Have two new Seagate Hard Drives, computer recognizes them, WIn XP does not, there for I need to install Sata Driver for them anyone know a link to download driver , hopefully for free?

Thanks

BR

What is the brand and model of computer, and more importantly, the size of the hard drives. Is your Windows XP Service Pack 0, 1, 2, or 3?
All that information makes a difference.
Or the brand and model number or part number of the motherboard.

MaMa Board ECS GF7100PVT-M3, newly installed. WIN XP Pro SP 2, was unaware there is a three , I do get all the updates MS sends out.

The computer is self made, ie generic CPU Intel Duo Processor E4500 LGA775

MEM: DDR2 2GIG PC5, SATA HD: Seagate ST3320820AS, 300GIG

According to my file, that board has SATA drivers. Suggest you go to their website and look for BIOS, Chipset, and other hardware drivers.

TY for your help

... Because Compaqs can't read SATA drives, but HPs can?
... Because XP has an artificial limit on drive capacity for SATA drives? No, it does not. You might be thinking IDE drives attached to IDE channels, which is affected by the "48-bit LBA addressing" bug. Additionally, this has been fixed since SP1, which fortunately covers most people.
... No, I'm afraid it doesn't, although more information is always welcome.
... Well, you never know, but I think we should be looking at SATA drivers first, yeah?

Returning to the problem of Drivers for SATA hard drives using WIN XP Pro OS

Surely there must be a generic drive one can easily add so that WinXP can see it.

See
sata drivers download sata drivers vista seagate sata drivers asus
dell sata drivers msi sata drivers hp sata drivers wd sata drivers

All the drivers you could ever need are available with a Google search for SATA drivers. See DriversCollection.com, DriverGuide.com, and so on, as well.

The first thing to do, is to go to Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc

This opens up the disk management utility where you can manipulate your partitions etc.. New drives typically don't come formatted, so you won't be able to see them in Windows until they are partitioned and formatted. If you see two drives that are 'unallocated', then right click on each one and create a partition and have XP quick format them.

If you had to create partitions, then your problem should be solved. If the drives did not show up in diskmgmt.msc, then you have an issue with your SATA driver, BIOS/controller configuration or physical installation.

Next, you should try drivers. Have you used the one from ECS yet? It's actually pretty recent. Here's a list of drivers for your board. According to their website, SATA and RAID are integrated into the board using an nVidia chipset. You can get the latest reference drivers ("generic") from www.nvidia.com

If THAT doesn't work, then I would check your BIOS configuration. You can get into your BIOS by tapping the DEL key during POST (the very first screen displayed when you turn the PC on). Make sure your SATA controller is enabled. There are some other options too that we can play with, but we'll save those for later until the other stuff here doesn't work.

And if the BIOS doesn't detect your drives, then you have a physical installation problem (Most likely). It sounds stupid, but check your cables and make you have both power and SATA cables connected to your drives. There really can't be much more than that though.

The mother board does recognize the 2 new hard drives but Windows does not .

I have twice installed the CD that came with my motherboard and, sadly, that changed nothing. (new board bought in Feb)

Have gone to Nividia and am downloading the latest upgrades but they appear to be for graphics (video drivers only)

So nothing shows up in diskmgmt.msc?

that is correct: Nothing shows up.

The nforce drivers are what you are looking for, not 'forceware'. Here is a link to what I believe is the correct driver for you:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_...sta_16.08.html

Start > Run > devmgmt.msc will bring up device manager. You should take a look here and see if you notice any warning icons. All of the sections should be collapsed. If you see anything that is expanded when you first open device manager, that usually indicates an error. If you don't see any errors, there really shouldn't be a driver issue. We'll have to check out other things.

Thank you, I have succeeded. Interestingly, despite having bought the board in Feb and installing the Nvidia S/W from the enclosed CD twice, that version did not have the SATA drivers. You would think they would realize many people still run Win XP.

I am gratfull for your aid and hope you, and yours, are all well,


Baruch