P4C800-e deluxe: Win7 install not recognizing drives

Bad luck so far trying to install Win7-32bit to a system that uses the
P4C800-e Deluxe. General message is that the hardware (SATA
controller, I presume) does not support booting to the drive.

Is there a reliable multi-port SATA card that would help? 4-port would
be good. 8-port even better. Not looking to spend a ton though, as
this system is getting old.

On 07/09/2011 12:58, Eric wrote:
> Bad luck so far trying to install Win7-32bit to a system that uses the
> P4C800-e Deluxe. General message is that the hardware (SATA
> controller, I presume) does not support booting to the drive.
>
> Is there a reliable multi-port SATA card that would help? 4-port would
> be good. 8-port even better. Not looking to spend a ton though, as
> this system is getting old.
>

The P4C800-E uses an Intel ICH5-R chipset, so might work even though
ASUS provide no drivers at all for Windows 7. Drivers included with
Windows 7 should work ok.

Try going into the BIOS and checking the IDE Configuration.
Check what "Configure IDE Operate Mode" is set to.
If "Enhanced" is set, below it "Enhanced Mode Support On" should be "S-ATA".
"Configure S-ATA as RAID" should be set to "No"

If that doesn't help, set "Configure IDE Operate Mode" to "Compatible mode"
and try installing again.

It may also be worth disabling the other onboard controller, in case
Win7 is being confused by that:
In BIOS Advanced menu, go to Onboard Device Configuration and
set "OnBoard Promise Controller" to 'Disabled" and try installing
again.

Personally, I am sticking with XP on this motherboard as I don't
see any advantage to moving to 32-bit Win7. My 64-bit capable
motherboards are, however, all running Win7x64 which I really like.

HTH
--
Rob

In article <>, Rob <> wrote:
>On 07/09/2011 12:58, Eric wrote:
>> Bad luck so far trying to install Win7-32bit to a system that uses the
>> P4C800-e Deluxe. General message is that the hardware (SATA
>> controller, I presume) does not support booting to the drive.
>>
>> Is there a reliable multi-port SATA card that would help? 4-port would
>> be good. 8-port even better. Not looking to spend a ton though, as
>> this system is getting old.
>>
>
>The P4C800-E uses an Intel ICH5-R chipset, so might work even though
>ASUS provide no drivers at all for Windows 7. Drivers included with
>Windows 7 should work ok.
>
>Try going into the BIOS and checking the IDE Configuration.
>Check what "Configure IDE Operate Mode" is set to.
>If "Enhanced" is set, below it "Enhanced Mode Support On" should be "S-ATA".
>"Configure S-ATA as RAID" should be set to "No"
>
>If that doesn't help, set "Configure IDE Operate Mode" to "Compatible mode"
>and try installing again.
>
>It may also be worth disabling the other onboard controller, in case
>Win7 is being confused by that:
>In BIOS Advanced menu, go to Onboard Device Configuration and
>set "OnBoard Promise Controller" to 'Disabled" and try installing
>again.
>
>Personally, I am sticking with XP on this motherboard as I don't
>see any advantage to moving to 32-bit Win7. My 64-bit capable
>motherboards are, however, all running Win7x64 which I really like.
>
>HTH


It should run on the P4C800 just fine. I have 7 running on a P4P800 and they
share many of the same parts.

On Wed, 07 Sep 2011 07:58:46 -0400, Eric <Eric@sorry---nospam---.com>
wrote:

> Bad luck so far trying to install Win7-32bit to a system that uses
> the P4C800-e Deluxe. General message is that the hardware (SATA
> controller, I presume) does not support booting to the drive.

I have the same hardware and software and don't have that problem.
You should configure BIOS for IDE, not RAID.

On Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:30:38 +0100, Rob <>
wrote:

>On 07/09/2011 12:58, Eric wrote:
>> Bad luck so far trying to install Win7-32bit to a system that uses the
>> P4C800-e Deluxe. General message is that the hardware (SATA
>> controller, I presume) does not support booting to the drive.
>>
>> Is there a reliable multi-port SATA card that would help? 4-port would
>> be good. 8-port even better. Not looking to spend a ton though, as
>> this system is getting old.
>>
>
>The P4C800-E uses an Intel ICH5-R chipset, so might work even though
>ASUS provide no drivers at all for Windows 7. Drivers included with
>Windows 7 should work ok.
>
>Try going into the BIOS and checking the IDE Configuration.
>Check what "Configure IDE Operate Mode" is set to.
>If "Enhanced" is set, below it "Enhanced Mode Support On" should be "S-ATA".
>"Configure S-ATA as RAID" should be set to "No"
>
>If that doesn't help, set "Configure IDE Operate Mode" to "Compatible mode"
>and try installing again.

Compatible mode apparently disables the CDRom drive, for some bizarre
reason. No shortage of odd quirks: Setting back to Enhanced mode still
didn't enable the CDRom, so I scrambled to check cable and power
connections, etc. Turns out you have to set to Enhanced, then save the
new BIOS settings, then go through the process again.

>It may also be worth disabling the other onboard controller, in case
>Win7 is being confused by that:
>In BIOS Advanced menu, go to Onboard Device Configuration and
>set "OnBoard Promise Controller" to 'Disabled" and try installing
>again.
>
>Personally, I am sticking with XP on this motherboard as I don't
>see any advantage to moving to 32-bit Win7. My 64-bit capable
>motherboards are, however, all running Win7x64 which I really like.
>
>HTH

Probably a good idea, as the motherboard does not seem to like
Win7-32. I do have XP loaded on the D: partition. I had started off
with XP Pro on C: and XP Media Center on D:. The Pro partition got
whacked, and I was never able to repair it (don't ask). So I thought
I'd just install Win7-32. It sounded so simple at the time. I've
installed Win7 on a few machines, so it couldn't be that tough. That
was a few days ago.

I did get the install to the point where it fails a little later :-)
It sees existing partitions and reads the volume labels. But on
attempting to install, it gives the well-known "Setup was unable to
create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition."
Code 80300001.

Then I thought I'd just recreate the partition via the Winn7 install
CD, so I deleted C:, but then of course: "Windows is unable to install
to the selected partition", code 8004240f. So now, presumably I've
got to transfer the drive back to another system to recreate the
partition, as deleting the C: partition rendered the D: XP boot inert.
The partitions were previously created, formatted and tested on
another existing Win7-32 system. Not sure why there would be any
compatibility issues. Does anyone know whether Win7 is particular
about primary vs extended?

Other than that, I can't imagine why the partitions and volume labels
could be read, but the installer couldn't figure out how to get its
act together. It would be nice if Win7 could at least deliver a
coherent error message too. This whole process seems so crude and
error-prone.

Can you tell that I'm ****ed?

Eric wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:30:38 +0100, Rob <>
> wrote:

>>
>> If that doesn't help, set "Configure IDE Operate Mode" to "Compatible mode"
>> and try installing again.
>
> Compatible mode apparently disables the CDRom drive, for some bizarre
> reason. No shortage of odd quirks: Setting back to Enhanced mode still
> didn't enable the CDRom, so I scrambled to check cable and power
> connections, etc. Turns out you have to set to Enhanced, then save the
> new BIOS settings, then go through the process again.
>

Compatible mode enables four of six potential disk interfaces on the
Southbridge. This is in line with emulating two ribbon cables with
two drives each, which was the INT14/INT15 scheme used on older
computers. The other ports can't be enabled, because an older
OS "would not understand" what to do with them. On the plus side,
using compatible mode may allow you to install Windows 98 if you
wanted. Windows 7 should work with that too.

The ICH5 was treated as three sets of two drives, or as "three
ribbon cables". If you run in Compatible mode, back in that
era, there should have been enough control options, to select
any two groups of drives, from the three groups available.
It basically meant, that two SATA ports, would be grouped together
as a "ribbon cable equivalent", with one drive given the bogus
name "Master" and the other drive the bogus name "Slave", but with no
real meaning attached with those labels. Since the SATA interfaces
are in Compatible mode, an OS like Windows 98, can't tell they're
SATA.

Windows 7 should be able to deal with Enhanced Mode and with
all six interfaces being active.

Paul