Asus A7n8X Deluxe and SATA as Boot Drive

[mightymo]

OK I have an important question. When I first built my computer last year I tried to use a SATA drive as the primary but the SATA Controller in my Asus A7N8X Deluxe v2 motherboard did not recognize the drive. During the windows XP install it prompt me to install the 3rd party drivers and I could not continue otherwise. I do not have a floppy installed so I need to have my motherboard recognize the drive. This was back with the BIOS was at v 1005. Now I have the newest, 1008_D. When you flash upgrade the BIOS you are also upgrading the SATA controller.

I am getting mixed answers. Does anyone know from experince/for sure, can I install a SATA HD as the primary (C: ) without installing 3rd party drivers?

[phishhead]

was wondering the same thing I would have to say yes. does the 1008d have the option to boot from other devices. I'm using the 1008uber bios and you can boot say from a usb jump drive. Havent tried it yet guess being lazy but you can take the files from a win98 startup floppy and copy them to the jump drive and now your set.

[mightymo]

Thank you for the reply. I totally forgot about the new boot options. When I get home (or tomorrow morning) I will go into the BIOS and let you know all the boot options. I'm pretty sure last time I checked there were no options for SATA, but let me check on that again later...

[Nate89]

if that doesnt work another option would be to either borrow a floppy from either a friend or an old computer and put it in ur computer so u can install the motherboard drivers during a windows install...thats what i had to do on my computer too becuase i couldnt figure out how to get it to work so i came here and luckily someone had the same prob

[mightymo]

If I have to do that where do I even get the drivers? And is it drivers for the SATA Controller or for the HD?

[Nate89]

id go check the asus site becuase for my gigabyte board thats what i had to do and its the controller not the hd...u have to put it on the floppy and then install from a third party as it asks at the beginning of the blue screen i think u press f6 for that

[mightymo]

OK as far as the boot order in the BIOS, these are the options I have:

Floppy
LS120
HDD-0
SCSI
CDROM
HDD-1
HDD-2
HDD-3
Zip
USB-FDD
USB-Zip
USB-CDROM
USB-HDD
LAN
Disabled

There's no SATA option. It would be SCSI right? I remember selecting SCSI, then trying to install XP and it still did not recognize the drive.

[FastGame]

There's no SATA option. It would be SCSI right? I remember selecting SCSI, then trying to install XP and it still did not recognize the drive.
SCSI is correct, when you install XP you still need to hit F6 at the prompt to install the third party drivers.

Here's the SATA Driver (http://www.siimage.com/docs/SiI3x12A-Serial%20ATA%20(SATA)%20Windows%20RAID%20Driver.zip) you need, unzip and put on a floppy.

I do not have a floppy installed
Looks like a good time to buy one unless you have Drive Image, True Image or Ghost ;)

[mightymo]

Thanks for the help everyone, I really do appreciate it. What I did was slipstream SP2 into XP and I also included that SATA driver. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this will work. I don't want to install a floppy, I hate floppies. I ordered Maxtor's 300GB SATA HD w/16MB cache and Native Command Queueing. This drive should be awesome. In a few days when it comes I'll first install it and try to install the normal XP disc I have without the drivers to see if it works like some people say it will. If it doesn't I'll use the XP disc I just made with the SATA drivers in it. If that doesn't work looks like I'll have to break down and install a floppy drive, but just temporarily. I'm almost 100% positive the disc I made will work though.

[FastGame]

The slipstream CD you made should work.

edit= maybe it wont work, I think the driver needs to be loaded first in order for XP to recognize the drive for the install ????

Good luck ! :)

[Curio]

You can include additional drivers on the cd, can't remember how right now but I know you can do it. Maybe try searching technet http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prbc_cai_qcxl.asp

[mightymo]

The drive should be here on Thursday, I'll install it by Saturday at the latest and post the results.

[mightymo]

OK well I successfully installed and I'm booting from a SATA drive. I noticed that during the BIOS screen before the windows XP CD was even read the new SATA drive showed up. I don't know if it's working now because of howI slipstreamed the drivers in the XP disc or because I have updated my BIOS, but I think it's the later.

Anyhow everything is working great. No IDE HD at all in my system.

[Conan]

Anyhow everything is working great. No IDE HD at all in my system.

Single SATA drives currently offer no real world advantage over their IDE counterparts except better case airflow due to the thinner SATA cables.

[Nate89]

i must disagree conan after i installed my sata everything i need to load loads faster...befre the sata i used and ide western digital 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache ata100 then moved to a maxtor 120gb 7200rpm 8mb cache ata133 and i noticed and increase in speed with that too then i moved to the sata and also noticed another increase each time i changed i reformated so i had a clean install to see if i could notice any change

[Conan]

I've swapped Windows XP between my 2 drives Maxtor 160 gig 7200 rpm 8mb cache and Seagate 7200.7 SATA 120 gig 8mb cache. Though I feel no difference between the two drives, my Maxtor consistently benchmarks higher and has lower temperatures.

[Nate89]

how do u benchmark i knew u could but never found anything u could use but ya my sata is hotter than my other drive by about 4 C

[GimieGimieGimie]

What is the ****ing point of SATA anyway?

Why make a technology that doesn't improve over the last one?

Running hotter is NOT an improvement :p

[Nate89]

lol i would agree but when i went from my maxtor to my sata i did notice and increase

[Conan]

how do u benchmark i knew u could but never found anything u could use but ya my sata is hotter than my other drive by about 4 C

I used HD Speed and HD Tach.

What is the ****ing point of SATA anyway?

Why make a technology that doesn't improve over the last one?

Running hotter is NOT an improvement :p

The thinner wires will result in better case airflow! :p

[GimieGimieGimie]

The thinner wires will result in better case airflow! :p

Eh?

Ok fair enough, but i doubt a whole new technology was built for that single purpose :D

Especially since the SATA HD's apparently run HOTTER then their IDE counter parts :p

I'll have to ask about it in my upcoming A+ class :rolleyes:

[Nate89]

I've swapped Windows XP between my 2 drives Maxtor 160 gig 7200 rpm 8mb cache and Seagate 7200.7 SATA 120 gig 8mb cache. Though I feel no difference between the two drives, my Maxtor consistently benchmarks higher and has lower temperatures.

in about an hour once im done converting one of my video formats ill run the benchmarks and post them to see if i do get any real improvement but this will take some time because i am goin to have to change them around and make them the primarys with win xp on them