[installing OS] What are "SATA Drivers for controller?"

[ArkiStan]

Here was my problem:
My new SATA drive is not recognized during the installation of Windows XP. The installer reports that "there is no drive present" for the Windows installation, even though the hard drive shows up in the Boot Setup's "drivers" menu.

I did a google search and found out:
During the initial installation of Windows, you will need to press F6 almost immediately when "Setup is inspecting your hardware..." appears on the screen. You will then be asked to provide any mass storage controller drivers you may have. At this point, use the drivers supplied by your controller manufacturer (or motherboard manufacturer).

Question:
What exactly are the drivers they refer to? Motherboard drivers? If so, do I get the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website? (I didn't receive anything with the computer.) How do I know what my motherboard manufacturer is? My Dell Dimension 9100 manual doesn't specify.
Or are they referring to drivers from the HDD manufacturer?

[shocky123]

..if you're not using an onboard SATA controller, then you'd need to load up the drivers there, and the drivers would be whichever drivers came with the controller.
However, if you have onboard SATA..which is much more likely, you probably just have your SATA ports disabled at some level in bios. Check out bios settings and make sure all "SATA controller" or "SATA port"'s are enabled.

~Kyle

[ArkiStan]

I think you're right. I do have onboard SATA plugs. What's wrong then??

What's funny is that I was already using a SATA drive before. I just got a faster SATA drive that I wanted to use as the main OS drive. I hooked up the new drive, ran my Win XP install CD, and that was when neither SATA drives would appear anymore.

Could the problem be related to my Win XP installation CD?

[PrObLy]

Windows XP came out before SATA drives were really around, so it has no initial support for them.

You have to get online and download your drivers to a floppy disk from the manufacturer's website and press the ol' F6 when Windows Setup is starting.

Even though your SATA is onboard, Windows still wants the drivers, this happened with my onboard RAID.

[bachviet]

WinXP doesn't have driver for SATA controller so you have to install it. You need a floopy for this though.

[ArkiStan]

oops...I've got no floppy....crap
USB drives work???

And where can I check the brand of my motherboard??? My Dell manual doesn't specify it.

[bachviet]

oops...I've got no floppy....crap
USB drives work???

And where can I check the brand of my motherboard??? My Dell manual doesn't specify it.
USB won't work (at least I didn't get it to work) and you don't need to check the motherboard brand for this. All you need is the driver from Dell, which could be found either on the Dell CD or online.

[ArkiStan]

Man how hard does it have to be to get my freaking comp set up? jeez....

Will I have to do this once? or everytimne I add a new SATA drive?

[AlpineJay]

If the OS is going on the new drive, then you will have to do this for every OS install.

Only way I've gotten it to work is with a floppy. Floppies are cheap (drives are ~10) so to me it was just worthwhile to run out and pick one up quick.

[ArkiStan]

Arrgh....I still can't seem to fing the exact driver... Can somebody help me?

The HDD is a a Western Digital 74Gb RAPTOR
Computer is a Dimension 9100 (don't know what kind of motherboard, but it uses an onboard SATA controller. The Western Digital website only seems to provide drivers for add-on "controller cards.")

[Pemolis]

The Sata Drivers will be on the Dell Website. The driver is independant on hard drive manufacturer (all they require is that the drive is a sata drive).

Put the drivers (should be 3 files) on a floppy, hit F6 when the blue screen to install comes up.

It'll load and should find the hard drive.


Edit.

Here is the link to it

Dell Driver for Sata Install (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=RC956904&l=en&s=hied&releaseid=R99740&SystemID=DIM_P4_9100&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=8615&devlib=0&typecnt=2&vercnt=1&formatcnt=1&fileid=128971)

Download it. Run it (it will ask for a diskette). Put in a blank diskette.

Follow brief directions above.

[ArkiStan]

Wow....Now why didn't I think of checking the Dell website....
I think I may have finally solved this problem. Thanks Pemolis and everybody else who helped out!

I'll try this and report back.

[ArkiStan]

Oh my God, the endless journey continues!!

I just went out and bought a used floppy drive for $8 and a SATA cable. I had to visit 5 computer stores just to find the SATA cable. I come home to discover that I don't have a cable for my floppy drive. It's one more trip downtown.

I guess this is what I get for buying a bare OEM drive when I'm not even that computer literate..... *sob*...

BTW....

When I'm installing Win XP and press F6 at the setup screen, I'm told I will have to select among the following four options:

- Intel(R) 82801GR SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) 82801GR SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller
- Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller

Which should I use? My setup will not be a RAID setup, but simply two individual SATA drives, one for the OS and one for storage.