Problems with installing 64 bit Vista to SATA hard drive

I just wanted to see if anyone knows of a cure for this headache. I have tried installing Windows Vista 64 Bit on my computer and major headache it is too because It won't recognise SATA drivers when you try to install them using the F6 function on setup.

SATA Drivers work fine if you install Windows XP 64 or 32 Bit OS just not Vista.

Anyone had problems installing this version and any work arounds.

Microsoft Strikes Again

 

Personally I have just installed Vista Home Premium 64bit edition
on my brand spanking new SATA II 300 HDD.

Didnt have any issues with it atall.

Is your HDD completely clean?

Have you had another version of vista (32bit perhaps) on it?

You NEED to install 64bit complete cannot upgrade it.
hope this helps

 

No that's going over XP 32 bit from POST would be nice to get it going but otherwise I'll stick with XP 64 for now, never had that many problems with it. Was really interested as a gamer to see how direct x 10 differs from 9 but other tthan that I'll wait until I absolutely have to change over to Vista.

 

I'm not a gamer (3d graphics and 3d modelling)
but I have been running vista home premium now for a good 6mths
find it fantastic with all apps.
I have Q6600 core 2quad running stock (so far)
and 4gb OCZ Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC SeriesDDR2 PC6400 ram
graphics card is Nvidia GF8500gt 512mb (not the high end but ok for me)
not found any probs with it so far and direct x10 works well for me
(not that i'm pushing any frame rates or anything )lol
Hpe that helps.

 

Nice setup that didn't get components from Overclockers?

 

what motherboard do you have? it may be specific problem with that board and vista. I run 965 chipset and didnt need any sata drivers for vista x64. oh and games do work well on vista (and look really good too )I have Crysis, ut3,turning point fall of liberty, beowulf , americas army ,cnc generals zero hour(yes I know its an oldie) cnc3 ,bioshock and timeshift loaded . All play great

 

Asus K8U-X and you know what...I even downloaded Maxtors own HDD software to see if there were any SATA drivers on there and even that didn't recognise the HDD. I think it is a MOBO issue but the trouble is there are no updates for Uli SATA drivers so I'm stuck. Given up trying now from sheer frustration.

 

You want to try that with World In Conflict then it has 64 bit support so should look amazing. It does even on 32 bit which I am now back on. Would go back up to 64 bit XP but then I can't use my midi keyboard (no drivers...thanks Creative). Oh The joys of computing.

 

I took a look at the Asus website just now. It does not appear that there are any Vista 64 bit SATA controller drivers for the SATA controllers on that mobo. But I guess you've figured that out for yourself.

Your mobo is a "socket 754" model, with an AGP graphics slot and, according to the manual I downloaded for it from the Asus website, will only accept a maximum of 2 GB of PC 3200 RAM.

Given those specs and the fact that this mobo design is rather old now, I'm surprised you can run even 32 bit Vista satisfactorily on it.

The older a piece of hardware the less likely it is that the manufacturer is going to spend the time and resources to develop any Vista drivers at all. And the drivers are the responsibility of each individual hardware manufacturer. Microsoft can't develop all the drivers for all the hardware devices embedded in each make and model of mobo -- the Northbridge, the Southbridge, IDE and SATA hd controllers, often built-in sound cards and, sometimes, built-in graphics also and lots of other mobo hardware that varies from one model to another, even within one brand of mobo.

MS provides the necessary info about a given OS, such as 32 bit XP Home or 64 bit Vista Ultimate, and what that OS'es driver support specs and requirements are, and then it's up to each individual hardware manufacturer to decide how much of their old hardware they're going to bother to write new drivers for.

As I said, I'm surprised that you can even run 32 bit Vista satisfactorily given the specs of your older "socket 754" mobo. I'm guessing that ULi (the company that made the SATA controllers on your mobo) decided they'd prepare and release 32 bit drivers for Vista, but thought that the likely smaller user demand for Vista 64 bit drivers couldn't justify the expense of 64 bit Vista driver development for the hard drive controllers on this older mobo.

It's great that you were able to get 32 bit Vista going satisfactorily and I don't mean to sound as if I'm knocking your mobo. You're obviously quite happy with it, though disappointed you couldn't try out 64 bit Vista. My guess is that there won't be any 64 bit drivers forthcoming for the ULi SATA controllers on this mobo, given it's rather old hardware whose specs are rather modest compared to newer model mobos. Even the SATA controllers are only SATA (I) compatible and, according to what I saw in the manual, don't support the faster SATA II speeds.

I believe what ibbonkers meant to say, when he wrote above that he "didnt need any sata drivers for vista x64" was that 64 bit Vista apparently includes the needed 64 bit drivers for the particular brand and model of SATA controllers that happen to be on his mobo. I haven't installed Vista on any computer yet, but I imagine it begins, as the XP install does, by loading some dozens of hardware drivers that enable the install to access at least the basic mobo functions and hardware, such as hard drive and CD/DVD drive controllers, so that the installation can complete.

But if the manufacturer for a given type of hardware (e.g. older SATA drive controllers) hasn't released compatible drivers for that hardware and a particular version of a given OS, then, of course, MS can't include such drivers on the install disk's library of drivers it loads up in the beginning of the OS installation. And if those missing drivers are for the hard drive controller that the user has connected his new hard drive to, then the installation gets short circuited right there.

Of course, given that the Win XP OS was released before SATA hard drives and controllers came along, the XP install disks, at least the earlier versions, don't include any SATA drivers at all and so you have to add them by pressing <F6> and inserting a properly prepared floppy disk when Windows says to do so. I imagine Vista has some similar provision for allowing the loading of additional drivers for hardware that must be accessed during the installation of Vista.

But if the floppy (or CD or USB flash drive, etc) you insert when prompted doesn't have, for example, compatible drivers for 64 bit Vista, the installation will recognize that and consequently won't accept and copy them because they won't work. There's nothing to be done because the OS installer program can't write to the hard drive if the installer doesn't have compatible drivers for the controller that hard drive is plugged into. Those drivers contain the necessary instructions that allow software and other hardware to "talk" to the hard drive via the hard drive controller, so if they're not present the device can't be used.

If you have an IDE hard drive available, you could check the IDE controllers on your mobo and see if, perhaps, there are Vista 64 bit drivers available for those. If there are, you might want to try installing 64 bit Vista to your IDE hard drive if you're really interested in trying out that version of Vista on your system.

 

Mmmm didn't realise my MOBO was old makes me laugh when I purchased this les than a year ago. But then the processor itself is pretty redundant next to the new quad cores on the block so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised.

It would have been nice to run Vista 64 but actually thinking about it got years left on XP so I'll continue using it until Bill pulls the plug lol

 

Well, what I meant, of course, was not that your particular mobo was old, rather that it's made using old technology. I checked just now and found that the "socket 754" design first came on the market in 2003. Nevertheless, even today you can still buy mobos that take a socket 754 cpu. And while socket 754 cpu's are getting a little harder to find, they are still available also -- at least some online retailers, such as Tiger Direct, still list them for sale.

But the 754 design doesn't allow for dual channel RAM performance, won't support more than 2 GB's of RAM, and is often coupled with an AGP or PCI graphics slot, which makes for a graphics bottleneck compared to the PCI-E(xpress) graphics slot found on newer mobos.

On the other hand, socket 754 mobos and cpu's sell for a fraction of what a user has to pay for current mobo and cpu technology. Ditto, most graphics cards for AGP or PCI slots compared to the newer PCI-E(xpress) cards.

And for things like word processing, email, and general web surfing, as well as most games (because most games, after all, are older games) a socket 754 computer will perform fine.

So again, I'm not at all knocking your setup. I have a different model socket 754 Asus mobo, with an AGP graphics card and 1 GB of RAM, which I built in the fall of 2003 and it's still humming along. I'm beginning to have some problems with spontaneous rebooting however. It may be time for me to try a reinstall of WinXP to see if that will fix the problem. (I'm quite content with XP also, by the way, and have no desire to upgrade to Vista yet nor to build a Vista OS computer.) If it does, I expect to keep that machine running as my "backup" (for use in case of problems with my much newer socket AM2 mobo and cpu) for at least a few more months before I cannabalize some parts and upgrade with a newer, faster mobo, cpu, hard drive and RAM.

 

I never thought for one moment that you were knocking my MOBO it's quite happy running Crysis which is one of the newer games out there. bit nasty with Gears Of War but then I kind of expected that.

One day I'll go to quad core but not just yet.