[SOLVED] Urgent help needed to convert SATA II

vee7979 · 12-10-2007, 12:16 PM

hello ppl,

i hope someone can really give me some stress relief. i recently bought a 160GB SATA II drive to install in my K8T Neo VIA K8T800 chipset based MSI mainboard , AMD 64 bit 3000+ Athlon processor.... the mainboard carries a VT8237 chipset and it seems as if it can only support SATA I drives. the problem is whenever i boot from the cd rom to install windows, it recognises the drive in the bios and also when the pc starts. when windows load the basic drivers in the memory and is about to start copying files to the hard drive.... it says that windows did not find any disks attached and to check the power cable etc and to install any manuyfacturer software. i believe the prob is that the m/board cant support SATA II... the SATA II drive doesnt have any jumpers to set. is there any software i can download or something that i can do instead of having to purchase a new HD?? PLEASE HELP ...

Desperately need some assistance....

**Done_Fishin** · 12-10-2007, 12:33 PM

Your Problem is quite simple .. you need to place the SATA drivers on a floppy and link to it when you're asked to press F6 to add any drivers . I suspect that you're using XP without Service Packs pre-installed .. so either slipstream them yourself, Get an XP SP1 or SP2 CD or put the drivers on a floppy ...

you should find them on your Motherboard CD

vee7979 · 12-10-2007, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Done_Fishin

Your Problem is quite simple .. you need to place the SATA drivers on a floppy and link to it when you're asked to press F6 to add any drivers . I suspect that you're using XP without Service Packs pre-installed .. so either slipstream them yourself, Get an XP SP1 or SP2 CD or put the drivers on a floppy ...

you should find them on your Motherboard CD

i tried doing that several times earlier with a WIN XP modified version with SP2 (Dark Edition). when it starts it looks for the disk and then it seems as if it dont read the disk (light just comes on the floppy for a few secs but is not reading and then it asks to put the manufacturer's disk). But these are the only 2 disks that i got with the mainboard -
1. G72-PRSA060 Promise 376/378 Driver
2. G72-VASA040 VIA SATA RAID Driver For VT6420/VT8237

any other suggestions?

btw... thanx for the quick response,... its most appreciated

**Done_Fishin** · 12-10-2007, 01:46 PM

You'll probably need the SATA RAID driver ... I had similar problems with my Asus .. you can ignore the fact that it's RAID ..

**simpswr** · 12-10-2007, 01:47 PM

What brand is the hard drive? . . I've never seen a SATA II that did not have jumpers to set at SATAI.

**Done_Fishin** · 12-10-2007, 01:49 PM

Good point .. why didn't I think of that .. apart frommthe fact that I have no SATA II drives to play with

vee7979 · 12-10-2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simpswr

What brand is the hard drive? . . I've never seen a SATA II that did not have jumpers to set at SATAI.

The hard drive brand is "ExcelStor" JUPITER 160GB Model: J8160S
DCC: ESJ8160-004S Site Code: 11110 Firmware Rev: P220ABEA www.excelstor.com

**simpswr** · 12-10-2007, 05:05 PM

Wow . . I beleive I'd throw that thing as far as I could and get a name brand drive . .

**Doby** · 12-10-2007, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Q: Why is my drive recognized by motherboards that
support SATA II and not recognized by some older
motherboards?
A: Some motherboards with older chipsets (i.e. VT8237) can’t
support SATA II (3.0 Gb/sec). The solution is to either use a SATA
II host adapter card or use another motherboard that can see the
SATA II drive and set the drive’s SATA mode to SATA I (1.5 Gb/sec)
before replacing the drive to the SATA I–only motherboard. A
Feature Tool utility is available from the manufacturer to change
the SATA mode.

Thats a quote from the manual of the drive.

What this all means is to change the drive to sata 1 you need to put it in another computer, find the firmware at the manufactuers site to change it to run at 1.5g/s

**Doby** · 12-10-2007, 05:28 PM

Here's the utility

http://www.excelstor.com/en/download.asp

Its the second set down, I have no clue how to use it

**Done_Fishin** · 12-11-2007, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simpswr

Wow . . I beleive I'd throw that thing as far as I could and get a name brand drive . .

We have used quite a few of these drives where I work now (in 40GB & 80GB sizes) .. I tend to find they don't like heat and so they get put in the "internal use only " bin .. means that we don't supply them to customers anymore. They don't seem to be very reliable and suffer from bad sectors / SMART failures within a few years of use.

350n · 12-11-2007, 04:52 PM

usually sata II drives come with a teeny tiny jumper in the back that makes it sata I. 9/10 times you have to remove that jumper to make it sata II in the first place

**Doby** · 12-11-2007, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 350n

usually sata II drives come with a teeny tiny jumper in the back that makes it sata I. 9/10 times you have to remove that jumper to make it sata II in the first place

Not these drives

vee7979 · 12-11-2007, 05:36 PM

this brand Excelstor dont have any jumpers.. i contacted the tech support of the site and they said to dowload some drivers and run in dos mode. i'll try it and let u guys know what takes place....
thanks for all yur assistance... "indeed here is a learning experience !"

350n · 12-11-2007, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vee7979

this brand Excelstor dont have any jumpers.. i contacted the tech support of the site and they said to dowload some drivers and run in dos mode. i'll try it and let u guys know what takes place....
thanks for all yur assistance... "indeed here is a learning experience !"

really? that is super weak. ive heard excelsor maybe 1 or 2 times, i would throw those crap hdd's into a deep deep lake and pick yourself up a solid western dig or seagate

vee7979 · 01-01-2008, 04:00 PM

hi folks

it was recommended by Excestor Tech Engineers guys that i use the esfeat application on another mainboard that supports the SATA II and then downgrade the firmware to SATAI so that i could use on the VT8237 chipset m/board. Becase all the other recommendations they made failed. This had me frustrated for far too long ! I sold the hard drive and bought an IDE drive.. .no more stress... Thanks ppl for all your assistance.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

vEE

**Doby** · 01-01-2008, 04:23 PM

Your welcome, you made a good decision

12-10-2007, 12:16 PM	#1 (permalink)
vee7979 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	[SOLVED] Urgent help needed to convert SATA II hello ppl, i hope someone can really give me some stress relief. i recently bought a 160GB SATA II drive to install in my K8T Neo VIA K8T800 chipset based MSI mainboard , AMD 64 bit 3000+ Athlon processor.... the mainboard carries a VT8237 chipset and it seems as if it can only support SATA I drives. the problem is whenever i boot from the cd rom to install windows, it recognises the drive in the bios and also when the pc starts. when windows load the basic drivers in the memory and is about to start copying files to the hard drive.... it says that windows did not find any disks attached and to check the power cable etc and to install any manuyfacturer software. i believe the prob is that the m/board cant support SATA II... the SATA II drive doesnt have any jumpers to set. is there any software i can download or something that i can do instead of having to purchase a new HD?? PLEASE HELP ... Desperately need some assistance....

12-10-2007, 12:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 6,533 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II Your Problem is quite simple .. you need to place the SATA drivers on a floppy and link to it when you're asked to press F6 to add any drivers . I suspect that you're using XP without Service Packs pre-installed .. so either slipstream them yourself, Get an XP SP1 or SP2 CD or put the drivers on a floppy ... you should find them on your Motherboard CD __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner Last edited by Done_Fishin; 12-10-2007 at 12:35 PM.

12-10-2007, 01:46 PM	#4 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 6,533 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II You'll probably need the SATA RAID driver ... I had similar problems with my Asus .. you can ignore the fact that it's RAID .. __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner

12-10-2007, 01:47 PM	#5 (permalink)
simpswr Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: May 2007 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 9,005 OS: XP, Vista	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II What brand is the hard drive? . . I've never seen a SATA II that did not have jumpers to set at SATAI. __________________ Rich MemTest86 \| BenchTest \| Virus/Trojan/Spyware Help \| How to Post a Screen shot \| PC running slow?]

12-10-2007, 01:49 PM	#6 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 6,533 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II Good point .. why didn't I think of that .. apart frommthe fact that I have no SATA II drives to play with __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner

12-10-2007, 05:05 PM	#8 (permalink)
simpswr Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: May 2007 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 9,005 OS: XP, Vista	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II Wow . . I beleive I'd throw that thing as far as I could and get a name brand drive . . __________________ Rich MemTest86 \| BenchTest \| Virus/Trojan/Spyware Help \| How to Post a Screen shot \| PC running slow?]

12-10-2007, 05:28 PM	#10 (permalink)
Doby Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Central PA (USA) Posts: 7,926 OS: XP sp2/ Vista My System	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II Here's the utility http://www.excelstor.com/en/download.asp Its the second set down, I have no clue how to use it __________________ Would you like to help TSF fight cancer and other diseases??? JOIN TEAM TSF

12-11-2007, 04:52 PM	#12 (permalink)
350n Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 5 OS: xp sp2	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II usually sata II drives come with a teeny tiny jumper in the back that makes it sata I. 9/10 times you have to remove that jumper to make it sata II in the first place

12-11-2007, 05:36 PM	#14 (permalink)
vee7979 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II this brand Excelstor dont have any jumpers.. i contacted the tech support of the site and they said to dowload some drivers and run in dos mode. i'll try it and let u guys know what takes place.... thanks for all yur assistance... "indeed here is a learning experience !"

01-01-2008, 04:00 PM	#16 (permalink)
vee7979 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II hi folks it was recommended by Excestor Tech Engineers guys that i use the esfeat application on another mainboard that supports the SATA II and then downgrade the firmware to SATAI so that i could use on the VT8237 chipset m/board. Becase all the other recommendations they made failed. This had me frustrated for far too long ! I sold the hard drive and bought an IDE drive.. .no more stress... Thanks ppl for all your assistance. HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!! vEE

01-01-2008, 04:23 PM	#17 (permalink)
Doby Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Central PA (USA) Posts: 7,926 OS: XP sp2/ Vista My System	Re: Urgent help needed to convert SATA II Your welcome, you made a good decision __________________ Would you like to help TSF fight cancer and other diseases??? JOIN TEAM TSF