BIOS/CMOS Settings for 2 SATA HDs

Greetings Awesome Geeks,

I am "repurposing" (combining) some discarded PC equipment to replace my 83 year old mother's iBook G3 which has finally become a paper weight/brick.

I was given a case with some wires pulled and missing only a hard drive. I took two HDs from my partners old ‘puter and put them into the case. I was shocked to see that our old version of XP Pro was attempting to start...key word is attempting. The HDs made noise for a while and I stared at splash screens, and finally (20-30 minutes later?) some desktop icons...I also tricked the machine into recognizing one of the DVD Drives. (Currently only one is attached by that long wide ribbon-like connector which I believe is in upside down...later I’ll discover if the two connectors can attach to the two DVD drives with the other end going into the MoBo).

Ultimately, I want to find out what’s inside this box and make sure that everything is health before I wipe the discs clean and get a copy of Win7 and install it. No sense start mom off with XP which is (sadly) headed to the graveyard. (I do like my Win7 x64)

I’m now in the throes of learning the difference between IDE and SATA drives. The brief/sketchy MoBo installation instructions I finally found (I wish I had the full owner’s manual) mentioned “be sure to set the Master/Slave toggles if you are using two dives”. So yesterday was spent looking for something that doesn’t exist. This morning I finally confirmed that these are SATA drives; the SATA connections are a dead giveaway (Doh!). Now I understand also that there are no M/S toggles, and that the drives are addressed by their (what’s it called? position?) Position 0, Position 1, Position 2...

OK. Now I am thinking that my BIOS needs attention and that where YOU come in. How shall I set all these options? What am I forgetting to ask? How can I get the MoBo to understand that there are two SATAs there?

Possibly important. These two drives were previously used in a RAID 1 configuration. I see on a CMOS screen that “IDE Channel 1 and 3 Masters” are BOTH named? “ST380013AS.” I suppose that’s not relevant since that’s just the model numbers of the twin drives.

I also suppose these are not IDE drives. This is where I am stuck. Here is a link to relevant images I have put into my Smugmug picture gallery.

I invite (am begging for) your expertise and guidance.

TIA

~drcarl


Moms Computer Details

Motherboard: gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (rev 3.3)(new battery)
Two Hard Drives : Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80 GB, Model ST380013AS (no jumpers)
RAM: 4 GB - Kingston 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2-667MHz non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 240-Pin DIMM Memory
Bay 1: LG DVD ROM
Bay 2: LG DVD Multi-Recorder, Super-Multi, RW, Light Scribe, CD Rewritable
Bay 3: open
Bay 4 open:
Bay 5: floppy drive! (remember those?)
Bay 6: card readers
Monitor is a Samsung T220HD – DVI connection
Need to acquire mouse and keyboard (using spares for now)

 

No help from me, since it has been ages since I've worked on old tech. The correct term is not IDE (well, it use to be, until SATA came around), it is now PATA for Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment. Vice SATA (Serial).

 

Well, thanks for stopping by. Sure are a lot if "IDE" settings in the CMOS. Like, "IDE HDD Auto-Detection" and "IDE Channel 1 Master" - they are there in the pics I took.

I found a User Manual...I wish I knew which of these to pick:

--------------------
SATA AHCI Mode
Disabled Set the SATA ports (controlled by ICH8) to IDE mode. (Default value)
AHCI Set the SATA ports (controlled by ICH8) to AHCI mode.

SATA Port0-3 Native Mode
Disabled Set SATA Port0~3 to operate at Legacy IDE mode. (Default value)
Enabled Set SATA Port0~3 to operate at Native IDE mode.
----------------------​

I connected the two drives into "0" and "1" (two of the 4 connections) in these SATAII0 and 1 spots on the MoBo...(below is the description from the User Manual)

----------------------
SATAII0/1/2/3 (SATA 3Gb/s Connector, Controlled by Intel ICH8)
SATA 3Gb/s can provide up to 300MB/s transfer rate. Please refer to the BIOS setting for the Serial
ATA and install the proper driver in order to work properly.
----------------------​

There are two other spots I suppose I could use if I knew why. I believe they are called GSATA? There are two available. The ones mentioned above are controlled by ICH8 (whatever that is), and those below are controlled by Gigabyte - again, from the manual:

----------------------
GSATAII0/1 (SATA 3Gb/s Connector, Controlled by GIGABYTE SATA2)
SATA 3Gb/s can provide up to 300MB/s transfer rate. Please refer to the BIOS setting for the Serial
ATA and install the proper driver in order to work properly.
----------------------
​

I just want my CMOS to be set right so I can move ahead...

 

If memory serves me, you don't need to set SATA jumpers at all, since they are just one sata cable per HDD. IDE (PATA), either set to CS (cable select) or master/slave. Make sure the master is on the far cable, and the slave on the middle connector. Sadly, my memories of the 90s of working on these things is slim.

 

Indeed. That's what my research is showing. Per one video I saw, there actually ARE sometimes jumpers on SATA drives which hobble their performance to half speed if necessary. I checked mine. I have no jumpers. So, jumpers are no longer an issue at all. CMOS settings are.

I wish I knew which of >these settings< to pick

...and the other relevant choices, too

 

Choose IDE, easiest. If vista or 7 (probably mainly windows 7), choose ahci. If you chose, or the drive is already at that stage, then you will need a driver for xp.

Btw, I upgraded my computer from what you have to this. That i7 920 was a beast.

 

I don't want easiest, I want best. Am formatting the drives now. Will attempt to install XP for one reason only: to explore the system and to determine its health. Then, I'll re-wipe the drives and install Win7 if the system is up to it. The MoBo will run Win7, I have no clue what CPU is installed.

I ran across this note:

[...some OS, like] Windows 7, do not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver upon boot if the SATA-drive controller was not in AHCI mode at the time of installation Intel recommends changing the drive controller to AHCI or RAID before installing an operating system​

I still hope and dream that I can get the CMOS configured correctly

Standing by....



(per my original post, this is about a thrown-together system for my mom, not my system that may be noted in my signature below)

 

UPDATE:

Skip it.

Thanks anyway

 

okay.

 

Took me three days to discover this on my own...the computers were headed for the landfill until I tried this (and it worked)

I changed disc setting in BIOS to “manual” and ticked “LBA”​

...

 

Posted to wrong thread. Please delete.