Installing win XP on SATA controller host...

poao · 04-23-2008, 05:32 PM

Hi,

I have a pretty old computer (three years old). Recently my hard drive (IDE) was filled with stuff and I bought a new SATA 2 hard drive to make more space. Unfortantally my motherboard does not seem to support it because it only supports SATA 1.
So my solution was simply to buy a SATA host controller (with VIA VT6421 chipset on it), then I connected the SATA 2 drive to the host controller and the drive worked perfectly!

I needed to re-install windows xp and I wanted to install it on the SATA-2 drive (instead of the IDE) because it's faster. So I made a SATA host controller driver diskette (from the CD supplied with the controller) according to the instructions from the user manual and booted from the windows xp CD to begin the installaion process.
I pressed F6 and then chose the "SCSI SATA host contoller win xp 32bit" driver and the windows installation identified my SATA drive. I then chose then to delete the whole partitions in the two harddisks (the IDE and the SATA-2 drive) and created only one partition to install windows xp in as a fresh copy in the SATA-2 harddisk.
After windows installation copied the files and rebooted the computer I changed the boot sequence to boot from the HDE-0 (instead of the CDROM) but I just got an error after the POST test. I tried to change the boot sequence to SCSI and I got another error message.

Now my question is how can I boot from the SATA-2 drive that is connected to the SATA host controller in order to complete the windows installation?

Thanks in advance,
Poao

johnhook · 04-23-2008, 06:09 PM

poao,

Since it doesn't look like your motherboard's BIOS will allow you to boot from drives attached to this SATA adapter, I believe there is a workaround where you can configure a bootable FLASH drive that will in turn, boot from the SATA drive. Check out the MFG's website.

Found this "Let Windows search the CD for drivers and use xtreme boot maker to create a bootable usb stick"

Hope this helps.

- John

**eneles** · 04-24-2008, 01:38 AM

Hi,

Or - put a jumper on the HDD to make it SATA 1 and connect it directly to the motherboard.
What brand/model is the drive?

siawish_khan · 05-14-2008, 01:53 AM

hi,
i m new to this forum. i hv same prob. i hv hp xeon ml350 g3 dual server. i had scsi drive but its burnt. now i purshed a new SATA 250Gb and VIA VT6421 PCI Controller. i tried to install windows on this drive and install the driver by pressing F6 but when system restarts it doest not boot from SATA. i tried to change the boot settings but my system bios doesnt have SATA boot option.

what should i do ??? plz help me in this regard.

thanx in adavance

johnhook · 05-14-2008, 02:31 AM

siawish_khan & poao,

The PCI SATA card should have come with a CD and instructions. I believe that one of the issues is that these are RAID SATA controller cards. That said, you need to first configure the card for the RAID level or NO RAID before attempting to install an OS.

Usually, such cards present hotkey options at bootup time to configure the device (upon PowerON - not Windows boot). If not, you may need to boot from the diskette or CD that came with your PCI SATA card in order to pre-configure your RAID/Drive setup BEFORE attempting to install Windows XP.

You'll also need to install the driver for this device in Windows - usually done by pressing F6 during initial install and pointing Windows install to the device driver disk. If not, you'll need to install the drivers after windows has installed.

Check out this page:

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...5&ArticleID=93

- John

vladimirb · 05-14-2008, 03:11 AM

Go into BIOS and select BOOT options and see what is Hard Disk Priority, because you have two HDD and maybe it is set that boot from IDE HDD.
Make sure that SATA HDD is set to be the first HDD so Windows XP will se SATA HDD as first disk.

johnhook · 05-14-2008, 03:14 AM

vladimirb,

That would be my advice too, but the problem as I understand it, is that both of these users have motherboards WITHOUT imbedded SATA hardware or BIOS capable of handling SATA. They've installed add-on SATA PCI cards. In some cases, such cards add a pre-load hook into the BIOS that allows you to manage the adapter. In other cases, you need to boot from the CD or diskette that comes with the card in order to configure it.

- John

04-23-2008, 05:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
poao Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2 OS: Windows XP	Installing win XP on SATA controller host... Hi, I have a pretty old computer (three years old). Recently my hard drive (IDE) was filled with stuff and I bought a new SATA 2 hard drive to make more space. Unfortantally my motherboard does not seem to support it because it only supports SATA 1. So my solution was simply to buy a SATA host controller (with VIA VT6421 chipset on it), then I connected the SATA 2 drive to the host controller and the drive worked perfectly! I needed to re-install windows xp and I wanted to install it on the SATA-2 drive (instead of the IDE) because it's faster. So I made a SATA host controller driver diskette (from the CD supplied with the controller) according to the instructions from the user manual and booted from the windows xp CD to begin the installaion process. I pressed F6 and then chose the "SCSI SATA host contoller win xp 32bit" driver and the windows installation identified my SATA drive. I then chose then to delete the whole partitions in the two harddisks (the IDE and the SATA-2 drive) and created only one partition to install windows xp in as a fresh copy in the SATA-2 harddisk. After windows installation copied the files and rebooted the computer I changed the boot sequence to boot from the HDE-0 (instead of the CDROM) but I just got an error after the POST test. I tried to change the boot sequence to SCSI and I got another error message. Now my question is how can I boot from the SATA-2 drive that is connected to the SATA host controller in order to complete the windows installation? Thanks in advance, Poao

04-23-2008, 06:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
johnhook Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 810 OS: MS SBS 2003 SP2	Re: Installing win XP on SATA controller host... poao, Since it doesn't look like your motherboard's BIOS will allow you to boot from drives attached to this SATA adapter, I believe there is a workaround where you can configure a bootable FLASH drive that will in turn, boot from the SATA drive. Check out the MFG's website. Found this "Let Windows search the CD for drivers and use xtreme boot maker to create a bootable usb stick" Hope this helps. - John

04-24-2008, 01:38 AM	#3 (permalink)
eneles Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Sweden/Denmark Posts: 21,122 OS: 98SE/XP SP3/Vista SP1/Ubuntu 8.04 My System	Re: Installing win XP on SATA controller host... Hi, Or - put a jumper on the HDD to make it SATA 1 and connect it directly to the motherboard. What brand/model is the drive?

05-14-2008, 01:53 AM	#4 (permalink)
siawish_khan Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1 OS: xp	Re: Installing win XP on SATA controller host... hi, i m new to this forum. i hv same prob. i hv hp xeon ml350 g3 dual server. i had scsi drive but its burnt. now i purshed a new SATA 250Gb and VIA VT6421 PCI Controller. i tried to install windows on this drive and install the driver by pressing F6 but when system restarts it doest not boot from SATA. i tried to change the boot settings but my system bios doesnt have SATA boot option. what should i do ??? plz help me in this regard. thanx in adavance

05-14-2008, 02:31 AM	#5 (permalink)
johnhook Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 810 OS: MS SBS 2003 SP2	Re: Installing win XP on SATA controller host... siawish_khan & poao, The PCI SATA card should have come with a CD and instructions. I believe that one of the issues is that these are RAID SATA controller cards. That said, you need to first configure the card for the RAID level or NO RAID before attempting to install an OS. Usually, such cards present hotkey options at bootup time to configure the device (upon PowerON - not Windows boot). If not, you may need to boot from the diskette or CD that came with your PCI SATA card in order to pre-configure your RAID/Drive setup BEFORE attempting to install Windows XP. You'll also need to install the driver for this device in Windows - usually done by pressing F6 during initial install and pointing Windows install to the device driver disk. If not, you'll need to install the drivers after windows has installed. Check out this page: http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...5&ArticleID=93 - John __________________

05-14-2008, 03:11 AM	#6 (permalink)
vladimirb Hardware Team Tech Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Orgrimar/Thunder Bluff Posts: 785 OS: xp pro sp3, Vista Ultimate My System	Re: Installing win XP on SATA controller host... Go into BIOS and select BOOT options and see what is Hard Disk Priority, because you have two HDD and maybe it is set that boot from IDE HDD. Make sure that SATA HDD is set to be the first HDD so Windows XP will se SATA HDD as first disk. __________________ Vladimir Ain't Found A Way To Kill Me Yet...

05-14-2008, 03:14 AM	#7 (permalink)
johnhook Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 810 OS: MS SBS 2003 SP2	Re: Installing win XP on SATA controller host... vladimirb, That would be my advice too, but the problem as I understand it, is that both of these users have motherboards WITHOUT imbedded SATA hardware or BIOS capable of handling SATA. They've installed add-on SATA PCI cards. In some cases, such cards add a pre-load hook into the BIOS that allows you to manage the adapter. In other cases, you need to boot from the CD or diskette that comes with the card in order to configure it. - John __________________