# SATA HDD as primary



## Shaolyn (Oct 31, 2006)

So i had another thread but noone answered. I just figured they couldnt see it. Basically, my question is can ANYONE please tell me how to set up my hard drive such that my SATA hard drive is the primary hard drive? thanks.


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## Deathhawk (Apr 12, 2007)

Hi Shaolyn,

You will need to go into your Bios to set a particular drive as boot...once there, go to the BOOT section and there should be a part listed as "hard disks"..once you go into this you can set whichever drive you want as primary..to get into bios varies on different machines...mine is to continually tap "delete" on boot up...but when your pc starts it says about entering "set up" and to press *** key.

Other than that, on boot up, continually tap f8 which gives you the option of which drive to boot from 

hope that helps!


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Many boards will default to an ide drive as the boot disk. 

You need to first read your manual as to how to enter the bios and where the hd boot order is located. Each bios is a little different and it is difficult at best to give you exact instructions to set the hd priority.


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## Shaolyn (Oct 31, 2006)

When i go into BIOS, there is a place where i choose the hard drives. But this is what it looks like:
//
1. SCSI-0 : WDC WD2000JD-55HBCB
2. Bootable Add-In Cards
//
it says exactly that, without the //. I only add in the // to say that that is what showed on the screen. 

When i boot my computer, the computer says that it is detecting IDE drives, and then it says "None". Then it checks for secondary IDE drive, and again, "None". i dont know what else to do


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## norton850 (Mar 9, 2004)

Windows often calls SATA drive SCSI although most BIOS setups get it right. Do you have a Western Digital HD with that number? What motherboard do you have?


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Post your exact specs ie make and model of motherboard, etc. We can check the manual for your board and see. It looks like you have the boot order not the hd priority.


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## Shaolyn (Oct 31, 2006)

ok umm i have an Asus A8V-E Deluxe motherboard, 
my SATA HDD is WDC WD2000JD-55HBCB

i know that my mobo supports the raid and sata and such, but i dont know why its not working. Also, it should not be the boot order, because there is another area that says "Boot Priority" which i choose whether i want Hard drive, or Floppy, or Removable or even CD to boot.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

OK, I am not understanding your problem. Your system has a hd and it is detected as shown. Since this is a sata drive, you are not going to detect any ide drives that is normal. 

Are you having a problem installing windows or what exact problem are you having?

BTW I have an asus a8v deluxe board here still running after about three years; not a bad board for a via chipset.


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## Shaolyn (Oct 31, 2006)

Ok. to put it simply, you know the loading screen where it shows you what the computer is detecting? it would say Detecting IDE Primary, and then Detecting IDE Secondary right? someting like:
Detecting IDE Primary(Master).....ok (or the hdd name)
Detecting IDE Secondary(Slave)....ok (or secondary hdd name)
thats what happens normally

BUT in my case, it says
Detecting IDE Primary(Master).....None
Detecting IDE Secondary(Slave)...None

this means that the boot is not detecting that i have any hard drives. when i put the xp cd in and attempt to intsall xp, the computer says there are no hard drives, and process cannot continue. 

When i go into my BIOS and look at the Hard drive section, i see the hard drive that is connected. (what i previously posted about the 1. WDC, 2. Built-In Cards)

i hope this clarifies things?


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## norton850 (Mar 9, 2004)

In the past different BIOS set ups report SATA drives differently. I have an ASUS board about 3 years old and at post it ignores listing the SATA drive even though it is clearly in the BIOS and is my boot drive. Since it's not an IDE drive you are correctly getting a report that says "IDE drives none".

You may also want to check this out. Install XP on SATA drive
You will probably have to make the floppy using you MB CD.


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## Shaolyn (Oct 31, 2006)

Sorry, could you tell me what an MB CD is?

Also, i dont recall a RAID Floppy that came with the hard drive. I do however remember seeing something like that on the disc that came with the motherboard (the cd with all the drivers and such).. could i make a RAID floppy from that cd? or how else could i get this floppy? thanks

Also Also, I was wondering if you know what the warranty is on a WDC HDD. because if i could get it fixed i would want to, since it is a 120 gig hard drive.


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## brightersuns (Jun 6, 2007)

I had the same issue. You won't see the SATA drive detected in that IDE screen. If you've plugged your SATA drive into the SATA RAID port, you have to go in to BIOS-->Advanced, and change OnBoard Promise Controller to [IDE Mode]. I know, sound silly.


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## bigbear (Apr 27, 2004)

Check the motherboard, there should be an option in the drivers section to "Make Nvidia Raid driver disc"
This is installed to a floppy ready to use at the F6 prompt when loading windows to install the sate drivers.
Even if you are not using a Raid array this still has to be loaded, the sata drivers are on the disc as well


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## MerlinLair (Aug 17, 2007)

Listen, this is too simple. Boot your PC with the Motherboard driver disk in your primary CD or DVD player. once you boot with the driver disk in the player, assuming it is D:, follow the prompt.
You have to install a Floppy drive, and creat a raid/SCSI driver disk. 
Then remove the disks. reboot with the XP OS install disk
When prompted, press F6
when the screen asks for the Floppy, insert and press enter
install the appropriate driver
and continue with the OS install


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