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Brain0030

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Enable SATA drive on old MB

I have an old motherboard with a phoenix BIOS and I am trying to enable SATA instead of IDE. I have done this sevral times on several different PC's and this particualr one doesn't have the option to ENABLE the SATA. I have SATA 1 and SATA 2 and when booting, the drive does not show in the BIOS. How do I enable it?
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dbrunton
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Brain0030

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Don't have the Docs'  Would it have anything to qwith the IRQ? Any other ideas?
Motherboard name and model?  Look on the board.  Usually large letters and numbers and possibly manufacturer name.
Hp Pavilion A420n
MB: A7V8X-LA
Boot into BIOS
Advanced Menu and select PCI configuration.  Make sure Onboard IDE/SATA RAID controller set to enabled and Onboard ATA set to Yes.
Save and Exit

Booting should show Promise Technology logo.  CTRL-F should get you in.

See http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt400/a7v8x/e1119_a7v8x.pdf

Also see http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=A7V8X&SLanguage=en-us and version E1097 for a different manual.
This one for the HP motherboard.  But doesn' explain how to enable the SATA.

http://www.elhvb.com/mboards/OEM/HP/manual/kamet2_manual.pdf
How about the xp setup disc press F6 to enable sata
explained here

How to Enable Sata Mode After XP Is Installed in IDE Mode
http://www.ehow.com/how_5903449_enable-xp-installed-ide-mode.html
Can you find a version number on the board?  

The first lot of these were built to budget for HP from a standard ASUS OEM board but the SATA controllers were intentionally disabled/hidden in the HP BIOS.  If you have a later version updating the BIOS will give you a "PATA/SATA/Both" option in the BIOS Settings.  It's one of those stupid anomalies where HP decided they were going to ship a SATA capable board but with IDE drives so what was the point of paying ASUS extra per board so the end user could use the SATA connectors later!
Yeah if needed he could just get a sata adapter
Convert any SATA or SATA II Hard Hard Drive to Standard USB 2.0 Port.
http://www.sataadapter.com/

USB 2.0 to IDE / SATA Adapter Cable 80cm
http://www.skycomp.com.au/item/-USB-2-0-to-IDE-SATA-Adapter-Cable-80cm.aspx
Well, here in NZ the supply of IDE drives seems to be shrinking.

I've found it easier and cheaper to buy SATA drives and get these http://www.amazon.com/Bidirectional-IDE-to-SATA-Converter/dp/B000RK89M4 bidirectiional converters.

Plug converter into IDE slot and run a SATA cable from it to the drive.  No messy IDE cable all over the place.
Yes it's the same here in Australia I never see any IDE now  only sata