimes) 3: There could be a setting in cmos itself preventing it from picking the hard drive up (for example: primary hdd set to manual detect rather than auto detect).

Maybe also; There could be dodgy ports on the motherboard where the sata plugs connect (but this would be hard to verify, unless you had another sure working HDD with a working lead)

 

[mailpup]

Windows does not recognize the SATA drive because of the lack of SATA drivers. Change the SATA controller mode to IDE if the BIOS has that option. If not, you will have to install SATA/RAID controller drivers at the F6 prompt at the beginning of Windows Setup. But since the F6 procedure requires a floppy drive, you will not be able to get past this unless you install one or possibly use a USB external floppy if the BIOS supports an external floppy drive. If you don't have a floppy drive, then you'll have to make a slipstream CD that combines the Windows XP CD with the necessary SATA/RAID controller drivers.

Google for the procedure to make a slipstream CD. There are several guides available.

 

[Swick]

Actually, what I did was I deleted the Primary partition and made a new one to replace the old one. It was converted into a NTFS during that process so I was able to install Windows Vista to it. Windows Vista doesn't require floppy disks and what not so I figured I'd use that instead.

I'm replying to this thread on the computer I was having troubles with earlier! Thanks for the input.

 

[mailpup]

Very well, good. Were you able to find Vista compatible motherboard chipset drivers?