Im finally putting the pieces together. This is my first experience with SATA. It will be my primary drive. Do I still have to do the F6 thing when installing XP Pro? The motherboard is an ASUS K8N and the hard drive is WD SE. Neither came with a floppy. Thanks

yes, there should be two versions of the SATA drivers, RAID and non RAID, found on the motherboard CD somewhere. Pick the appropriate one and put on a blank floppy (somewhere around 4-10 files, same as the ones for installing within windows). Maybe they've combined them into a single set by now, dunno.

Try this LINK
it's from k8n at asus , there is a beta ver there too. This should have all you need to install sata as primary drive.
Just f6 at start of windows install and feed the floppy with drivers to it.
G'Luck

Got it. Thanks. I should have waited until tomorrow when Im rested and my head is clear. XP is installing fight now.

NP

Your gonna like sata as primary.
Will you have an ide drive too?
If so...My pagefile on the sata is set 2mb min/50mb max
and 1 1/2 times {1.5g=2302mb} my ram on my D:\.
Then I use Diskeeper executive to optimize the pagfile...free trial DL
I've never had a more stable system....
G'Luck and get some rest

I spoke too soon. The SATA drive keeps disappearing. Sometimes the computer boots right up and others I get a message saying "reboot and select proper boot device". I go into the BIOS and the drive isnt there. Then I reboot and there it is as the 3rd master and the the computer boots right up. Faulty drive?? or am I missing something? This is my first experience with SATA and I dont like it. There was a place on the drive that looks like jumpers go there. Do they? I upgraded to the latest BIOS and it still happens.

I'm with this very same problem, anyone nows how to solve it?

download a disk diagnostic utility from the manufacturer's website and run it on the HDD. That will tell you if its faulty or not.

Did you get this sorted out?

hehe..

Anyways.. matters at hand.. Possible outcomes would be:
-faulty HDD/machanics/firmware/etc -> use a HDD diagnostic app.
-dodgy data cable -> replace cable and try
-power -> unplug some devices from the PSU/check power cable attatched properly
-Bios problem/controller problem..

FYI, sata hdds don't need the use of jumpers (as far as i know) since its autodetect and everything...