SATA hard drive not recognized in Windows XP setup

bcase21 · 03-30-2007, 04:40 PM

Hey guys...

Just finished up a new pc with a MSI motherboard (K8M890 chipset) with a WD sata hard drive.

All of the hardware appears to be functioning properly, and the hard drive is present in BIOS. When trying to load Windows XP I receive an error - no hard drive found. This is immediately upon installation, I do not get the option to choose a drive,partition,etc...

I'm assuming that I need to load the drivers from the MSI cd, but its not bootable. So how can I do that without first loading an OS? I read similar topics on this board, but most ended with 'load the sata drivers.' Shouldn't my MSI disc be bootable? Or am I overlooking something?

I should mention that this is my first sata hd install, but power and sata cables are connected and as I mentioned the drive is present in BIOS.

Any other information needed please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help!

Ethereal_Dragon · 03-30-2007, 05:41 PM

If you aren't careful when connecting the SATA drive, you might overlook something.... I did that while rebuilding a friends computer... Some computers have SATA headers in different places. One set will be the main set, and another set is for RAID configurations. Check the product manual (mobo's) to make sure it is in the correct bank of headers. When I had the drive in the RAID socket, it wouldn't see the drive, if I put it in the other bank, it was fine. There are likely steps that can lead you to use the drive on the RAID header, but it is probably more hassle than it is worth.

Good luck with the rest of the build.

sPlAtOiD · 03-30-2007, 11:40 PM

Your CD should have a file with the raid sata drivers you need. My disk has a program to make a raid sata floppy disk. When you go to install your windows you need to hit F6 when it tells you too.
Right at the beginning of the install {you only have a few seconds to hit F6} put your raid sata disk in the floppy drive and install the raid/sata driver's.
I believe its two drivers. You may be able to load the drivers off of a CD too but not sure about that....

03-30-2007, 04:40 PM	#1 (permalink)
bcase21 Newb Techie Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1	SATA hard drive not recognized in Windows XP setup Hey guys... Just finished up a new pc with a MSI motherboard (K8M890 chipset) with a WD sata hard drive. All of the hardware appears to be functioning properly, and the hard drive is present in BIOS. When trying to load Windows XP I receive an error - no hard drive found. This is immediately upon installation, I do not get the option to choose a drive,partition,etc... I'm assuming that I need to load the drivers from the MSI cd, but its not bootable. So how can I do that without first loading an OS? I read similar topics on this board, but most ended with 'load the sata drivers.' Shouldn't my MSI disc be bootable? Or am I overlooking something? I should mention that this is my first sata hd install, but power and sata cables are connected and as I mentioned the drive is present in BIOS. Any other information needed please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help!

03-30-2007, 05:41 PM	#2 (permalink)
Ethereal_Dragon EagleMod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bolingbrook, IL - USA Posts: 3,390	Re: SATA hard drive not recognized in Windows XP setup If you aren't careful when connecting the SATA drive, you might overlook something.... I did that while rebuilding a friends computer... Some computers have SATA headers in different places. One set will be the main set, and another set is for RAID configurations. Check the product manual (mobo's) to make sure it is in the correct bank of headers. When I had the drive in the RAID socket, it wouldn't see the drive, if I put it in the other bank, it was fine. There are likely steps that can lead you to use the drive on the RAID header, but it is probably more hassle than it is worth. Good luck with the rest of the build. __________________ Please excuse spelling/grammar issues in my posts, 95% of my posting is now done from my iPhone. Still getting used to it. -Thanks. Gaming Rig: - GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6, Intel E6750 @ 3.0 Ghz, TRUE (MX-2 & 2 Scythe SFF21D), Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR 800, HIS Radeon X1950XT, CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX, 2x Seagate 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500 GB, ASUS DRW-2014L1T, Antec 900 The NAS Box: D-Link DNS-323 & 2x Seagate 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB - RAID 1 Current Project: Operation Home Run Status: COMPLETED!!! \| My Antec 900 Build Log \| Project Pink \| Operation Home Run \| \| General Forum Rules \| Networking FAQs & Tutorials \| Hardware Tutorials \| \| My Random Phone Cam Pics \| Useful Linux Websites \| T-F F@H Milestones Clubs \| \| Graphics Card Rankings \| T-F 3DMark06 Rankings \| T-F Case Gallery \|

03-30-2007, 11:40 PM	#3 (permalink)
sPlAtOiD Monster Techie Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 1,612	Re: SATA hard drive not recognized in Windows XP setup Your CD should have a file with the raid sata drivers you need. My disk has a program to make a raid sata floppy disk. When you go to install your windows you need to hit F6 when it tells you too. Right at the beginning of the install {you only have a few seconds to hit F6} put your raid sata disk in the floppy drive and install the raid/sata driver's. I believe its two drivers. You may be able to load the drivers off of a CD too but not sure about that.... __________________ MSI K8NEO4 Ultra PCI Express x16: BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768 Mb AMD DualCore AMD Opteron 185, 2600 MHz (13 x 200) Memory Corsair2046 MB (DDR SDRAM) Dual Channel 320 Western Digital IDE Drive Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller Windows XP Por SP2

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