I am kinda desperate... has been almost a week now
Well there might be a lot to cover. Grab a soda and sit down, this will take a while.
...Any jumpers on the mobo to change?...any ideas if this mobo is setup by default for raid? or SATA only?
No jumpers.
And no, the manual says it's not RAID by default, though my recollection is my P4C800-E
did default to RAID, but we'll verify this later.
And not SATA only: by default the mobo supports up to 6 ATA devices off the ICH5R chip, and this will work for Win2K or WinXP, but only those two: older O/S's would require an IDE Configuration settings change.
I cant get the computer to boot. I have 2 HD that i am setting as master and slave correctly with the jumpers.... Might be something to do with raid or SATA. I dont need any of those yet...just need my comp to work! with regular parallel settings...
Let's start by double checking your cabling setup.
You said you're using the 2 HDD's (Hard Disk Drives) as master and slave. OK. I'll assume they're both regular IDE/ATA-100 drives, not SATA drives.
First check there is a power cable on each HDD.
Use a quality 80-conductor IDE cable, no longer than 18 inches maximum. Your mobo comes with 80- and 40-conductor cables in the box. The 80 is the smoother one.
Code:
PRI_IDE1 <-----------12 in.------------+-----6 in.---> Master HDD (O/S)
|
v Slave HDD (data)
See the above diagram. Make sure the long end of your IDE cable is plugged into the "PRI_IDE1" connector on your mobo, not the other way around.
We will install the O/S to the master because that's the most standard.
So make sure the HDD you want the O/S on is strapped as Master and plugged into the cable's master connector, at the farthest end of the cable.
The other HDD, probably for your data, should be strapped as Slave and plugged into the slave connector about 6 inches before the end.
The O/S drive should probably be the smaller of the two.
Your optical drive(s) should be attached to a cable to the SEC_IDE1 port, since the VIA RAID controller does not support ATAPI devices (see section 2.8.4). Again, if you have only one drive, it has to be strapped as Master, and be on the end of the cable. Similar diagram as above.
Make a note of the model numbers of all drives, because the BIOS Setup screens will quote these numbers, as you know.
The bios recognize them....i tried to disable all that in the bios but didnt change anything.
Let's check this next.
Power up, wait a couple seconds, then hit Delete. Soon the BIOS setup screen will appear.
Since you are doing a fresh install, but were trying different BIOS settings, let's first make sure everything is factory-defaulted.
Arrow-right to visit the Exit screen. Arrow-down to choose "Load Setup Defaults" and hit Enter. Confirm yes if it asks you.
Now hit F10. Use the arrows to confirm Save settings and hit Enter.
The PC should reboot again. If not, wait 5-10 seconds then hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to force a reboot.
After a few seconds, hit Delete.
The BIOS screen will appear again. You will be in the Main screen.
Let's confirm what the BIOS sees, and where.
The HDD at your cable's far end should appear as Primary IDE Master, it will probably be listed as mfg. name and model number.
The second HDD drive should appear as Primary IDE Slave.
Your optical drive(s) should appear as Secondary device(s).
(Since we defaulted the settings, you do not need to highlight and check any drive-specific settings-- they will all be Auto anyway, or mostly.)
But when trying to install win2k it wont finish the installation and tells me "no devices found" right after leaving the bios.
This can happen when your hard disks are blank, but they appear ahead of the CD in the Boot Device Order. Let's work on that next.
Still in the BIOS Main screen, arrow-down to IDE Configuration and hit Enter. This opens the IDE Configuration screen.
Here, for Win2K, the manual says it should be set as follows: Onboard IDE Operate Mode="Enhanced"; Enhanced Mode Support On="S-ATA" (yes that's right); Configure S-ATA As RAID="No"; leave the timeout at the 35 default.
Hit ESC to return to Main.
Now arrow-right to visit the Boot screen.
Arrow-down to Hard Disk Drives. This is a screen that appears when you have >=2 HDD's attached. Hit Enter. This opens a screen to set boot order of your drives.
Arrow-down to "2nd Drive" or "2nd Boot Device". Use +/- to set it to "Disabled". This doesn't "turn off" your HDD, you just only need to
boot from one HDD, so you don't want other HDD's in your boot order.
Now Arrow-up to "1st Drive" or "1st Boot Device". Use +/- to set it to the drive that is your Primary Master, it will be listed with a name that begins with "PM-" followed by the mfg name or model number. Now hit ESC to exit and return to the Boot screen.
(You did not tell me anything about your optical drive(s). But assuming you only have, say, one CDROM attached to Secondary Master, you are fine.
If, however, you have >=2 optical drives, say a CDRW and DVD, then there will be another link on the Boot screen, "CD-ROM Devices"; you will need to visit this screen in similar fashion, and use +/- to position the drive you wish to always boot CD's from (like your Win2K install CD) as "1st Drive". You can
use multiple opticals, but the BIOS can only boot the PC from the one you choose as "1st".)
Now Arrow-up to "Boot Device Priority". Hit Enter.
There will likely be 3 fields: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Boot Device. Use +/- and arrow keys until you have the order set, top- to- bottom, to CD- Floppy- Hard Disk (the Hard Disk will have a PM model name, similar for the CD). This is a bit fiddly and make take you a few tries to get the right order. Hit ESC when you are done, to return to the Boot screen.
....cant load anything on it.
** At this point, insert the Win2k install CD into the optical drive you chose as the boot drive.
Now hit F10 and use the arrows to confirm to Save all changes and exit.
The PC should again reboot. If not, wait 5-10 seconds then hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete to force a reboot.
At this point your optical drive should wake up and start loading the Win2K install CD. 2K setup should find your Primary Master HDD and let you load stuff onto it.
Let me know how this all goes,
if you get into 2K and it still says no drives found, you might need to use FDISK to format your drives before applying 2K, I can look up some info about that tomorrow if you reply back.
-clintfan
