SATA Drive HELL when you dont know what you're DOING

[mrz28guy]

This is my 1st computer build and I'm having a bit of trouble with my WD1200JD SATA drive. The MB is an ASUS A8V-E Deluxe. At first I assumed it was just my very limited knowledge of this, but the more I read on forums, the more frustrated I become.

Isn't there supposed to be a SATA driver disk that comes with the MB (because there isn't one in my box)? I go to WD's support page to download the drivers, and the only ones available work in hand with their SATA controller cards. So then I downloaded the Data Lifeguard Tools 11 for DOS, since WD says thats whats necessary to set up EIDE drives, and when I create a bootable diskette the system pops up with "CANNOT LOAD DOS! PRESS ANY KEY TO TRY AGAIN". At this point I'm dead in the water.

Any help would be much much appreciated.....

 

[sundewzer]

There is not Driver disk. You have to make the driver disk from the CD. I can't exactly remember where on the CD it is but there is a file "makedisk.exe". There is one for VIA and one for Promise. If you only have your SATA hooked up to the SATA_1(top black SATA connector on the MB, not one of the red ones) then you will only need VIA I believe.

 

[mrz28guy]

Thanks for your response. You're speaking of the CD that came with the motherboard? The SATA_1 and SATA_2 connectors are at the bottom of the board to the left of the floppy and IDE connectors. I have the SATA data on the drive connected to SATA_1 with one of the red cables. Is there another SATA connector on the board?

 

[tdeg]

This is my 1st computer build and I'm having a bit of trouble with my WD1200JD SATA drive. ...

... I downloaded the Data Lifeguard Tools 11 for DOS, since WD says thats whats necessary to set up EIDE drives, and when I create a bootable diskette the system pops up with "CANNOT LOAD DOS! PRESS ANY KEY TO TRY AGAIN". At this point I'm dead in the water.

Any help would be much much appreciated.....

Your trying to use an EIDE tool for a SATA drive. You need the SATA drivers for when you load Windows.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...Fuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX2ZubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=#

And you get them from ASUS.

http://support.asus.com/download/download_item.aspx?product=1&model=A8V-E Deluxe&SLanguage=en-us

The manual is there and the information regarding setting up your harddrive is on page 5-18.

You will need to set up an array in the raid.

 

[sundewzer]

Thanks for your response. You're speaking of the CD that came with the motherboard? The SATA_1 and SATA_2 connectors are at the bottom of the board to the left of the floppy and IDE connectors. I have the SATA data on the drive connected to SATA_1 with one of the red cables. Is there another SATA connector on the board?

Yes I am speaking of the CD that comes with the motherboard.

Sorry I was looking at the wrong motherboard befor (I didn't notice the -E). There is only two SATA connectors on the board. Hope everything works out.