please help a sata newbie :)

[Fox@Mulder]

Hey.

I just put my new machine together - AMD 64 3500+, Asus Sli Deluxe, 2x512 MB Geil Value and Leadtek GF 6800 NU, 256MB.

I connected my 200 gb sata disk to the "Sata 1" plug on the motherboard, went to bios and set the booting order to Floppy -> CDRom -> Sata.

Then I booted on a Windows XP Cdrom, started installing Windows. I forgot to press F6 during install but Windows found my new harddisk anyway - so I created a partion and formatted the disk.

Now Win XP is installed and everything seems to be running perfect, but since it´s the first time I´m using a Sata disk I still have some newbie questions:


1) I´m not planing to use raid for the moment. Do I need to create a floppy disk with a sata driver and go reinstall Windows XP (pressing F6 this time)? Or don´t I need it now that Windows have found my hdd anyway. Will there be any difference in performance?

2) When I boot it of course shows the detected disks and stuff, and I noticed that it says:

"First Sata Master LBA,ATA133 200GB"

My hdd is a Sata-150 disk and my motherboard also supports Sata-150 so shouldn´t it say "First Sata Master LBA, ATA150 200GB" when I boot?
Do I need to change this and if so, where and how? Can I check if my hdd is running Sata-133 or Sata-150 anywhere in Windows?

3) My Sata disc is getting power from a normal power plug - is there any difference in performance between using a normal power plug and a sata power plug??

Please help me with those silly questions

 

[starhawk]

(1) yeah, you still gotta do it... see answer for #2 as to why.

(2) it's still acting like an ide drive since you never installed the drivers.

(3) not really... but it's a REALLY bad idea to plug both in at the same time.

 

[UICompE02]

:Can I check if my hdd is running Sata-133 or Sata-150 anywhere in Windows?

There's no such thing as SATA-133, so you can rest assured that no matter what Windows is telling you it's running at 150MB/s (1.5gb/s).

 

[defakto]

You're system is probably seeing it as ata133 because the harddrive is, most likely, pata hardware adapated with a bridge to sata which is what a lot of the first generation sata drives were.

 

[Fox@Mulder]

Hey there

First of all thx for your answers.

My asus board has two sata controllers each controlling 4 sata plugs on the motherboard. I have tried creating a floppy disc for each of the two controllers using the menu at the CD that came with my motherboard. Then I went and reinstalled Windows two times - one time with each of the drivers - everything works fine with both, but I can´t see any noticeable changes.

When I boot it still says:

"First Sata Master LBA,ATA133 200GB"

Shall I just ignore this and believe the disc runs Sata-150?

I just downloaded "Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics", ran a test and it comes up with this:

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2000JD-00HBB0
Serial Number: WD-WMAL81425152
Firmware Number: 800.D280
Drive Type: IDE
Capacity: 200.05 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 03:58:14, February 03, 2005

Does it really mean my Sata disc at this point is acting like an IDE disc? How is this possible with it beeing connected to the Sata1 plug on the motherboard with a sata cable?

You're system is probably seeing it as ata133 because the harddrive is, most likely, pata hardware adapated with a bridge to sata which is what a lot of the first generation sata drives were.

What does this mean? The disc is brand new and should be the latest generation?..

Hope you can help.

 

[starhawk]

because you did not install the sata drivers, your computer treats it as an ide drive. the computer and the drive know how to "talk" to each other with ide commands via that cable... so that's what they do in absence of any other set of instructions.

the drive happens to know that it can "talk" to the computer with sata commands, but it won't do that until the computer "talks" to the drive and tells the drive that it [the computer] can talk in sata commands as well.

it won't do this until you give it the drivers.

 

[defakto]

just because you're drive was bought new in box does not mean it's latest generation.

If he drive is working without drivers installed, it means the chipset is supported natively under whatever version of windows you're running.. If it *needed* the drivers loaded like my motherboard does, windows would not have even seen the drive as something it could install to. It's nothing to worry about, you can even update your drives in windows if you needed too since it's already working. Though, if you wanted to run it as raid, that would be a different story, doesn't sound like you're running raid though.

 

[UICompE02]

because you did not install the sata drivers, your computer treats it as an ide drive. the computer and the drive know how to "talk" to each other with ide commands via that cable... so that's what they do in absence of any other set of instructions.

the drive happens to know that it can "talk" to the computer with sata commands, but it won't do that until the computer "talks" to the drive and tells the drive that it [the computer] can talk in sata commands as well.

it won't do this until you give it the drivers.

Well, the thing is, SATA and IDE commands are exactly the same for the most part. This is why an IDE driver is working to talk to your SATA drive. The difference is in the physical layer connection between the controller and the drive -- and both the drive and controller know how to do that without drive intervention.

The controller shows up in windows as an IDE controller because that's what it is. Now, if your controller offers special things that aren't standard IDE/SATA protocol, that's what you need a driver for (certain RAID controllers, or some other performance enhancements that aren't standard)...

 

[Fox@Mulder]

Hey,

First of all thx you for spending time trying to help me - it´s much appriciated.

Let me just give you some more information about the Sata/Raid controllers on my Asus A8N-Sli deluxe board.

There are 4 black plugs on my board named SATA1 to SATA4 and I have connected my disc to SATA1, as the manual says I shall, when I´m not running the disc(s) as RAID.

Then there are also 4 red plugs named SATA_RAID1 to SATA_RAID4. Those are controlled by a Silicon SiL 3114 controller - one that I have disabled in BIOS because I´m not running RAID. If I don´t disable this controller it halts for some time in BIOS trying to detect any RAID arrays and prompting that I have to press this and that if I want to configure a RAID.
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If I use the disc provided with the motherboard I get two options in terms of making driver discs:

1) Make Nvidia Raid Driver Disc
2) Make Silicon Sata/Raid Driver Disc.

I have tried both of course. If I press F6 and use number 1, I get the following options during the Windows Install:

Nvidia Raid Class Driver (required)
Nvidia Nforca Storage Controller (reauired)

I have tried installing windows with both selected and I have tried with only the Nforce Storage Controller selected.

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If I press F6 and use number 2, I get the following options during the Windows Install (Silicon controller enabled in BIOS of course):

Silicon Image SiL 3114 Softraid 5 Controller for Windows XP/Server 2003
Silicon Image SiL 3114 Softraid 5 Controller for Windows 2000

Anyway, I think we can agree on that I shall not use the Silicon controller, since I´m not running raid. That leaves me with the other one, but I can´t see any difference.

In some other forum where I also asked one guy said that with my new board, which is absolutely latest generation, I only have to use a driver if I´m running RAID.

So what do you guys say? Shall I just ignore that it says ATA133 when I boot or shal I try installing again useing one of the driver discs?
In some forums they also talk about some "via.." raid driver - shall I maybe try this?

Hope this ekstra information, can help you helping me