# Western Digital 160 GB SATA Harddrive Installation



## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

Ok, so I finally got a new HD after my old one crashed. It's the one stated above. Here's all the steps I've tried with installing it: I've used the regular SATA cable (orange) and connected it to the proper place. I've ran windows XP setup and installed the SATA/RAID driver, but it says it can't find a harddrive. I've done the same above except i've used the 'SmartConnect' cable that came with it, and a power cable. I've used both the SATA cable and the SmartConnect cable using the CD that came with the HD and it can't ever find a HD. The picture for a master drive is there while all the others say open but I can't select it. It says something about SM ATA and a whole bunch of others that are similar and it says 'No Response'. Any help?


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## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

I forgot to mention that I tried an old IDE drive or whatever it's called, and it worked fine.


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## Swiper (Mar 14, 2003)

Not sure what motherboard you have, but you may need to enter the BIOS setup screen and enable SATA controller
Someone may have disabled it in BIOS because there was none originally setup with the computer.

good luck
Swiper


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## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

I'm using an MSI K8T800 Neo board. When I check my BIOS (Del) I don't see anything about SATA whatsoever. What should my boot sequence be?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

That board uses the VIA chipset, so you'll have to load the SATA drivers to access the SATA drive in XP. BTW, it does indeed support RAID0-1 on the MB. You'll see a separate prompt to enter the RAID controller BIOS if you enable it in the BIOS. I'd look for the options under the built-in I/O section of the BIOS.


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## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

Well I saw that the controllers were enabled. So with that said, what else needs to be done? The only thing I could possibly think of is either I need to download some different drivers to a disc, or BIOS (maybe they don't work with my Western Digital SATA hd) or that my jumpers on my HD are wrong. I see the diagram for jumpers but I see nothing about setting it to SATA 150, and tech support is closed for WD at the moment..


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## prunejuice (Apr 3, 2002)

There are no SATA hard disk jumpers.

Make sure you have the *correct* drivers on your floppy when you're prompted for them during install.


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## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

Well everyone tells me otherwise as far as the jumpers go. And the same driver disc worked fine with my old samsung drive, how could it change with a harddrive? (I'm hoping that's the case however, since it sounds easy to fix)


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

The SATA drive needs special drivers for XP to see it, they're on the MB disk, and you normally have to put them on a floppy and load them early in the install by pressing F6. You may have to do some configuration as well, I don't know the MB in question, so I can't be sure.


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## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

I have the disk with drivers on them.. I have loaded them with F6.. it still says 'Cannot Find Harddrive' This disk works because Frye's gave it to me when I had problems with my old harddrive (Samsung) and it loaded just fine.


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## daddyhominum (Dec 2, 2005)

Corrosive666 said:


> I'm using an MSI K8T800 Neo board. When I check my BIOS (Del) I don't see anything about SATA whatsoever. What should my boot sequence be?


I have that board with a SATA on via vt8237 southbridge. The MSI CD has a VIA SATA Raid Utility that installs the drivers in an existing XP OS.

IIRC, you can also push F6 during POST to get a screen to install third party drivers before the OS boots..

D


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## Corrosive666 (Aug 17, 2005)

daddyhominum said:


> I have that board with a SATA on via vt8237 southbridge. The MSI CD has a VIA SATA Raid Utility that installs the drivers in an existing XP OS.
> 
> IIRC, you can also push F6 during POST to get a screen to install third party drivers before the OS boots..
> 
> D


What exactly is POST? Whatever it is, I just Press F6, then put my CD that came with my MSI mobo in?


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## daddyhominum (Dec 2, 2005)

When you turn your computer on it does a Power On Self Test and you see all the info about harddrives etc.

Try hitting F6 during the POSt.

I hope F6 is right . My memory or watchcallit isn't good


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