SATA Drvie Issue

moring!

er, i could have sworn i had an account here before? anyway yeah, Since IDE was replaced i have been missing from building computers.

now we have SATA connections

i have two SATA drives connected to board

having problems if the system crashes

during the reboot, the BOIS press F1 or F2 options appear.

when the system reboots, the second SATA drive is unrecognisable

this is on an xp sp2 system.

is it this version of windows that is causing the problem?

 

can you please provide more information?

What is the make/model of the PC or motherboard?

What are the makes/models of the hard drives?

Where is the OS partition located?

Which ports on the board are the hard drives plugged into?

What mode are the ports running in? AHCI/IDE

 

cheers for the reply mate

OK

The motherboard is an ASUS M3A78 Pro

C Drive - Seagate SATA Barracuda LP 1 TB

D Drive - Samsung SATA HD154UI 1.5 TB

Windows XP Pro, service pack two, is installed on C - D is the second drive

Both Drives are connected using the same cable in the SATA slot on the motherboard. The power comes straight from the power box

IDE mode

 

Are you sure that the drives are connected via the same cable? This should be impossible as only one device can be connected per SATA cable, hence the name Serial ATA.

 

yeah sorry aboot that mate, i just reread my post. the drives share the same power connection from the power box. the orange SATA cables are connected to SLOT 1 and SLOT 2 on the mother board

 

Try connecting the "D" (non-boot) drive to another SATA port on the board (if all are full just swap the SATA board connections between the "D" hard drive and your DVD drive).

Even though SATA uses a single connection cable, motherboards usually interpret the first two SATA ports as being on channel one as primary and secondary (ditto for the next set of ports). In rare cases this can cause conflicts. By swapping the "D" drive connection it may solve the issue (not exactly sure why; however this has worked for me in the past).

If the "D" drive still doesn't show up after doing this, recheck your connections, try a different SATA cable or (if all else fails), check the Samsung drive's health by connecting it to another PC (if available) and running a long disc test with a utility such as SeaTools.

Good luck on solving the problem.

 

cheers for the reply mate.

yeah, it has me baffled. i use external drives normally but, the data transfer isn't quick enough on USB 2 so i put an extra drive in the machine (Drive D)

all is fine with it until there is a system crash - i am thinking that these system crashes are due to the hard drive not being connected properly.

it doesn't seem as friendly as IDE.

i will have a look at your suggestions and report the findings

 

Although your first experience with SATA has not been good so far, the problem (although not your fault) is a relatively unusual one. Once it's solved you'll discover and appreciate SATA since...

* The data transfer rate is up to 20 times greater than IDE, resulting in faster boot times, program loading, copying, etc.

* No jumper pins (primary, secondary, cable select) to worry about.

* Easier internal connections - no bent pins, thinner cables that are less likely to block access to other parts of the motherboard.

 

thanks for the info. i was actually asking myself that very question lol! great skills on the mind reading there mate

EDIT: quick question if you have the time...

i am guessing that under normal circumstances, they work out of the box, right?

scenario:

P.C. with drive C

new SATA drive connected, drive D

boot-up, format, job done

i was thinking that there was some special bois identify drive options that i was missing or something.

 

In theory, the BIOS should find and recognize all internal SATA drives no matter if or how they are formatted. Based on this, adding the "D" drive should be a "plug and play" so far as the BIOS/startup is concerned (you will, however, have to go into Windows Disk Management once the board recognizes it to format it and assign a drive letter).

One other thought: I would go to the ASUS support site to see if a BIOS upgrade is avaiable for your board. If so, it may address the drive recognition issue (look at the BIOS update notes for details).

 

cheers. i didn't think they would try and make it more complicated than that. still, as it is my first time, i thought i was doing it wrong. i'm going to buy a replaced drive for the C drive, as i suspect it as fault now knowing that it is the same as IDE.

the operating system crashed at random and reset the BIOS in some way during the auto reboot. after the crash the second SATA drive D didn't show as being of recognised format, as the OS asked me if i would like to format the hard drive and loose the last x of data lol.

anyway yeah, it's the second time i have had problems with this model of Hard Drive. so not too sure which way to go in the shop. i'll have a browse around the threads to see if i can find some more info.

 

My tip on buying hard drives is to spend a bit more on a "RAID" or "Enterprise" grade hard drive such as Western Digital's "RE" series or Seagate's Constellation series.

A RAID/Enterprise grade drive is built to withstand extreme heat and use in a server enviornment where it's spinning 24/7. As a rule, the lifespan of these drives is longer and the failure rate is well below that of cheap, consumer-grade drives (as a side note, these drives can be used individually just like a cheaper drive - they do NOT require a "RAID" multi-disc setup for use).

The $50 or so extra for a better grade drive is a bargain when you consider the time and hassles associated with a drive crashing.

Good luck on solving the problem.

 

lol, yeah i guess you noticed that i have been connected to the site since i asked the question

cheers for the info on raid mate!

ok, so i just tried one of the SATA drives from an external case, plugged it into a random slot, rebooted and windows has found the drive and it appears to be working fine.

i have also changed the c drive to an old install of xp on another SATA drive

gonna sit tight for a week days and see what happens