Re: Enable Sata Drive on Asus A7V8X-LA (KELUT) motherboard.

Finally got a copy (PDF) of the A7V8X manual. and it did not take to much
reading to find out that there are several things "optional" and the SATA
is one of them. Since there is no reference in the BIOS to the SATA, this
option obviously is not on my computer.

I have ordered a PCI 2 port from Tiger Direct. And 2 enclosure cases.
(external). So I will put my internal drives in the enclosures and hook them
to the pci ports.

Thank you Anna and Maddog for the help.

Grandpa Ed

"Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Grandpa Ed" <not@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Grandpa Ed" <not@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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There are connectors on the Motherboard for 2 SATA drives. I connected,
booted, sighed, cried, moaned, and groaned as I looked in the bios for
some indication that there was some way to turn on or enable the sata
drives. I right clicked and looked at the hardware area of the
information and it is not there either. When you right click and ask
the system to "manage" nothing shows up as far as any thing SATA.
Maxtor and it's max blast did not work at all, as far as formatting or
identifying the drive.

If the connectors are there, why can I not make the drives work?

Grandpa Ed


Grandpa Ed:
I assume that your machine has been working with one or more PATA HDDs
connected, i.e., you had not previously installed one or more SATA HDDs.
In other words, these are the first SATA HDDs you've installed (or are
trying to install) in your PC. Is all that right?
======
That is correct. The computer is a 2 year old compaq 1300nx and has been
doing just fine.
Best Buy had a sale and the extra speed seemed like an effort worth the
time.
======

Unfortunately, in too many cases installing a SATA HDD it's not always
the cut & dried proposition we've been used to when installing PATA HDDs
where all that is necessary is a simple connection of the PATA HDD to an
IDE connector. With SATA HDDs there can be a driver issue involved and
before the XP OS can recognize the SATA HDD a SATA controller driver
must be installed.
========
I have not been able to root out a SATA driver for the board yet. I have
the 6 disc
set of compaq recovery discs and I will try and see If I can locate a
driver amoung
them. I had begun to suspect something like you are referring to was what
was happening to me.
===========
In many cases where a SATA HDD is being installed in a non-RAID
configuration, no separate SATA controller driver need be installed by
the user since the driver will be integrated in the motherboard's
chipset-controller component. It all depends upon the particular
motherboard.

Since you indicate you're installing two SATA HDDs, I don't know if that
means you intend to set up a RAID configuration. If that's the case then
it will be necessary to install the RAID driver (presumably available
through your motherboard's installation CD).
=======
No, one drive (so far), there are two connectors on the motherboard, and
that
is what the 2 refers to. I don't know what you mean by setting up an RAID
configuration.
All I hoped was to put in the new drive (sata) and take advantage of the
size
(200 gb) and speed.
=======

Hopefully, you have your motherboard's User Guide available as well as
the motherboard's installation CD that will presumably include the SATA
driver should it be necessary in your case. Read the Guide carefully as
it applies to the installation of SATA drives. Particularly so if you
intend setting up a RAID configuration.
========
I have downloaded some manuals from HP(compaq) but have yet to find how
to
load any drivers.
===========

One thing more...

My advice is not to use any third-party partitioning-formatting program
available from the manufacturer of the HDD (such as the MaxBlast
program). The XP OS is entirely capable to effectively undertake this
process whether you're installing the OS onto the HDD or using the HDD
as a secondary drive.
=========
yes, I have used the XP OS features to format and set up a 200 GB eide
drive
that I was going to use as my new system disc instead of the 60 gb that
came
with the computer. That project got pushed back while I was trying to
make this
sata drive work.
============
Anna
=========
Thank you for the help and I will do some reading and studying before I
go any
further.
Ed
========


Ed:
A few things more...

I hadn't realized you were working with a Compaq (OEM) machine, although I
should have noted that from the motherboard's designation you indicated
(the "KELUT" following the motherboard's model name). So that means you
probably don't have the ASUS User Guide in your possession.

It probably would be worthwhile to download the manual from the ASUS site.
Try http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
and in the left-hand Download column enter A7V8X as the model to be
searched and select Manual from the Category drop-down box. You may have
to "putter about" for awhile. The ASUS site can be hard to navigate at
times.

(While the OEM-supplied motherboard can be different from the "retail"
model, the differences are usually inconsequential in most cases).

Since you mentioned "2 SATA drives" in your original post, I mistakenly
thought you intended to install two SATA HDDs. But I see now you were
actually referring to the two SATA connectors on the motherboard. So I
assume you'll be using only one SATA HDD (at least initially) as a
secondary drive for storage/backup purposes. So forget about the RAID
business.

It's likely that *if this is* a SATA controller driver issue (and please
understand this is only a possibility - there may be some other issue
involved that's preventing the system from recognizing the drive), the
Compaq setup disks you refer to will contain the necessary driver.
Hopefully Compaq's documentation will reveal this. You could, of course,
try HP/Compaq's tech support but in all candor I wouldn't be sanguine
about getting any definitive information from that source. Still, it's
probably worth a try.

Also, I believe your motherboard supports the older SATA data interface of
1.5Gb/sec and not the newer SATA-II data interface of 3.0Gb/sec. I assume
the SATA HDD you purchased is a SATA-II model. While the SATA-II is
"backwards compatible" with the older data interface, it sometimes is
necessary to set the jumper on the drive (assuming it contains this
jumper) for 1.5 Gb/sec operation in order for the system to recognize the
drive. So check that out.
Anna



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