You said were going to re-attach the SATA connectors.  That would be my first recommendation.   Don't "force" them -- but they should "snap" (gently) into place.  Be careful -- they can break & THAT would be bad :)

SATA 0 is the right port to use on your motherboard.

What options does the motherboard give you for SATA Mode?

Does the drive you bought have both SATA & molex power connectors?  If so, try using the molex connectors.

Ok I tried using the other Gigabyte supplied SATA cable and switching from socket SATA0 to SATA1 but still the same problems. The BIOS gives me OnChip Serial ATA - ENABLED/DISABLED (I chose ENABLED) and SATA MODE - RAID/IDE (I chose IDE since I only have the one SATA drive and have no intentions of RAID).

The 160GB Seagate 7200.9 ST3160812AS drive only has a SATA power connector.  No molex.  The drive does appear to be spinning and warm though.

And good to see you again gary.  I really could use your assistance on this one...

Unfortunately the Seagate site does not have detailed technical details on this drive -- only a general data sheet.   Does the drive have a jumper on it that will let you restrict it to 150mb transfers (i.e. SATA-I rates)?   If so, jumper it for this setting.   Although SATA-II is supposed to be backwards compatible, some drives & controllers are simply not compatible in this regard.

Yes it does have a jumper.  I will try it, though Im praying i can find out how to set it since i have no docs.

hey i found this: http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1IKL1QQ4QTHTZ2OUJUARX4WX9A    .  Its the product manual for the 7200.9.  I'll skim thru it for any info.

Gary, my apologies.  Started working on response and had to leave for a while.  At least he now has instructions for jumper placement.

Dalton - thanks for jumping in.  I was gone for an hour.

aniston - the manual you found was for the PATA versions of those models, not the SATA drive like you have.  But willcomp gave you the information you need to jumper the drive correctly.

I suspect by the time you read this all will be working well :)

Give willcomp the points (at least some of them) !!

Gary - appreciate the kind words.

Know you're an Intel man but I'm an AMD guy.  Been there, done that as they say.  Went to nVidia chipset boards to get away from VIA 8237 SATA controllers.  Also newer nForce chipsets do not require F6 drivers for single SATA drive installation, much like Intel ACH5 and above southbridges.  Still needed for RAID, but makes life simpler on single drive systems.

Yess agree ... you'll need the drivers definately for Raid configs, but rarly ever have to be used to install SATA drivers, should be automatically detected.  I like both companies, but prefer AMD :)
 

aniston,

You up and running??   I suspect so :)
Let us know if you need any more assistance.

Ok thanks for the jumper settings. Problems still. When i set the jumper as specified the BIOS still didnt pick it up. I then warm rebooted and then it finally detected the SATA drive but didnt detect the DVDRW+CDRW on IDE Channel 1. I warm rebooted again and finally they all were detected. The problem I'm now seeing is when I cold boot the PC, the SATA drive is no longer detected. I must "warm" reboot before it is detected. POSTing too also takes 2 minutes longer, all the while the Seagate drive generating this very strange noise -- almost like crumbling paper, periodic ticks like a time clock, and a spring being coiled and released (like those door propts behind doors near the bottom to prevent them from banging into the wall). This noise has been going on steady for 5 mins now. How odd! Could the drive be faulty?

WHile the drive was recognized I promptly used Seagates DiscWizard and set it up for a 10GB and 150GB partition NTFS.

Anyway we're making progress its just why doesnt the BIOS recognize the SATA drive after a cold boot? The BIOS battery seems fine -- just before the cold boot i set the correct date/time and checked it again and all was fine.

Just a followup, once the drive was detected using SATA Mode IDE (after a warm reboot) i allowed the XP CDROM to boot.  I didnt bother pressing F6.  I pressed ENTER on the first screen of the XP Setup screen which began the detection of the drive.  It found the SATA drive but took about 5 mins before it finally showed the License Agreement.  Currenbtly the Seagate drive is making squeals as if something is broken along with the periodic ticks.  I'm proceeding with the install of XP onto the 10GB partiton and will let you know what more errors pop up.

As soon as i pressed enter on the 10GB partition to install XP onto I got back this error message:

An error occurred while Setup was updating partition information on: 152626 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR].  Setup cannot continue.

I tried modifying the BIOS to SATA Mode Raid instead of IDE.  On POST only the DVDRW and CDRW are recognized on IDE Channel 1, then the screen clears and a Via Raid screen appears which recognized the Seagate Drive.   Now Im not able to use the Seagate DiscWizard however the drive was partitoned earlier so it doesnt matter.  On a cold boot the Via Raid screen takes 15 secs or so but does recognize the SATA drive.  I launched the XP CDROM and used F6 to install the RAID driver.  I pressed ENTER on the main screen -- the first time it was instantaeous and showed the License Agreement however on the second time around it is sitting here for 15 mins "Examining 152626 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on viamraid" while the drive noise ticks/boings away.  I just turned off the PC.  Something is clearly wrong.

Any suggestions?  Perhaps a faulty drive or just poor BIOS/Chipset?

You definitely do NOT want SATA Mode Raid.   That's if you have more than one SATA drive and are using them as a RAID array.

You should not be installing a RAID driver with F6 -- you should be installing SATA drivers.   Do you have these?

... assuming the answer is YES, you should do this:

(1)  Turn on the PC and boot to the XP CD
(2)  When prompted, press F6 and install the SATA drivers
(3)  When XP shows the screen where it wants to install (I THINK this is after the F8, but don't recall for sure) on a particular partition, press the appropriate key to DELETE both of the partitions it shows (I forget the sequence, but IIRC it's a 2 key sequence -- one to delete and one to confirm that's what you want to do).
(4)  Then press the appropriate key to Create a partition, and let XP create a 20GB (or 10, or whatever size you want) partition for the install.   It should then format this partition & proceed with the install.

IF that doesn't work, I suspect you have a defective drive. (or one that's incompatible with your motherboard)

Dalton -- if you're following this, what's your opinion at this point?   I presume this is basically a VIA 8237 issue.

Download and burn Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) from:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Verify that drive signal and power cables are connected properly.

Boot from UBCD and run Seagate drive diagnostics to test drive.  If drive tests OK, reset it using Seagate utilities (low level format or zero fill).

May want to test memory and other components while you're at it.

Boot from XP CD, install VIA RAID drivers at F6 prompt.  Use XP to partition and format drive.  A word of caution, 10GB boot partition may be a little on the small side.  XP itself requires over 1GB.

If drive is working properly, steps above should get you back in business.

Gary, think it may be either an incorrect setup or faulty drive.  Drive diagnostics should verify that drive is operational.  Wiping drive will confirm that it's working.  A flaky cable may also be at play.  Tried to cover all the bases in suggestions above.  If I missed one, jump in.

Jumpering drive should resolve high throughput issue with 8237 southbridge.  After that, should be a straight forward install using F6 to install VIA RAID drivers (RAID driver is required for SATA support - that's for aniston's benefit)

I agree with you, DO NOT recommend using manufacturer's software to partition and initialize a drive.

I also did not realize that it was a VIA RAID driver -- I thought there were separate SATA drivers.
Glad you clarified that.   ... so nice to just use ACH5 southbridges -- no F6, "perfect" SATA support, etc. :)
Although I understand from your previous comments that nVidia chipsets are now working essentially the same way for AMD's.    I might just have to build an Athlon 64 system as a cold-weather project this winter, just for grins (and to see if my friend Dalton is telling the truth about how nice they are!!).     After all, I only have 8 computers for the 2 of us at the moment -- a couple more would be nice :)

Believe you'll really like the Athlon 64.  Runs cooler than P4s, great performance, very stable, and quiet (Cool 'n Quiet technology).  Do recommend nVidia chipset mobos unless VIA catches up.

What in the world do you do with 8 PCs?  Run your own network?

Ohh please build an athlon 64 ... you won't regret it ... or if you feeling even crazier... try the amd athlon 64 x2 dualcore quite on the expensive side though.  Its a thing of beauty

Yea,  as Dalton suggests ... aniston check all the components to see if something else is wrong with the motherboard possibly.  Will need the VIA RAID driver so it can identify the SATA drive.
==========================================

I'm gonna check out the motherboard manual for this to see if theres somethin were missin

Thanks for the prompt assistance!  I reset the BIOS back to SATA Mode IDE and used the Seagate Tools to test the drive. On first launch the SATA drive was not detected by the BIOS and so had to warm reboot and do it again. The drive was detected and was able to use the Seagate Tool.

Performing a 90 Second Quick Test - FAILED. Damaged Sectors: 256949398, 300205631, 118753035.  Performing a Full scan, found Bad Sectors 72738 to 72745 (I aborted it because it took too long to even get thru these 7 sectors).

I then tried the DiscWizard tool to perform a Zero Fill.  It just sat there at 0% while the HDD ticked and rattled away. There was no LED display to show HDD activity.

On a side note back when I did launch the Windows XP CDROM and pressed F6, then used the downloaded VIA SATA drivers, I was presented with the following list:
VIA VT8237/6421/6410 SATA RAID Controller (Windows XP/SRV2003)
VIA VT8237/6421/6410 SATA RAID Controller (Windows 2K)
VIA VT8237/6421/6410 SATA RAID Controller (Windows NT4)

I chose the first item for Win XP when i had the drive set for SATA Mode IDE.  The Via/Gigabyte notes state i should be selecting VIA ATA/ATAPI Controller but apparently its not in the list.  Im figuring it was old information and they just merged it into the first item.

I had some time and rushed down to Future Shop to get a Western Digital 160GB WD1600JD SATA-I drive to test my system out.  I can use this baby for 14 days free.  It comes with its own SATA cable so this should help isolate things.  I'll get back to you on the results in a few minutes...

Ok I installed the WD 160GB SATA-I drive.  On cold boot the mobo recognized it immeidately on IDE Channel 2. I loaded the XP CDROM and pressed F6 and chose the VIA SATA Raid Controller driver.  I was able to partition the HDD (12GB and 140GB) and am currently installing XP onto the 12GB C: partition.  Formatting is already 43% complete.  So far the WD SATA drive is running smoothly.  I didnt bother using the provided WD SATA cable and opted to using my own SATA interface/power cables which the Seagate was using.  

So far the problem seems to be with the Seagate drive itself and not my SATA cables or motherboard.  Phew.  Maybe SATA-II.5 had issues even though i jumpered it for SATA-I?  I'm still a bit pissed that I read Seagates are supposed to be quality drives.  WTF is this garbage?!  From the look of things I will be returning this Seagate drive but am considering switching to a Maxtor (though havent had much luck with these drives past 1 year) or Western Digital.  Im considering the following drives as replacements (cant do refunds):

MAXTOR
200 Gb 16Mb 7200 Rpm Maxtor Ata133 Model: 6B200R0 = $108.00 CAN
200 Gb 16Mb 7200 Rpm Maxtor Sata150 Model: 6B/6L200S0 = $112.00 CAN

WESTERN DIGITAL
160 Gb 8Mb 7200 Rpm ATA133 Western Digital Model: WD1600JB = $98.00
200 Gb 8Mb 7200 Rpm ATA133 Western Digital Model: WD2000JB = $111.00
160 Gb 8Mb 7200 Rpm Western Digital Sata150 Model: WD1600JS = $101.00

If you have any recommendations for a HDD that is reliable, quiet, good performer and for $108 CAN, I'm listening!!

Ok Windows has completed Copying its files and the PC has reset, and again all looks fine after the warm boot.

I'd absolutely suggest a WD drive.  I quite using Maxtor's about 3 years ago because of problems I had with a couple of drives, and have read about a LOT of issues with their current drives.  I even broke down last year and bought another one -- they were 1st off the block with a 300GB SATA drive -- and it was DOA (Dead on Arrival).   Sent it back and bought a 400GB Hitachi instead (actually a few of them).

I'd just keep the 160GB WD SATA you've got if that's from the same place you're going to be returning the Seagate.  I've got several WD drives I've bought over the past few years, and although they run a bit warmer than Samsung's (I like the Spinpoints a lot) they've been very reliable.   Just be sure you're getting a version with a 3-year warranty (most of them do now, but some of the retail packaged drives still ship with a 1yr warranty and a certificate that you can send them - with a few $$ - to upgrade to 3 years).

Yes agree with Gary ... the WD's make excellent SATA Drives ... just checkout some of the reviews on them

////

That sucks that the drive is bad :( r.i.p

Is the Seagate drive still under warrenty?  Cause you could probably RMA back to Seagate as a faulty drive.

Cam

aniston -- forgive the following diversion.   But first, I answered your last question assuming that the drives you listed were the choices you had.   If your choice also includes a Samsung Spinpoint, I'd consider that.   They run very quiet and very cool -- about 10C cooler than the WD's do in the same system.   But both (WD & Samsung) are excellent drives.   As I suggested, why not just keep the WD 160GB SATA if that's an option.

Ok... a bit of a diversion (to answer willcomp's question) ...


Dalton -- don't you have "extra" computers laying around????

Actually, I'm not sure why I have 8 computers!!  (in fact I just tossed out that number w/out really thinking about it -- read on !!

They just seem to multiply.

I rarely throw computer's away.   In fact, some of the one's I've thrown away over the years I kinda wish I had now -- I've had many computers that would be a nice display of the growth of microcomputers over the past 30 years.   But I just haven't had the space to keep them - and we moved a lot, so I discarded quite a few.
I'd love to still have my Altair, Digital Group (w/PhiDeck digital cassettes), North Star Horizon, Compupro, an original Osborne, etc.

Of the 8, I only bought 4 -- I stole the rest :) :)

Actually, the others were machines that friends, or friends of friends asked me to fix up; and then decided they'd just like me to build them a nice new one.   So they gave me the systems.   So I'd add a spare hard drive, extra memory, or whatever (often these were available from other systems that were just being tossed), and I stuck a system in each of our spare bedrooms.   So if you're a guest at my house you can jump on the internet & check your e-mail, etc. from the guest bedroom :)   I have spent a few $$ to add monitors, etc.  (I've been given several CRT's -- but generally toss those & buy an LCD instead).    Most of these are relatively low power systems (1 ghz to 1.6ghz).   A couple of the really old systems are P-II's (300MHz).   One of the old P-II systems I have set up with Boot-It NG to manage 15 partitions, and can boot to virtually anything (DOS 3.3, DOS 6.2, Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, Win2000, WinXP - 3 different installs, RedHat, Mandrake).   Somebody asks me a question about how something behaves in a particular OS -- I can answer it :)   And of course all of those are "imaged" so I can "play all I want" and still restore them if they get trashed.

I've also built a couple of higher powered systems for myself -- the one I use all the time (3.4GHz P-IV, 2GB, 74GB Raptor system drive, 750GB of "other" storage, etc.) -- and a "video server" that stores a BUNCH of movies (currently 2TB; thinking of adding another 1.5GB).

Plus a laptop -- wouldn't want to be without e-mail on vacations, etc.   Actually I had 2 laptops, but sold one on e-bay a while back.   Didn't need it :)

So I guess the count is:  (1) my main system; (2) my video server; (3) my wife's desktop; (4) our laptop; (5) & (6) "bedroom" PC's;  (7) my "boot anything" PC; (8) my other old 300MHZ P-II; (9) an old GW2k 166MHz Pentium MMX; and (10) an old Dell Optiplex.   Forgot about 9 & 10 in my post above :) :)

I also have a box full of misc old parts -- need a 1.6GB hard drive?   The one thing I threw away a couple of years ago that I recently had a need for (not for me -- for a friend who asked if I could transfer some "old" data) is a 5.25" disk drive!  Not even any on e-bay last I checked!!   So I guess 10 computers aren't enough; since none of them have a 5.25" drive!!

Maybe I should go for an even dozen!!

Now, do you wanna talk about my video gear?? ... or my stereo gear??  (but that's another topic)

... as I noted in my "profile" --- I've been doing this stuff for a L..O..N..G time :) :) :)

... and by the way, all of my PC's are, of course, networked -- so anything can be sent anywhere on the network.   And they are all on UPS's ==> as you probably know, computers on a UPS have FAR fewer problems than those that are exposed to inopportune power failures.

aniston -- after thinking about it a bit more, I'd suggest you just stay with the WD rather than buy a Spinpoint.   The Spinpoints are excellent drives -- but you'd probably have to jumper it to restrict it to 150mb transfers, like you did the Seagate.   And after your experience with that particular SATA controller, I'd simply keep the drive that's working perfectly :) :)

Thanks for the responses guys.  Amazing info.  Unfortunatelty the WD i currently have is just a rental from another store and so has nothing to do with the store i purchased the Seagate from.  According to store policy (where i got the Seagate), no cash refunds and so just exchange for the same drive but Im sure they'll allow me to swap for another brand for the same price or more. I was considering the 160 Gb 8Mb 7200 Rpm Western Digital Sata-II Model: WD1600JS.  Unfortunately as you can see it is a SATA-II model which I've already seen reports of people having to Jumper it as well for the VT8237.  If this is the issue i certainly dont want a repeat performance but from the drive selection above without going PATA this seems to be the only choice I have.  I will ask them for more drive selections which their website may not be revealing.  What affordable quality Samsung Spinpoint model would you recommend?  Do they have a 160GB to 200GB version for cheap in Canada?

Lanadmin, you suggested RMAing the drive.  I purchased it just yesterday and according to Seagate's site the warranty is good till Sept 25 2010.  At the moment I feel the quality of Seagate is in the gutter now and suspect that after 2 weeks of waiting for the RMA replacement the drive will come back as a *used* unit with the same flaws.

Not sure what they'd cost in Canada, but I've used these for a couple of friend's systems and have been very pleased.   It does have a jumper you'd probably have to use, but your problem was, after all, a defective drive -- and it should work just fine.  It's an EXCELLENT drive.   I have a couple of it's PATA cousins in my "extra" systems:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152020

How do i go about determing whether a drive is using native SATA or bridged SATA?

The question is whether it's a 1.5Gb/sec or a 3.0Gb/sec transfer rate drive.  For Seagates, the 7200.7 and, I believe 7200.8, drives are 1.5Gb/sec.  7200.9 drives are 3.0Gb/sec.  For WD drives, the same model may be either depending on when it was manufactured.  So far I haven't found a way to tell.  I don't use Maxtor drives, so can't give you any info on them.

3.0Gb/sec transfer rate is not really dependent on full SATAII feature set.  It's confusing and even manufacturers add to the confusion.

Bottom line for a WD SATA drive.  If BIOS does not recognize it, jumper pins 5 and 6.

Gary, If you still need a 5.25" floppy drive, send me an e-mail.  I still have a couple of 1.2MB drives that were working when last tested about 2 years ago.

You can let me know if you need parts for any old PC compatibles.  I've been saving them for 17 years.  When I get an abandoned PC, I usually strip it for parts.  Parts are more valuable than an old used PC.

Oh, BTW, WD 3Gb/sec drives work just fine with VIA controllers.  Just jumper pins 5 and 6.  I've installed several on VIA chipset motherboards without any problems.

I have primarily used WD and Seagate drives for over 10 years and have had good luck with both (used a lot of Conner drives when they were still around in early 90's).  Neither have ever had any real "problem" drives like the IBM "Deathstar" drives, Quantum Fireballs with the disintegrating chip, or Fujitsu drives with bad chips.  Use mainly Seagate at present due to longer warranty and quieter than WD.

Like Gary, have used several Samsung drives recently and have been impressed so far.  Very quiet and run fairly cool.  Still early to tell about reliability, but suspect they will at least be on a par with WD and Seagate.  No failures to date.

For the old timers.  Favorite MFM/RLL drive was a Mitsubishi MR-535.  5.25" half height, 60MB RLL/40MB MFM, voice coil actuator, very quiet, and reliable as heck.  Still don't know why Mitsubishi got out of the drive business.  They made some excellent drives.

"...Parts are more valuable than an old used PC..."

Agree -- I didn't list the contents of my "junk" boxes.   Breakout boxes, switches, a bunch of old hard drives (need a 5.25" MFM drive ??), floppy drives (except 5.25" or 8" -- both of which I now wished I'd kept one of), CD drives, lots of memory sticks of various flavors, lots of cables, etc..

... while we're reminiscing, my first hard drive was a 14" platter Seagate.  Came in a case about 15x18x5 IIRC.  Had a separate dedicated S-100 controller card, with a large ribbon cable that ran from the card to the drive.   Was LOUD -- I actually cut a hold for the ribbon cable in the wall, and put the drive on a table in a closet, with the cable running through the wall to my computer desk.   Held a whopping 26mb (that's an "m").

... and cost $4500 !!    (this was ~ 1980/81)

Computers are essentially "free" today to those of us who were serious hobbyists "back in the day."
I recall building (literally -- soldering over a thousand connections on the sockets, etc.) an 16k (that's "k") memory card to save the extra $200 it cost assembled.  As a result, that 16k card "only" cost me ~$900.  (circa 1978)

You don't EVEN want to know what a 9-pin dot matrix printer (most folks here probably don't even know what that is) cost in 1977 (suffice it to say it was more than most folk's computers today).   And my NEC Spinwriter in 1982 was a GREAT printer (but also had a ridiculous pricetag).   Like I said, today's computers see practically "free."

Its hard to believe that computers costs soo much for somethin thats obsolete now.  But its all part of the industry.... as soon as you buy somethin its guranteed to be beaten by a faster and newer component.

hehe you can never win (Shakes fist)

I exchanged the Seagate for the WD1600JS and so far its working perfectly.  I havent installed XP yet but I noticed that it seems unnecessary for me to press "F6 - Instrall VIA Raid Driver" to install XP to the HDD.  The HDD seems already detected by XP.  Is it ok to bypass F6 if the drive is already detected or should i install the driver any way?

I'll defer comment on that to willcomp, who has experience with the chipset you're using.
With Intel chipsets you do NOT need to use F6 -- and if you're "seeing" it fine, it will most likely work fine.  But I'm not sure if it will access the drive at the highest speed without the driver on that chipset.

Wait for willcomp to comment :)

(or you can go ahead and install and then check the transfer mode in Device Manager -- as long as it shows at least UDMA-5 you're fine ==> if not, just start over & use the drivers)

I have never seen a VIA 8237 controller where it was not necessary to install drivers.  You will not know until XP gets to install screen and there is no drive to partition and format.

Can't see any BIOS changes that would render driver installation unnecessary.

...there you have it:  Press F6 and install the driver :)
Thanks Dalton.

Yup XP installed fine without me having to install the F6 driver, though I was still going to run the HyperionPro package while in windows.  Now you got me concerned about it not accessing the drive at high speed without the driver....Hmmm.

BTW Im using an AMD Athlon 2800+ Barton as my CPU.  No Intel inside. Chipset: Via KT600, VT8237

Is there a difference between installing the Via drivers at XP setup and installing them once in Windows XP even when the SATA drive is detectable/usable from the get go?  I figure the Setup.exe file within XP installs other components including the SATA/RAID driver whereas during XP Setup it just selects the SATA/RAID to get the system going and uses them once in Windows but one is still reguired to run the Hyperion package.

 

Since you've already installed XP, go to Device Manager and look at the IDE/ATA Controller section.  Right-click on each of the IDE channels -- Primary & Secondary -- and click Properties.  Click on the Advanced tab and look at the "Current Transfer Mode" for every connected device.  Post the results here.   It sounds to me like you don't need the drivers, but I'd like to see these results first.

Ok the results:

[Primary IDE Channel]
Device 0 - Current Transfer Mode = Not Applicable
Device 1 - Not Applicable

* I dont have any ATA device attached to the IDE0 channel on the motherboard though the BIOS has the channel enabled.

[Secondary IDE Channel]
Device 0 - Ultra DMA Mode 2
Device 1 - Ultra DMA Mode 2

* My Lite-On SOHW 832S DVDRW and HP CD-Writer 8200+ are attached to this channel

Under the top-level IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers category there's also "VIA Bus Master IDE Controller".

There's also the top-level category "SCSI and RAID Controller" which contains: VIA SATA RAID Controller.

Under top level category Disk Drives the WD SATA drive is listed as: WDC WD16 00JS SCSI Disk Device

I just reviewed the VIA site's guide to using their chipsets with SATA drives -- and it definitely sounds like you should be using the drivers.   However, while they suggest you install them at the F6 prompt, they also indicate you can install them "after the fact" (as a 2nd alternative).  So your idea is probably fine.   I suspect the performance will improve somewhat with the SATA drivers installed.  Post the info I asked for above -- and then it would be interesting to install the Hyperion drivers, reboot, and look at the same info again.

The transfer modes are perfect for the optical drives.
An Intel chipset would show another IDE Channel for the SATA -- but since yours doesn't show that I'm not sure how to interpret it.  I'd install the drivers :)

Yeah when i first came into XP after setup there was an extra IDE Channel -- i think something like Dual  Channel.  When i installed the HyperionPro drivers from within XP it disappeared and here I am.

Ok I will format and reinstall with the VIA drivers this time.  ;P  Nice to see things all smooth though.

Apparently BIOS is reporting drive as a SCSI device allowing XP to install.  Does your BIOS have SATA as a boot option or are you using SCSI?

Best I can recall, all the VIA 8237 controllers I've dealt with were on VIA KT800 (socket 754) motherboards and boot from SATA was correct option in BIOS.

Regardless, you need to install RAID drivers and Hyperion (chipset) drivers.

My Award BIOS v. F7 (from Gigabyte) has a Hard Disk Boot Priority which has Ch2 M. (I'm assuming IDE Channel 2 Master): WDC WD1600JS.  For the First Boot Device to Third Boot Device it is set for Floppy, CDROM, and Hard Disk.  There is no option to specify SATA or SCSI.  OnChip Serial ATA is Enabled and SATA Mode is IDE (the other option would be RAID).  Under STANDARD CMOS the Ide Channel 2 Master reports the WDC WD1600JS.  The DVDRW and CDRW are reprsented on IDE Channel 1.  I am using the version F7 of the BIOS which actually goes up as high as version F8  but had problems booting from the Acronis True Image CDROM and so decided to go back to the perfectly working F7.  This was a year ago.  The difference between the 2 drivers doesnt say much but there is about a 1 week or so difference in release date.

I dont see the mention of SCSI anywhere and SATA are only mentioned in those two selections.

I ran HDTach 3.0 with 32MB zone:
Burst Speed - 121.7MB/s
Radom Access: 13.3ms
CPU Util: 5% (0% for 8MB zone)
Avg Read: 55.1MB/s

Ok i installed a fresh coipy of XP but this time using the F6 Via drivers.  Looking in on Device Manager the items are exactly the same as listed above.  Under top level category Disk Drives the WD SATA drive is listed as: WDC WD16 00JS SCSI Disk Device.

[Primary IDE Channel]
Device 0 - Current Transfer Mode = Not Applicable
Device 1 - Not Applicable

[Secondary IDE Channel]
Device 0 - Ultra DMA Mode 2
Device 1 - Ultra DMA Mode 2

Under the top-level IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers category there's also "VIA Bus Master IDE Controller".

There's also the top-level category "SCSI and RAID Controller" which contains: VIA SATA RAID Controller.


The system is running fine.  I will install the Hyperion drivers now.

Thanks a lot guys!  

You're welcome.  Ended well finally.

Glad all's well -- enjoy your new drive :)