WD SATA issue (maybe). Just a heads up

[LiamC]

I have been trying to help a guy at work with a WD SATA HD issue--80GB JB.

Basically, Windows XP will not install on the drive. It (XP) tries to create a 8GB partition to install on, gets partway through and then cannot recognise the drive (Intel i815 mobo).

After suggestion running diagnostics, (comes up clean), different SATA drivers (via pressing F6 at install), swapping cables, ports etc. etc., the people who he bought the drive from talked to WD, it seems there may be an issue with selected firmware and SATA drives that cause this problem. At any rate, they are swapping the drive.

Not sure if it is a problem, but just a heads up to (maybe) save some time if you strike this.

 

[Tea]

Hi Bill!

Not sure if we are talking about the same thing here, but it sounds like it. Kristi ran into this one the other day. Guy ordered a machine for video editing work: DVD burner, DVD reader, 80GB boot drive, two 120GB data drives. Owing to complete stupidity on Tannin's part, and an uncharacteristic oversight on the part of Kristi, no-one noticed that we had five ATA devices in the spec. Except me, of course, but that was only when Tannin handed me the order form and said "build this".

(Maybe he said "please" too. I don't remember.)

So I started bolting drives into the box, only to start wondering how I was going to cable up five of them.

Tannin said "woops! I didn't think of that" and straightaway faxed off an order for an 80GB Samsung SATA drive, told me to go on with other duties and build the video editing unit when the SATA drive arrived the next day.

That turned out to be my morning off and Kristi built it, but ran into problems. Essentially, she couldn't get Windows 2000 (or maybe it was XP ... er ...yup, it was XP Pro) to see the drive at all. Tried about six different ways, none of them worked.

I rolled up around this time and I didn't understand it either but — amazingly — Tannin volunteered to come out of his cave and have a look at it himself. First thing he did was disconnect everything except the SATA drive and a CD drive to boot off. Then he booted off the XP CD, pressed F6 to load the drivers off floppy, and tried to format it.

XP couldn't even get close to doing it right!

As far as I can remember, LiamC, t was the exact same error you were getting. But — note this — this was a Biostar VIA KT-600 board with a Samsung drive, not a WD and an Intel chipset board.

End of story?

Nope. Next thing the old bugger reverts to a W98 boot floppy ("what's the point in that?" I wondered, "we need it running XP and we need it to be formatted NTFS") and fired up GDISK. From there it was easy.

a:\> GDISK /BATCH
GDISK> 1 /del /all
GDISK> 1 /cre /pri /for /q

Reboot off the XP CD and install as usual, chosing to convert to NTFS on the fly.

System now works perfectly.

Huh? He made it look so easy! Sometimez I hate the old baztard.

 

[LiamC]

Tea, as usual, you are a gem! I must be getting slow in my old age--if I'd had the box in front of me, I may have eventually thought of that.

 

[CityK]

Any guesses as to why a pre-exisitng FAT32 partition solves the problem?

 

[Tea]

My guess is that the XP/2000 FDISK is broken. Or possibly bad drivers, though this seems unlikely.

 

[Buck]

What sort of SATA controller card are you using LiamC?

 

[Mercutio]

That reminds me: Has anyone moved to completely to SATA hard disks for new builds yet? I don't mean your home PC, but the ones you're selling to other people.

It does not give me a warm fuzzy to sell a system that needs a driver to reload windows, nor special configuration to work with Ghost ( -fNI switch).

 

[Tea]

We never use SATA unless the customer insists on it. No point in it, just extra cost and hassle-value. The time for SATA as a standard fit will arrive, but not yet. Early next year, maybe. But then I was saying that this time last year.

 

[Buck]

No, I haven't moved completely to SATA, unless the build includes multiple drives, such as for photo-type work. If I'm configuring a single EIDE/ATA drive and a single optical drive, then parallel stills seems the best way to go - its easier during the build cycle and will provide less hassles down the road if (as you point out with the use of drivers) an os reinstall is required.

The nice thing about SATA is how well it complements the aforementioned system. Take that exact same system, and make the single PATA drive the boot/application device. Drop in a SATA card with RAID1 capabilities and you've just added some decent redundancy for data storage without compromising the capabilities of the devices already installed. I mean, who wants a bunch of ATA devices sharing channels and waiting for each other to finish their respective jobs? Who wants more then two parallel ATA ribbon cables clogging up their case? I don't.

 

[Fushigi]

I have yet to actually touch any SATA devices. But then my household boots SCSI and I don't build/sell systems beyond those in use by close relatives.

I wonder if XP SP2 will overcome the SATA driver issue. Any thoughts?

 

[Bozo]

The few SATA computers that I have put together have had SATA support on the motherboard. (Intel and ASUS; D865 & D875 chipsets) No special drivers were needed as everything was taken care in the BIOS.

A couple of computers were built with 3Ware SATA RAID cards. You needed to load drivers during the original install, just like a SCSI controller.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Buck]

I wonder if XP SP2 will overcome the SATA driver issue. Any thoughts?

I doubt it.

 

[blakerwry]

i think more of the problem is just cruddy drivers from manufacturers. the winNT installer has no problem with SCSI or ATA controllers that need a driver. S-ATA is no different, or atleast it shouldn't be.

 

[time]

Has anyone moved to completely to SATA hard disks for new builds yet?

Yes.

It does not give me a warm fuzzy to sell a system that needs a driver to reload windows, nor special configuration to work with Ghost ( -fNI switch).

I don't recall having this problem with Gigabyte nForce2 boards (SI controller) when I tried one with SATA, but my memory might be playing tricks ...

In any case, I haven't noticed any issues with DriveImage instead of Ghost on Gigabyte KT600 boards.

 

[Mercutio]

Asus nForce2 boards distinctly need install-time drivers. I have to think that Gigabyte's do, too, since a Silicon Image controller isn't gonna be part of its southbridge.

 

[LiamC]

Buck,

unsure--the guy is 1400 Km away from me. All I know is that it is an ASUS Intel board.

 

[time]

Just an update on the need or otherwise for a floppy-based SATA driver during Windows install/reload - albeit with Win2k rather than WinXP:

Via KT600 (Gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394) = Yes

nForce3 250 (Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro) = No

This looks to be yet another reason to prefer an nForce3 250 solution over a Via K8T800 such as MSI K8T Neo. :-?