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BIOS does not recognize SATA HDD as Primary Master.

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10 replies

by mr.john.kerrigan

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BACKGROUND:
1. I am not an IT specialist, but a reasonably knowledgeable amateur.
2. On recommendations from knowledgeable friends I am assembling following system:
MOBO: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard (Installed with latest BIOS)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz LGA 775
SATA HDD: Seagate SATA/300 Barracuda 500GB (ST3500630AS)
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
Graphics: EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB
I have no other HDD and the ribbon cable has not been used in the build.

PROBLEM:
The build was easy except for the installation of the CPU fan.

On initially switching on I pressed 'Delete' to enter BIOS setup. On the 'Main' menu pane, 'Primary IDE Master' is set as [None]. My Seagate SATA HDD is recognized, however, and connected to 'SATA 1'.

The problem appears when I try to install Windows Vista 64. On initial boot, no HDD is detected, although the CD auto loads with 'Windows is loading files...'. I get to the Vista 'Install Now'; enter the product key; accept license terms; choose 'Install a clean copy of Windows...'.

Now I am asked 'Where do you want to install Windows?' The only option is the HDD called 'Disk0 Partition 1' (Size=465.8 GB, Type=Logical). I click ?Next? and a warning appears, 'Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation'.

In case the driver is not correct I have installed SATA_Raid drivers for Vista 64 from the Asus CD supplied with the MOBO (although I am not confident that these are even needed as I only have a single HDD).

I _think_ that the install problem stems from the BIOS not recognizing my Seagate SATA HDD as a Primary IDE Master, but I am not sure.

I would be most grateful for any advice that helps me get the PC up and running! Thanks in advance.

10 replies

by oh smeg

You do need to Format the Drive before you tell Vista to install itself to it.

As I haven't used the 64 Bit Version of Vista once it hit the RTM level I'm not sure of the exact procedure here as it may have changed since I was Beta Testing it but I had to use the SATA Drivers when Installing Vista onto a SATA and Format the Drive just before entering the Product Key.

The Default Drive is a IDE Drive with all Hardware and as you don't have one of these the SATA Drive becomes the Boot Drive and is correctly connected to the SATA 1 Socket. However if you add a IDE Drive it will become the Default Boot Drive to the Hardware and it may not allow you to load off the SATA Drive as the Hardware will look to any IDE Drive to find Boot Files that would normally be copied to this drive.

Anyway you need to Format the Drive before telling Vista to install itself to the SATA Drive.

Col

by mr.john.kerrigan

RE: "Anyway you need to Format the Drive before telling Vista to install itself to the SATA Drive."

Thanks for the advice. Tried booting Vista from CDROM again. No option to reformat SATA drive until after product code entered. I used the 'Format' option (which appeared to run fine, at least the HDD made a noise for a few seconds). Strangely, 'New' and 'Extend' options are greyed out, which means I can not set up a partition.

Clicked, 'Next', which should have started the installation, and 'Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation' error appeared as before.

Thanks for the idea.

John

by mr.john.kerrigan

Thanks True Blue for your help. I am trying to format my drive as NTFS with 2 partitions. Will keep you posted...

by rob miners

are pretty straight forward. You can always post back if something goes wrong.

by mr.john.kerrigan

Well, I now have a SATA HDD with a 30GB Primary partition in NTFS format and a second large partition for data (as yet unformatted). Even managed to install Windows Vista! Thanks for your advice.

Now just need to install all the latest drivers and reduce the frequency of 'Blue Screens'.

Great advice, thanks once again.

John

by oh smeg

These shouldn't be happening as in Vista the BSOD is never supposed to happen. You got it right M$ Changed it to RED! Though personally I've never seen a Red SOD only the Blue ones which are supposed to happen when something really serious happens tot he OS. With a Normal Fatal Error Vista is sup[posed to Red SOD out. Well that's what the people at M$ say at least. :D

But as for these Fatal Errors that are occurring load the Drivers and make sure that you have the RAM installed for Dual Channel Mode this involves fitting 2 Sticks of RAM to the Correct Sockets with ASUS M'Boards this is generally the same Color RAM Sockets.

Lets know how you get on.

Col

by mr.john.kerrigan

Fingers crossed this is resolved... Just need to alter BIOS with optimal settings for RAM, CPU speed etc.

John

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