KT600-A .. Problem installing Windows XP on Maxtor SATA Drive

Hi,

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

I've been trying without success to install Windows XP SP1 onto a
Maxtor 250gb SATA hd, hooked up to a ECS / Elitegroup KT600-A
motherboard. Everything goes fine until the setup says it can't find
a drive to install on.

I installed the drive on SATA channel 1. I boot with the XP CD, then
press F5 and F6. (If I don't press F5 the installation freezes at
"Windows is starting.") When the setup prompts me for the SATA
drivers, i load both the RAID and PIDE drivers from the Via VT8237
v3.0c driver disk.
after loading, i continue the install, and windows tells me it does
not see any hard disks.

the current BIOS is 1.0f .. I've tried 1.0e with no success.
something strange is that in the picture of the BIOS menu in the
manual is different from the BIOS running on my motherboard. in the
manual, the menu structure is:

BIOS > Integrated Peripherals > OnChip IDE Device > SATA Mode >
[select mode]

while my BIOS has:

BIOS > Integrated Peripherals > OnChip IDE Device > OnChip SATA Decive
> [Enabled/Disabled]

It's currently set to enabled.

...Right now i'm running on a 10gb IDE drive, with the 250gb SATA
maxtor plugged in to the same channel. Windows recognizes the SATA
drive fine, although it is only registering as 233.5 gb (spread across
two partitions, 46.5+187gb).

I also tried copying the 10gb's drive contents over to the SATA, but
it doesn't boot correctly.

is it the MB? the XP CD? the drivers? the BIOS? the SATA HD?

>:|

I'd really appreciate any help. this is the first time i've ever
posted on a newsgroup in 10 years of building computers.. this XP
installation is driving me nuts.

Best,
Jason

Wow, I have exactly the same problem (we have the same motherboard)!

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=367359

The latest BIOS for KT600-A is version 1.2C. The ECS USA website no
longer is maintained at www.ecsusa.com

www.ecsusa.com should redirect to the ECS global English page (Taiwan).
www.ecs.com.tw

Jason;

I had the identical problem (same motherboard, same disk drive). The Maxtor drive in question defaults to SATA-II specifications only, and is not auto-switching. The KT600A is a SATA-I motherboard only.

There is a jumper you can add to the disk drive to force it to SATA-I speed. Contact Maxtor for the details.

Larry