ep-8kra2+ & installing windows on single SATA

I have this mobo, it is an older ide based board but has 2 SATA raid sockets, i have updated the bios to allow SATA boot so it should allow me to use a single sata drive to install windows, i have an 80gb excelstor sata drive i want to use in it but i just cant get it seen in the bios, if i plug it into another pc it shows up without issue and i can read/write to it so i know its working fine. I tried another hdd with the mobo, a sammy 500gb and it shows up fine..so i thought...i had a via sata card laying around and plugged it into the pci slot, bingo..windows sees the drive upon installation and lets me delete partitions and set up new ones during setup but it wont allow me to install windows to it, it says...

'This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.'

...this to me does not make sense, surely the controller is seen in the bios to allow me to even see the disks and partition them ???..i was hoping i could install windows and then after move the drive to the onboard sata controllers. Having googled the above message M$ states this as the cause and remedy, which doesnt work for me as i have formatted 2 partitions on the drive to NTFS...

This problem occurs because Windows Vista cannot distinguish between ambiguous hard disks.

In versions of Microsoft Windows Setup that are earlier than Windows Vista Setup, hard disks are marked with distinct values to distinguish them. However, this method of distinguishing hard disks is no longer supported because of the potential for data corruption on hard disks.
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RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
Create one or more partitions on all the hard disks that are not initialized.
Restart the computer.
Install Windows Vista.


In the bios hard disk boot priority just shows one option of 'bootable add on cards'...

I have tried everything i can think of...any ideas ?...please, the cables are all seated properly, i have tried different cables so theres no need to ask those questions

Thanks