New HD won't boot any install CD

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anerfoc

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May 28, 2009
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Hi everybody. I'm having a problem here which hopefully one of the gurus here will be able to see through easily. I recently got a new SATA hard drive, WDC 1TB. I hooked it up to my rather old comp through the SATA Host Controller (no native SATA support) and tried to install Windows. However, I can't, because on startup, none of my CDs will boot, either self-booting Ghost images or my XP install CD. They will however still boot when I'm using my old, small HD.

What happens is that the comp stars up and gives me all the usual info... after a moment it gets to Primary Master (Pioneer, my drive), the other Masters and Secondaries, all set to None, which is also what it reads when using my also SATA old HD.

Then it says "Press F3 to enter Configuration Utility" as usual, and finally:

"Primary Channel:
WDC WD1001...(full id num) (lots of spaces, about 20) "

After the ID number, the cursor moves to 10 characters or so after the place on the WDC WD1001 line where it would usually give the size of the HD, and stops. No further execution.

BIOS settings (AwardBIOS) list the Pioneer DVD drive again as the Primary Master and have the others set to Auto. Under the Boot section, my floppy drive is listed first, DVD drive second, "IDE Hard Drive" third (set to None, as it is when I'm using the old HD), and finally SCSI Boot Device.

Mobo: ASUS A7V8X-X
SATA Host Controller: Adaptec ASH-1205SA
New HD: WDC Black 1TB

I can't figure this out. I've tried fiddling with the Boot order and so on, but it doesn't help. Ideas, anyone?
 
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First of all, adding a new HDD has absolutely nothing to do with a PC's ability to boot from a CD, at least as far as SATA is concerned.

What motherboard and what SATA controller card? Is it PCI?
 
What did you do, and why?

Try to go back to what was working before you installed anything new.

I am not sure what you are trying to do.
 
Sorry, I didn't specify, I'm not making any changes to an already working HD. I'm upgrading to a larger one, and trying to install Windows on it. Neither the Windows install CD, nor any self-booting DVD Ghost images (which could be used to install Windows a different way) will boot, although they do when I'm using the old, small HD. I updated the initial post to make this clearer.

Mobo: ASUS A7V8X-X
SATA Host Controller: Adaptec ASH-1205SA
New HD: WDC Black 1TB

I doubt CD booting actually has anything to do with the situation, it's probably that the computer won't do anything, including booting a CD, because it doesn't recognize something about the new HD -- not even its size, apparently. Like I said above, where it usually puts the HD size, it prints some spaces and then stops doing anything. Maybe I should have used a different thread title...
 
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Try setting your HD into IDE mode in bios. I decided to install XP on a SATA drive in my computer in AHCI mode and it wouldn't boot into my XP CD. The CD drives are both SATA too. Changed to IDE mode and it installed, and then I installed the ACH9 Intel Matrix Driver, edited the registry, and then I switched back to AHCI mode.
 
Just 2 thoughts...

Are you using XP with at least SP1?

That's a SATA1 card and your drive is SATA2. Sometimes SATA1 & 2 don't play nice together. That card uses a SIL3112 chipset and it should be alright with SATA2 but ya just never know.

Some older SATA2 HDs could be jumpered into SATA1 but I think all that's all passed.

Good Luck!
 
Someone remind me to give up on this computer and build a boat instead... oh well, yes my current (old) HD uses XP SP3. My XP install CD is for SP2.

I don't see any options in the BIOS to use the HD as IDE. I can list some of the options I do have if it'll help.

If it is a SATA1/SATA2 conflict, do I have any way to make this work? I've never dealt with major BIOS trickery or jumper settings, so I'm pretty incompetent here. There are the usual pins on the HD that I guess can be used to set jumpers, but I don't have any of those little plastic things you use to set things with them.

Old Hippie: By the "SATA1 card" do you mean my SATA host controller? Maybe I should get a new one, but with my luck it won't be compatible with my motherboard.
 
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Old Hippie: By the "SATA1 card" do you mean my SATA host controller?
Click to expand...
Yep, your plug-in card has SATA1 specs. Some SATA1 stuff (your card) doesn't play well wuth SATA2 stuff (your drive).

If I were you, I'd be finding some of those little HD jumpers and try setting them as shown here.

Or you may need to purchase a newer card that has SATA2 specs.

My last suggestion is the easiest, maybe you got a faulty drive.

You'll definately want to try that drive in a known working SATA computer or external USB drive case before doing any rash RMAing. :)
 
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Is your dvd drive PATA? Is your old hard drive PATA? If so maybe you need to change the master/slave jumper on the DVD drive to get it to work on its own on the IDE channel.
 
Sorry about the delay in replying. I want to fix this thing but I have a few questions first.

1. Where's a good place to buy HD/DVD drive jumpers online, does anyone know? I can't find them at Best Buy or Radio Shack. A few places online offer them but I'm not sure if they're hard drive jumpers specifically, or if that matters.

2. Which new SATA2 host controller should I buy? I'm working from this list but I can't tell which to get. Reviews are variable. Maybe Rosewill?

3. If I get a SATA2 controller, will it be backwards-compatible with my old SATA1 HD? I'd like to keep using for small backups.

Re krnlg and Old Hippie's comments: My DVD drive is PATA. Unfortunately I don't have any other non-prebuilt computers to test the new HD in, but I actually bought two identical WD 1TB drives at the same time and both of them have the same problem (the one in the first post), so unless both new drives are faulty, it's probably a SATA1-SATA2 incompatibility.
 
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Check your expansion slots.

Are they PCI or PCI-E?

All PCI cards are going to be SATA 1 specs but the newer ones, like those on NewEgg, can use SATA 2 drives.

I believe you can use PCI-E cards in a PCI slot but they will use the slower PCI specs, which won't matter to you anyway.

Here ya go, 20 bucks.
 
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I'm using PCI. Yeah, old.

Which SATACard one do you mean? The PCI-SA-112E on the front page? It doesn't say it's SATA 2 compatible though.
 
It's compatable and will work for ya the same as the Egg's stuff but this one's 20.00 and has two inside and one eSATA port.

Pay your money and take your choice, they're all about the same.

Good Luck!
 
Hi, me again with an update.

Quick question for anyone who just stopped by but is unfamiliar with this topic: Does anyone know for sure whether a PCI-E SATA controller will work in a PCI slot, and be compatible with both SATA1 and SATA2, allowing me to hook up a new HD to an old system? Or which PCI SATA controllers are guaranteed to work with new SATA2 HDs, at reduced SATA1 speeds?

As for what happened, I guess for Old Hippie if he reads this: After SATACard told me that the card you recommended was out of stock, I got the PCI-SA-114, also listed on the front page, instead. Amusingly, it mentions on the page that the card is specifically good for hooking up modern 1TB hard drives to old PCI systems. Today it arrived and was a complete disaster.

I hooked it up first off with my current, 80GB, working hard drive to test. The first couple times it booted up, my monitor suddenly stopped working (yeah, what the heck), and said no cable connected. After I unplugged and replugged the SATA card, the monitor did work and I got a BIOS error complaining about abnormal CPU Speed, which I have never gotten before. After getting out of that I got so far as the Windows boot screen, then there was an extremely quick blue screen of death, so fast I couldn't make out the error message, and the computer restarted. I tried about 10 times, using different SATA cables and PCI ports, always getting the blue screen of death (a couple times, it wouldn't even get to the Windows boot screen).

I then tried the new SATA controller with both new, unused 1TB HDs. With either of them, it would do just what my old SATA controller did, print the HD name and model number to the screen and then print a bunch of spaces and stop, with a blinking cursor, and not do anything after that. So I don't think it's even SATA2 compatible anyway.

Just one thing to note about the card itself: it looks identical to the picture on the site, except that it does not have the SATACard.com logo on it, and I'm pretty sure they're a bunch of third-party scammers that Photoshopped it in.

Not sure what to do now... buy a different SATA controller, I guess. Maybe Rosewill. I just hope it supports SATA2.
 
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anerfoc said:
Hi, me again with an update.

Quick question for anyone who just stopped by but is unfamiliar with this topic: Does anyone know for sure whether a PCI-E SATA controller will work in a PCI slot, and be compatible with both SATA1 and SATA2, allowing me to hook up a new HD to an old system? Or which PCI SATA controllers are guaranteed to work with new SATA2 HDs, at reduced SATA1 speeds?

.
Click to expand...

PCI-E is completely incompatible with PCI. Many PCI-E SATA controller cards are compatible with SATA1 and SATA2. There are PCI cards that do support SATA 2 HDDs at SATA 2 speeds.
 
Danny Bui said:
There are PCI cards that do support SATA 2 HDDs at SATA 2 speeds.
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying. Do you know the brand names or model numbers of these cards, or how to identify them? I can't seem to find any info on this and I really don't want to waste another $20 and wait a week for nothing. I've got about 5 GB left on this hard drive and it's really starting to cramp me.

If they're way expensive though, one that supports SATA2 at SATA1 speeds might be preferable. I'm not sure that the speed matters much because I'm mostly going to be copying from many, many DVDs to the new backup HD, and DVDs have read speed limits of their own.
 
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There are usually jumpers on t he back of the hard drive that can be used to set it into SATA1 mode. Then all of your problems might solved. Rather than buying a new card...

Another problem could be that on some really old Bios versions there is a size limitation on the largest hard drives that can be installed. Usually this is fixable by flashing the bios to the newest version. Most likely though you just need to set the jumper on the back of your hard drive.
 
Thanks, but I already tried setting the jumpers, as outlined here. I tried setting SSC, OPT1, and both, with the same result that's specified in the first post of this topic -- the comp hangs after printing the HD model number.

You could be right about the BIOS, which is Award BIOS. According to EVEREST, the System BIOS dates back to late 2004, the Video BIOS to late 2005. I've never actually tried flashing the BIOS to a new version, and I'm a little wary lest something break and leave me unable to switch back.

EDIT: I think I figured out why the SATACard controller doesn't work with my current, working SATA1 hard drive. Because that copy of Windows isn't configured to work with this SATA card. I would need to reinstall the operating system and put in a floppy and install the drivers for the card. However, none of that matters much because the SATACard controller doesn't work with my 1TB SATA2 drives, and that's what I bought it for.

Anyway, does anyone know the make/model of a PCI SATA controller that's SATA2 compatible, at either reduced or full speeds? That's all I need to know. Or maybe I should try flashing the BIOS, though I don't think my current Adaptec ASH-1205SA controller will accept SATA2 no matter what.
 
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Hey Bud....I just got back online....this RAID crap is kicking my butt!

I read your trials and tribulations.....

I would need to reinstall the operating system and put in a floppy and install the drivers for the card.
Click to expand...

There should be some .exe drivers online for your card that don't require a reinstall. Check here for your driver.

Danny is correct about the PCI(E) thing. I had it ass backwards! :)

AAR, if the drivers don't do the trick, I'm outta ideas except for a MB upgrade.

Let us know how it works out!
 
Thanks again for the response, and yeah, I'm back! Sorry for the delay. This time I just have some pretty straightforward BIOS upgrade questions.

What happened:
I went to ASUS's download center and downloaded aflash (ASUS's BIOS flashing program) and the latest BIOS and spend a while researching how to get them to work (used the "Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing" from http://www.bootdisk.com/ on a floppy, since XP doesn't have DOS included). I've backed up my existing BIOS and I'm all ready to upgrade to the latest one.

Main question:
But, now I'm not sure whether I should upgrade. I read that you should never upgrade to a beta version, and the only version newer than my version (which is 1013) is 1014.002, a beta. You can see it in the ASUS download section if you want, Motherboards -> Socket A -> A7V8X-X. Both are pretty old; my current 1013 dates back to September 2004, and the beta, June 2005. I don't know if it's wise to upgrade or if it would help the BIOS to recognize the 1TB HD. Is it? Would it, maybe?

Also:
When I use aflash, the only upgrade option it gives me is to "Update BIOS without Boot Block and ESCD". The aflash manual claims that it should read "Update BIOS Including Boot Block and ESCD" instead. I don't have the original mobo manual, so this is my only guide. I did some searching and it seems a lot of people have had this exact same "without" message, but there are no solutions given. Maybe it doesn't matter if the Boot Block and ESCD don't get updated?

Re: Old Hippie's SiL drivers suggestion:
According to my boot-up procedure, I'm using SiL 3112A, not 3114, but anyway, what these drivers would do is help my existing 80GB HD work with the new SATACard controller, right? They wouldn't help me get the 1TB drives working. That's my focus; if I can't get them to work, I'm just going to return the SATACard controller. Very good suggestion though; according to the driver manual, these will indeed work with an existing XP installation.
 
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According to my boot-up procedure, I'm using SiL 3112A, not 3114, but anyway, what these drivers would do is help my existing 80GB HD work with the new SATACard controller, right? They wouldn't help me get the 1TB drives working.
Click to expand...

The drivers are just an .exe file that can be run just like any other installer...you know...just double click and say yes.

You need those to get this card to work.

It'll take you all of 30 seconds.

PSSSS...I must be forked-up on this.

I'm Googleing your MB and it looks to be a newer model?

As usual, I'm confused. :confused:
 
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Never mind, I don't think it matters now. I bit the bullet and went ahead with the BIOS upgrade. No change. Neither SATA controller will recognize either new hard drive, whether the jumpers are set or not: SSC, OPT1 (1.5 Gb/s transfer speed), nothing makes any difference.

About the SiL drivers: What I meant was they couldn't possibly help to get the 1TB drives working, so no matter what, I would have to try the BIOS upgrade. It's by the by now, but which driver would I have used anyway? I don't see anything there listed for non-RAID (though I guess with RAID capabilities) 32-bit Windows XP. And you were right, the SATACard used SiL 3114.

And yep, that's my motherboard all right. Most of the specs seem to match. But it's not new; just scroll down, it says AGP! AGP mobos haven't been made in years, I think. I don't know why on earth the article was made in 2009, though.

Thanks for all your help, anyway. For the time being, I've rigged up two 80 GB drives together, which gives at least a fair amount of storage space.
 
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