[TomD22]

Hi

I've been trying to install a second sata harddrive today, but was having trouble getting windows to recognise it. So I went and changed some of the raid options in the BIOS (although I'm not actually trying to do raid with it).

Problem is, I think I must have changed something I shouldn't have....because now my original harddrive with windows etc on it isn't detected as the computer boots, and so I can't load windows.

I *think* I've put everything in the BIOS back like it was before I started messing. I've also unplugged and removed the new drive. But still the original one isn't being found.

Any ideas? Anyone know some likely setting I've altered wrongly?

Thanks

 

[Scorpion]

Best bet is to boot to BIOS and load default settings. This should allow the machine to boot correctly....

Warning tho...if you have a USB KB or mouse, the default for USB devices may be 'off', so they may not work.

Scorp.

 

[TomD22]

Yup, tried resetting the BIOS to it's default, but no luck there (and strangely, even though the default is for usb keyboard to be disabled, it still works fine. But that's beside the pioint).

In general, does anyone know any tips for getting a computer to recognise that it has a sata drive plugged into it? n-force 4 chipset, nvidia bios.

Thx

 

[bigbear]

Try resetting the cmos.

 

[crjdriver]

This is a problem with many onboard type of controllers. There are often different drivers depending on if raid is enabled or not. When you enabled raid, I bet you got a bsod with a message about hardware and or inaccessible boot device.
Go back and read your manual about bios settings. Now enter the bios and set the sata controller for whatever mode it was in when you installed windows. Probably standard ide. Note if this is an intel controller, they have about three modes; standard, achi, and, raid.

 

[TomD22]

Whew.....fixed this part of the problem anyways. It seems that disabling all IDE and SATA raid in the bios has allowed it to find the drive again.

Which is odd, because that's definitly NOT how it was before. But whatever works :S

So thx for the help, but now for the next problem




Two harddrives are found in the bios. Two harddrives are found in nvidia's (software, running in windows) raid setup program. BUT, windows disc management can only see one drive, so I can't find and format the second one.

Latest service pack etc, and seagate say I don't need any drivers 'cos xp has them anyway.

Ideas?

Thx

 

[JohnWill]

If you've now configured them for RAID, they will appear as only one drive for Windows, that's the way RAID works.

 

[TomD22]

No, I already said I didn't want to configure them for raid. It just happens that nvidia included some raid software with the motherboard, and that software can see the drives (confirming to me that they are plugged in and working). I haven't actually used it to raid them.

 

[crjdriver]

Is this a new "out of the box" drive or has it been used before?