Calling all bad axe 2 owners, got a Q for ya

D

devil_trigger

Gawd
Joined
Jan 24, 2007
Messages
726
Ok, I'm about to pull the trigger this weekend on my new build(E6600, bad axe 2, gskill 2gb ram, and 8800gtx) and I have a question for the bad axe 2 owners. I've seen the reviews on newegg and some people are saying that they cant install windows on a fresh clean SATA hard drive without having to download the mobo bios on another computer, put it on a floppy, and go from there. I'm going to be using 2 SATA hard drives(raptor for windows and 500gb 7200rpm) and I'm wondering if that would end up being a problem for me since I dont have a floppy drive. Please let me know what you think or what another solution could be, and also feel free to share anything else you might want to, cuz I love having all the info I can get.:)
 
If you want to run the system with NCQ, and all those other features...
Then yes you have to set the SATA settings to AHCI and use a floppy to load em up.
Legacy/IDE mode is just much easier.
 
Do those features really make much of a difference? Like do you need those features for 3.0 GB/s hard drives? I'm looking for the easiest setup possible here lol. Also, do you just change a setting to legacy/IDE mode in the bios before installing?
 
Like do you need those features for 3.0 GB/s hard drives?
Click to expand...

Those features are what make 3.0 GB/s hard drives better than 1.5GBs hard drives.

If you want easy buy a dell. :p

Jeez add a $10 floppy to your order, borrow one, steal one from another machine, check thrift stores, dumpsters, etc. download the drivers, hang floppy cables out side of case and set floppy on a stack of books, set bios to AHCI, tell bios you got a floppy, boot from windows CD with you finger on the F6 key, pay attention, little bastid goes by fast and early, dont miss him, and hit F6 when prompted and follow the simple prompts, takes 30 seconds.
after windows installs and drives seem ok on reboot etc. power down, rip the floppy and cable out and put in a drawer.

If its like my DQ6 Intel matrix storage ICH8R those AHCI preinstall drivers are also your raid drivers and if you dont install them at windows install its a real pain to do later.

So suck it up, IDE is gone, XP is being ruthlessly killed , but the little floppy lives on !!!!!!!!!!!

edit: wait huh ? we talking bios update or SATA preinstall drivers ? no matter, do the lastest bios too. first. So be sure to scrounge up 2 usable floppy disks out of that dumpster.
 
The only issue I had when I first built my machine was the Marvell controller. I put my 2 RAID0 HDD on the Intel controller. I then had my SATA-DVDRW plugged into the Marvell controller with a 500GB Seagate for storage.

I was unable to install Windows onto the Intel controled HDD as the installer would only see devices attached to the Marvell. Although I did install the Intel RAID drivers using F6 during the install, I'll admit I didn't install the Marvel drivers.

This may have solved the issue, but I just threw all 4 devices on the Intel controller and diabled the Marvell.
 
You will run into this with any MB I think as Windows is too stupid to load the required driver off of anything but a floppy. No CD, no USB drive, only floppy.
 
Well will there be any real significant difference? All my apps and the OS and all that are going on the raptor and the 3.0GB/s hard drive is just for excess storage which I wont be accessing all that much anyway. Come to think of it I might have one in the basment in a really old machine. I'll see how it is first without AHCI and if I dont like it I'll reinstall windows and try it with the floppy.
 
Probably not as the interface is faster than the drive. Maybe hot swapping your drives might be useful to you...I dunno. But can you live with knowing cool high performance stuff is turned off? :p
 
AndyM said:
Probably not as the interface is faster than the drive. Maybe hot swapping your drives might be useful to you...I dunno. But can you live with knowing cool high performance stuff is turned off? :p
Click to expand...

Nah I wont be hot swapping my drives, itll be staying in there. And yes I could live with it if its not going to make any real difference lol. So maybe later on down the road when hard drives become faster I can think about using AHCI, which then it will actually make use of it and make a difference?
 
this is the same dilemma that im about to go through (almost done building my e66/BX2/sata HDDs/SATA dvd burner rig)

i read somewhere here that windows might be able to see the drive but if not you just set it to Legacy/IDE mode, install windows on the drive, then set it back to SATA mode and everything will work and will perform just like if you installed it in SATA mode to begin with

can anyone confirm this?
 
InCogneato said:
this is the same dilemma that im about to go through (almost done building my e66/BX2/sata HDDs/SATA dvd burner rig)

i read somewhere here that windows might be able to see the drive but if not you just set it to Legacy/IDE mode, install windows on the drive, then set it back to SATA mode and everything will work and will perform just like if you installed it in SATA mode to begin with

can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

That would be AWESOME!

lol
 
InCogneato said:
this is the same dilemma that im about to go through (almost done building my e66/BX2/sata HDDs/SATA dvd burner rig)

i read somewhere here that windows might be able to see the drive but if not you just set it to Legacy/IDE mode, install windows on the drive, then set it back to SATA mode and everything will work and will perform just like if you installed it in SATA mode to begin with

can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

I believe that will work as long as you load the proper drivers in windows before you switch it in the bios.
 
aug1516 said:
I believe that will work as long as you load the proper drivers in windows before you switch it in the bios.
Click to expand...
which doesnt need to be done with a floppy right? LOL ill do anything to avoid it. just download or load cd with the drivers, double click to install, and then restart change to SATA mode and bam, perfect? all features/performance included?
 
Well I just pulled the trigger last night on about $1400 worth of stuff for this build lol. I cant wait for everything to get here!. And I hope someone can confirm this whole thing about being able to load the drivers in windows then restarting the computer then setting it to SATA.
 
devil_trigger said:
Well I just pulled the trigger last night on about $1400 worth of stuff for this build lol. I cant wait for everything to get here!. And I hope someone can confirm this whole thing about being able to load the drivers in windows then restarting the computer then setting it to SATA.
Click to expand...
i also read somewhere that Windows MCE 2005 (or any win xp disc with SP2 already inside) will recognize your SATA drive without any additional effort. then you just update your drivers after you log in to windows and everything will work with full features and performance.

hope it helps, anyone would like to confirm this too?
 
Adrenaline said:
The only issue I had when I first built my machine was the Marvell controller. I put my 2 RAID0 HDD on the Intel controller. I then had my SATA-DVDRW plugged into the Marvell controller with a 500GB Seagate for storage.

I was unable to install Windows onto the Intel controled HDD as the installer would only see devices attached to the Marvell. Although I did install the Intel RAID drivers using F6 during the install, I'll admit I didn't install the Marvel drivers.

This may have solved the issue, but I just threw all 4 devices on the Intel controller and diabled the Marvell.
Click to expand...

Having same problem with Marvell..How did you disable the Marvell?
 
InCogneato said:
i also read somewhere that Windows MCE 2005 (or any win xp disc with SP2 already inside) will recognize your SATA drive without any additional effort. then you just update your drivers after you log in to windows and everything will work with full features and performance.

hope it helps, anyone would like to confirm this too?
Click to expand...

That would be cool because I have xp pro with sp2.
 
Not too sure if it is critical or not, but Intel specifically does not recommend switching to AHCI mode after installing Windows under legacy mode. I had a floppy around for my load, so I cant say if it wont work either way.
 
shit i wouldnt mind using a floppy but my case doesnt have a place for it and i dont want waste my cables/power on a floppy and have more cables than i need reducing cooling for something i will never use again and stuff like that

im just going to make a customer WinXP installer disc with the SATA drivers integrated. check this out for more info http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1161880
 
Windows Vista has the AHCI driver in it. No floppies, headaches, or integrations. I would assume you are using Vista since you have such a nice system, so don't worry about it.
 
Actually I dont, I'm still using XP Pro w/sp2. I want to wait for vista to mature a little more before I get it, especially with all the problems I keep hearing about nvidia drivers.
 
devil_trigger said:
Actually I dont, I'm still using XP Pro w/sp2. I want to wait for vista to mature a little more before I get it, especially with all the problems I keep hearing about nvidia drivers.
Click to expand...

Well since you are resisting the future, your only other choices are to use a floppy or integrate the driver into your XP install media.
 
InCogneato said:
this is the same dilemma that im about to go through (almost done building my e66/BX2/sata HDDs/SATA dvd burner rig)

i read somewhere here that windows might be able to see the drive but if not you just set it to Legacy/IDE mode, install windows on the drive, then set it back to SATA mode and everything will work and will perform just like if you installed it in SATA mode to begin with

can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

I can confirm this. I have a full SATA system, including 2 HDs and 2 DVDRWs. You just turn it to Legacy/Compatibility mode and you don't need drivers upon initial install. Afterward you can switch it to AHCI (following XP installation) and Windows will install the driver for you.
 
he46570 said:
I can confirm this. I have a full SATA system, including 2 HDs and 2 DVDRWs. You just turn it to Legacy/Compatibility mode and you don't need drivers upon initial install. Afterward you can switch it to AHCI (following XP installation) and Windows will install the driver for you.
Click to expand...

Even after what someone said about intel specifically telling you not to do that? lol. If so, man you're a lifesaver!

Hmm, another question has come to mind. If you set it to sata mode after installing and all that, would it still recognize IDE dvd drives, since I'll be using two of those?
 
devil_trigger said:
Even after what someone said about intel specifically telling you not to do that? lol. If so, man you're a lifesaver!

Hmm, another question has come to mind. If you set it to sata mode after installing and all that, would it still recognize IDE dvd drives, since I'll be using two of those?
Click to expand...

Yep - the compatibility mode only applies to SATA. IDE is unaffected. By the way - I really love this board!
 
he46570 said:
I can confirm this. I have a full SATA system, including 2 HDs and 2 DVDRWs. You just turn it to Legacy/Compatibility mode and you don't need drivers upon initial install. Afterward you can switch it to AHCI (following XP installation) and Windows will install the driver for you.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure I understand this.

Does this mean you can connect all the hardware and just switch modes back and forth between SATA and IDE/Legacy without switch any cables between SATA and Legacy?

Pardon my ignorance, I'm new at this and am planning on buying a bad axe 2.

RMO.
 
The IDE/Legacy only applies to the black SATA connectors (the other ones are Marvell which actually do need drivers from the beginning).

Say if you're doing a clean install, and all you are using are the black SATAs and the IDE. Before you do the installation, boot into the BIOS and switch the SATA to IDE/Legacy - this will obviate the need for drivers during the installation. Then do the install as normal. Once this is done, go back into BIOS and switch the SATA back to AHCI. When you boot into windows it will automatically install the drivers for you. Then you're done.
 
he46570 said:
The IDE/Legacy only applies to the black SATA connectors (the other ones are Marvell which actually do need drivers from the beginning).

Say if you're doing a clean install, and all you are using are the black SATAs and the IDE. Before you do the installation, boot into the BIOS and switch the SATA to IDE/Legacy - this will obviate the need for drivers during the installation. Then do the install as normal. Once this is done, go back into BIOS and switch the SATA back to AHCI. When you boot into windows it will automatically install the drivers for you. Then you're done.
Click to expand...

Gotcha!

Much obliged!

RMO.
 
Ok sounds sweet guys. Does it matter which color you plug the drives in on, black or blue? I thought one bus was faster than the other, meaning the blue one. And if it was, that was what I was going to be plugging my 2 hard drives into.
 
Black = Intel ICH7R chip
Blue = Marvell chip

Plug in the black and disable Marvell ;)
 
rollmyown said:
Gotcha!

Much obliged!

RMO.
Click to expand...

One important thing is that you must install the Matrix controller manager before you switch to AHCI. The Matrix manager comes with and installs the AHCI/RAID drivers. If you switch the mode before installing the Manager, Windows won't have a driver to load; you have to switch after installing the Manager and driver so Windows has a driver to load.
 
InorganicMatter said:
One important thing is that you must install the Matrix controller manager before you switch to AHCI. The Matrix manager comes with and installs the AHCI/RAID drivers. If you switch the mode before installing the Manager, Windows won't have a driver to load; you have to switch after installing the Manager and driver so Windows has a driver to load.
Click to expand...

If windows supposedly installs the drivers for you how do you know if the manager is installed or not?
 
Just FYI, I stupidly forgot to activate AHCI when I installed Vista 64, then tried booting into Vista by turning it on after the fact ... it refused to boot. Don't know if it'll make that much of a difference, but then again I'm thinking of getting a Raptor 150 to replace my existing (and older) Raptor 74 and doing everything again from scratch. Really would like to know how much of an advantage AHCI is over IDE Legacy mode.
 
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