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grakem

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Asus k8n will not boot off sata drives

I have installed the latest firmware and am using a seagate barracuda 7200.7.  If I boot off an IDE drive then it works fine but if I try to install to SATA using an official windows xp pro cd then there is no joy.  The screen just goes blank after bios.  If I ghost the data accross then the drive just goes to a flashing cursor after bios.  If I plug in the sATA drive as a slave and boot off the IDE drive then the sata drive is readable from the windows side.  

What do I do?
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onedeej

you will have to do a clean install of XP, using the Sata drivers from the motherboard (create the disk using the appropriate utility, it will make a floppy disk for you) when you do it, set your boot device priority to CD drive, then Hdd in the BIOS, turn the computer off, and unplug the IDE Hard drive, turn the machine back on, when the computer hits the CD drive, it will ask you to press any key to install... press a key. then when the installation starts press F6 when it prompts on the bottom of the screen "Press F6 to install a third party SCSI or Raid driver" if you dont catch that prompt, thats OK, because windows will finish loading its initial files and then tell you "Windows could not detect any hard disks on your computer" (or something to that affect) follow the instructions to install the SATA driver from the motherboard, pop the disk in, and direct the installation to the appropriate SATA driver, and let windows finish installing on that drive, when you finish, set your BIOS for booting to SATA, and plug in your IDE drive again, all should be well.
Why do a reinstall of XP when the board BIOS may not support the SATA boot in the first place?  If the board support is correct, it should be a matter of adding the right drivers to an existing windows setup, and its done.

Grakem -- have you gone to the ASUS website and downloaded the latest sata drivers for this specific board?  If not, get them, and try removing the old and installing the new before reinstalling windows.
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AHA !! got you onedeej -- so if all he needs to do is create an MBR, it is as simple as sticking in the CD, as you described, and go to "make as if you are going to do a new install"  -- but when it gets to the point of recognizing the existing XP installation on the sata drive (all other drives out at this stage) -- that is the time you press "R" to repair the existing installation -- which all it does is remake the MBR correctly, and refresh the basic OS files.

XP is such a hassle with the MBR -- deliberate of course.  With 98 it was SO SO simple -- fdisk /mbr
and in 20 seconds you were done.  I have been thinking of writing a simple utility that would remake all the right boot files and the XP MBR (including preserving dual boot) -- and I could easily do this, but I have so little free time now.  However, if it was a item I could sell to recover a little of the dev. time, I would do it.

I feel for everyone who has to go through this "reinstall" charade, JUST to remake a 512 byte boot record.  It is one of the biggest scams of MS, shameful how much hassle they put others through, needlessly, I feel....
it wont create the new MBR without the SATA drivers, so he has to create the SATA driver disk before he tries the install, or recovery console at which point it would be better to perform a new install as he wont have old stuff lying around his hard drive, XP will NOT recognize the SATA controller even if it is set to IDE emulation, or RAID in the BIOS - it needs a specific driver, yes 98 was much easier to take care of for MBR issues, but I dont even think there is a way of adding SATA boot to that OS without slipstreaming something.

There is no real "installation" on the SATA as it was ghosted from the IDE drive, so the OS still might not copy the appropriate MBR for that HDD which I agree is VERY un-versitaille I remember with 98SE one time I upgraded from a Celeron 533 to a P3 1g New motherboard, Processor, HDD, the works - the client wanted all of his personal data, brought me the drive, and nothing else, I just ghosted and booted with nothing in the USB ports, the machine detected everything and ran just fine, I even did an SFC to check the system, and all was well. BUT NO not with XP, we have to do a clean install whenever you change ANY significant device
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Hi all thanks for the comments.

I have been off the net whilst I tried the following.  

I formatted the Sata and tried a fresh install, I used the SATA drivers that came on my cd under the f6 setup disk.  I added them during the install.  It detected the drive and in the setup screen and I reformatted using the windows stage.  It loaded the setup files onto the disk and then rebooted and guess what............ FLASHING $%$^$%$% CURSOR!  

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I used Casper Xp and it just did a straight copy and I haven't had any problems,  I installed the latest drivers nforce has and it seems to work fine, but I still can't do a fresh boot, at least I am running off the sata so problem is sorted.