Yet another SATA question

Hello to all Asus owners.
I have a system with an Asus A7N266-VM/AA board.
I only had one Maxtor IDE (pata) hard drive. When I needed more
storage capacity, I bought a second hard drive. I got a Western digital
SATA drive My Asus board does not have a Sata connector, So I
bought an inexpensive PCI card with a Sata connector (Rosewill RC-205).
The Maxtor IDE hard drive has always contained the M$ XP operating system.
Never had any problems whatsoever with anything, all worked great.

Now the Maxtor IDE hard drive has failed, and instead of buying
another IDE drive, I wanted to use the SATA driveonly, it is plenty big.
The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
the SATA only drive.

I don't know if what I want to do can be done. I was wondering if a
different PCI to SATA card might help, but I would have to buy online.
There are no places around where I live that have such a card, and
buying online is a pain in the A@# if you have to return anything.

Can anyone please help me to understand if it can be done,
and if so how ? Maybe somebody has had better luck with some
different kind of PCI to SATA Card.

Thanks for any help you might offer
please reply to the group.

Mike

You probably need to use an "F6" driver during the installation of
Windows. If it was a motherboard SATA port, this would come from the
motherboard vendor (Asus) or possibly the chipset vendor (Via??). In
your case, it should come from the maker of the PCI card (Rosewill ....
good luck on that one). It's possible that this can't be done using a
SATA port that is on a PCI card rather than the motherboard (or, more
correctly, that it can't be done because the appropriate driver does not
exist). You might find that it could be done with a "name brand"
(Promise, etc.) PCI SATA port, but not with your "rosewill" card.


Mike Nelson wrote:
> Hello to all Asus owners.
> I have a system with an Asus A7N266-VM/AA board.
> I only had one Maxtor IDE (pata) hard drive. When I needed more
> storage capacity, I bought a second hard drive. I got a Western digital
> SATA drive My Asus board does not have a Sata connector, So I bought an
> inexpensive PCI card with a Sata connector (Rosewill RC-205). The Maxtor
> IDE hard drive has always contained the M$ XP operating system.
> Never had any problems whatsoever with anything, all worked great.
>
> Now the Maxtor IDE hard drive has failed, and instead of buying another
> IDE drive, I wanted to use the SATA driveonly, it is plenty big.
> The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
> without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
> I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
> the SATA only drive.
> I don't know if what I want to do can be done. I was wondering if a
> different PCI to SATA card might help, but I would have to buy online.
> There are no places around where I live that have such a card, and
> buying online is a pain in the A@# if you have to return anything.
> Can anyone please help me to understand if it can be done, and if so how
> ? Maybe somebody has had better luck with some different kind of PCI to
> SATA Card.
> Thanks for any help you might offer
> please reply to the group.
>
> Mike

"Mike Nelson" <> writes:

> The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
> without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
> I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
> the SATA only drive.

Well, your SATA controller would need to have a BIOS of its own to be
able to boot from it. Your motherboard BIOS won't know anything about
it in any case. It looks like the Rosewill RC-205 doesn't a BIOS on
board, whereas the RC-212 does, for example.

I cannot use the (f6) option during xp install, because XP install never
comes up. I get messages like ntldr missing, or press any key to reboot.
I don't think the drive is being detected, but the PCI to Sata card is.
The card is reporting it's bios info during post, and it is assigned an irq,
but the drive is never found. it all worked before, so I know it is not the
drive, data cable, power supply, or anything like that. If a put in an IDE
drive
with an operating system on it, all is ok again. Maybe I just need a
different sata card.
Any ideas ?

Thanks Mike



"Barry Watzman" <> wrote in message
news:47008035$0$7490$...
> You probably need to use an "F6" driver during the installation of
> Windows. If it was a motherboard SATA port, this would come from the
> motherboard vendor (Asus) or possibly the chipset vendor (Via??). In your
> case, it should come from the maker of the PCI card (Rosewill .... good
> luck on that one). It's possible that this can't be done using a SATA
> port that is on a PCI card rather than the motherboard (or, more
> correctly, that it can't be done because the appropriate driver does not
> exist). You might find that it could be done with a "name brand"
> (Promise, etc.) PCI SATA port, but not with your "rosewill" card.
>
>
> Mike Nelson wrote:
>> Hello to all Asus owners.
>> I have a system with an Asus A7N266-VM/AA board.
>> I only had one Maxtor IDE (pata) hard drive. When I needed more
>> storage capacity, I bought a second hard drive. I got a Western digital
>> SATA drive My Asus board does not have a Sata connector, So I bought an
>> inexpensive PCI card with a Sata connector (Rosewill RC-205). The Maxtor
>> IDE hard drive has always contained the M$ XP operating system.
>> Never had any problems whatsoever with anything, all worked great.
>>
>> Now the Maxtor IDE hard drive has failed, and instead of buying another
>> IDE drive, I wanted to use the SATA driveonly, it is plenty big.
>> The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
>> without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
>> I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
>> the SATA only drive.
>> I don't know if what I want to do can be done. I was wondering if a
>> different PCI to SATA card might help, but I would have to buy online.
>> There are no places around where I live that have such a card, and buying
>> online is a pain in the A@# if you have to return anything.
>> Can anyone please help me to understand if it can be done, and if so how
>> ? Maybe somebody has had better luck with some different kind of PCI to
>> SATA Card.
>> Thanks for any help you might offer
>> please reply to the group.
>>
>> Mike

On Mon, 1 Oct 2007 03:49:11 -0500, "Mike Nelson" <>
wrote:

>I cannot use the (f6) option during xp install, because XP install never
>comes up. I get messages like ntldr missing, or press any key to reboot.
>I don't think the drive is being detected, but the PCI to Sata card is.
>The card is reporting it's bios info during post, and it is assigned an irq,
>but the drive is never found. it all worked before, so I know it is not the
>drive, data cable, power supply, or anything like that. If a put in an IDE
>drive
>with an operating system on it, all is ok again. Maybe I just need a
>different sata card.
>Any ideas ?
>
>Thanks Mike
>
try this
enter the bios select Boot/hard disk drives you should see all hdds
installed make the sata the first drive
then go to boot order and make it the boot drive.

My pc has a AMI bios and thats how I did it,my boot order is now
cd.floppy,sata drive. My sata drive is not on a controller card so
this may not work for you but its worth a try

good luck

Harry
>
>
>"Barry Watzman" <> wrote in message
>news:47008035$0$7490$...
>> You probably need to use an "F6" driver during the installation of
>> Windows. If it was a motherboard SATA port, this would come from the
>> motherboard vendor (Asus) or possibly the chipset vendor (Via??). In your
>> case, it should come from the maker of the PCI card (Rosewill .... good
>> luck on that one). It's possible that this can't be done using a SATA
>> port that is on a PCI card rather than the motherboard (or, more
>> correctly, that it can't be done because the appropriate driver does not
>> exist). You might find that it could be done with a "name brand"
>> (Promise, etc.) PCI SATA port, but not with your "rosewill" card.
>>
>>
>> Mike Nelson wrote:
>>> Hello to all Asus owners.
>>> I have a system with an Asus A7N266-VM/AA board.
>>> I only had one Maxtor IDE (pata) hard drive. When I needed more
>>> storage capacity, I bought a second hard drive. I got a Western digital
>>> SATA drive My Asus board does not have a Sata connector, So I bought an
>>> inexpensive PCI card with a Sata connector (Rosewill RC-205). The Maxtor
>>> IDE hard drive has always contained the M$ XP operating system.
>>> Never had any problems whatsoever with anything, all worked great.
>>>
>>> Now the Maxtor IDE hard drive has failed, and instead of buying another
>>> IDE drive, I wanted to use the SATA driveonly, it is plenty big.
>>> The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
>>> without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
>>> I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
>>> the SATA only drive.
>>> I don't know if what I want to do can be done. I was wondering if a
>>> different PCI to SATA card might help, but I would have to buy online.
>>> There are no places around where I live that have such a card, and buying
>>> online is a pain in the A@# if you have to return anything.
>>> Can anyone please help me to understand if it can be done, and if so how
>>> ? Maybe somebody has had better luck with some different kind of PCI to
>>> SATA Card.
>>> Thanks for any help you might offer
>>> please reply to the group.
>>>
>>> Mike

because its not booting off the installation CD...its still booting off a
HD.
You need to set the boot order in your BIOS so that CD is 1st boot....SATA
Card 2nd boot
Then watch for the message push any key to boot from CD
peter
"Mike Nelson" <> wrote in message
news:4700b484$0$9579$...
>I cannot use the (f6) option during xp install, because XP install never
> comes up. I get messages like ntldr missing, or press any key to reboot.
> I don't think the drive is being detected, but the PCI to Sata card is.
> The card is reporting it's bios info during post, and it is assigned an
> irq,
> but the drive is never found. it all worked before, so I know it is not
> the
> drive, data cable, power supply, or anything like that. If a put in an IDE
> drive
> with an operating system on it, all is ok again. Maybe I just need a
> different sata card.
> Any ideas ?
>
> Thanks Mike
>
>
>
> "Barry Watzman" <> wrote in message
> news:47008035$0$7490$...
>> You probably need to use an "F6" driver during the installation of
>> Windows. If it was a motherboard SATA port, this would come from the
>> motherboard vendor (Asus) or possibly the chipset vendor (Via??). In
>> your case, it should come from the maker of the PCI card (Rosewill ....
>> good luck on that one). It's possible that this can't be done using a
>> SATA port that is on a PCI card rather than the motherboard (or, more
>> correctly, that it can't be done because the appropriate driver does not
>> exist). You might find that it could be done with a "name brand"
>> (Promise, etc.) PCI SATA port, but not with your "rosewill" card.
>>
>>
>> Mike Nelson wrote:
>>> Hello to all Asus owners.
>>> I have a system with an Asus A7N266-VM/AA board.
>>> I only had one Maxtor IDE (pata) hard drive. When I needed more
>>> storage capacity, I bought a second hard drive. I got a Western digital
>>> SATA drive My Asus board does not have a Sata connector, So I bought an
>>> inexpensive PCI card with a Sata connector (Rosewill RC-205). The Maxtor
>>> IDE hard drive has always contained the M$ XP operating system.
>>> Never had any problems whatsoever with anything, all worked great.
>>>
>>> Now the Maxtor IDE hard drive has failed, and instead of buying another
>>> IDE drive, I wanted to use the SATA driveonly, it is plenty big.
>>> The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
>>> without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
>>> I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
>>> the SATA only drive.
>>> I don't know if what I want to do can be done. I was wondering if a
>>> different PCI to SATA card might help, but I would have to buy online.
>>> There are no places around where I live that have such a card, and
>>> buying online is a pain in the A@# if you have to return anything.
>>> Can anyone please help me to understand if it can be done, and if so how
>>> ? Maybe somebody has had better luck with some different kind of PCI to
>>> SATA Card.
>>> Thanks for any help you might offer
>>> please reply to the group.
>>>
>>> Mike
>

I beleive you can only do this if your sata card has its own bootable bios.
Mine does & its no problem.
Sata cards that can be used to boot off, tend to be more expensive
You could I guess allways use a ide/sata converter plug

"Mike Nelson" <> wrote in message
news:47005a9d$0$20640$...
> Hello to all Asus owners.
> I have a system with an Asus A7N266-VM/AA board.
> I only had one Maxtor IDE (pata) hard drive. When I needed more
> storage capacity, I bought a second hard drive. I got a Western digital
> SATA drive My Asus board does not have a Sata connector, So I bought an
> inexpensive PCI card with a Sata connector (Rosewill RC-205). The Maxtor
> IDE hard drive has always contained the M$ XP operating system.
> Never had any problems whatsoever with anything, all worked great.
>
> Now the Maxtor IDE hard drive has failed, and instead of buying another
> IDE drive, I wanted to use the SATA driveonly, it is plenty big.
> The problem is that I cannot get the system to recognize the Sata drive
> without first loading an operating system from an IDE drive.
> I have tried changing settings in the CMOS BIOS, but it will not find
> the SATA only drive.
> I don't know if what I want to do can be done. I was wondering if a
> different PCI to SATA card might help, but I would have to buy online.
> There are no places around where I live that have such a card, and buying
> online is a pain in the A@# if you have to return anything.
> Can anyone please help me to understand if it can be done, and if so how ?
> Maybe somebody has had better luck with some different kind of PCI to
> SATA Card.
> Thanks for any help you might offer
> please reply to the group.
>
> Mike