rec.autos.simulators

Calling all  you tech heads...

I've just built a new pc, but cannot get windoze xp home to install. It
tries to install from the cd, but after loading all its drivers, it
keeps telling me that there is no hard disk and it cannot continue?

The system is as follows:

AMD Athlon 2500 (barton) cpu
Asus A7N8X Deluxe with NForce2 & Serial ATA support (SATA)
512mb PC2700 DDR memory
Maxtor Diamond max plus9 120Gb SATA 150 hard disk.
ATI Redeon 9600 AGP 128Mb vid card
Pioneer x16 DVD/cd player
Samsung FDD

I connected the hard disk to the m/b via the SATA leads that came with
the m/b, and I connected the DVD/cd player to the primary IDE socket on
the m/b via the normal wide IDE ribbon.

I presume this is correct?

The pc's start up screen says the hard disk and the DVD/cd player are
working and are recognised ok.

The bios states (in main screen) that the primary master is the DVD
player, and there is no primary slave or secondary master or slave.
But I assume this only refers to the IDE drives, and not the SATA drives.

I tried changing this over, and put the DVD drive on the Secondary
master, just in case the SATA takes the place of primary channel. But
this didn't work either, windoze loaded drivers, then reported no hard
disk again.

The bios also tells me that the FDD is the first boot up device, then
the CDRom, then the HDD.

I can't find anything about the SATA drives in the bios, but the m/b has
SATA enabled via jumpers, and when I boot up, the drive is mentioned in
the blurb as the pc boots.

It says the SATA raid controller is found and the primary channel
(presumably the SATA channel) has the Maxtor drive on it. I also get the
option as the pc boots to press F4 to go to the RAID config screen.
When I press F4 and go to this screen, the Maxtor drive is there and is
being recognised ok, and reports the correct size, etc.

The SATA drive is an OEM drive so has no manual or CD with it. The m/b
is retail, but the manual is not much help other than telling you how to
enable SATA.

Does win xp have a problem with SATA drives?
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong here? or how to fix it?

BTW, I only have a win98 set up disk which allows me to fdisk the disk,
I assume thats ok too?

Ta....(also posted elsewhere, sorry!)

*Peter*

Unzip this file   http://12.24.47.40/utility/getfile.asp?rid=1469   onto a
floppy and insert it after you are asked to hit F6 during Win XP
installation. You will be then be asked to hit s,  then it will copy the
Sata drivers from the floppy. The drivers should be on your A7N8X CD as well
but they may be version 1.0.22 or something like that. It should work out
for you, I had the same problem when setting up my A7N8X and a Seagate Sata
HD, nowhere mentioned how to set up a Sata drive.
Sid.

That is because Windows XP does not have the drivers for your SATA
controller included.

You need to obtain the drivers for your controller, create a floppy with the
drivers, and when you are installing Windows XP it will ask you to press F6
if you need to install additional drivers.

Do so.

Insert the floppy, and follow the instructions.

Do NOT remove the floppy until the character mode of install is done and it
tells you it is time to reboot.

If you created the floppy correctly, this will take care of it.

Your Motherboard/controller card documentation should have instructions for
this.

-Larry