# Sata HDD problem



## LittleLizard (Jun 15, 2010)

Ok, i just bought a new Samsung sata drive (Sata II, 160GB, 8mb cache) for my old pc (p4, Asrock board) but now i want to install xp but the bios doesnt find the hard drive. The board HAS sata but its only sata I.

The hdd manual says that some sata I host boards can not connect to some hard drives, and, that this is the case, i should switch it to sata I mode which i cant do because it doesnt come with jumpers (has the places but not the jumper). It says i can do it with a software which i cant find.

Help guys.


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## Dos101 (Jun 15, 2010)

The HDD's probably not initialized. If you have a spare PC plug the HDD in there and go into the Storage managment console, right click on the HDD and initialize it.


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## LittleLizard (Jun 15, 2010)

Do you mean in another computer? yes, i will try that.

I also think i found the software the manual talks about.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=126


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## Dos101 (Jun 15, 2010)

Well I've never had a problem connecting SATAII HDD's to SATAI interfaces before, but if you initialize/format the HDD with another PC and your current PC's BIOS still cannot see the HDD, then you may have to resort to using that software you linked.


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## Widjaja (Jun 17, 2010)

If the above solution has not worked, you will have t get a jumper and switch the drive to SATA150 operation only.

I had to do this a while back with a Motherboard I had before it could be recognized in BIOS.
I had to place the jumper on a WD SATA II drive I had.
Fortunately it did have the jumper settings noted on the sticker as it was one of the early SATA II drives.
Most or possibly all SATA II drives regardless of brand do not have the diagram on the sticker anymore.

I do not know the jumper setting for the Samsung SATA II drives or if they have that option.
So best option would be to either go to the site or google.


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## richjordan255 (Jun 17, 2010)

ensure the sata in the bios is set as IDE, if still no joy, you may need to get the sata driver from the ASRock website and f6 st start of install, check the IDE bit first though


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## newtekie1 (Jun 17, 2010)

On the AsRock board, you want to make sure to go into the BIOS and set the "SATA Operation Mode" from RAID to non-RAID under Advanced -> IDE Configuration.


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## richjordan255 (Jun 17, 2010)

good to see im not alone thinking that


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## Hockster (Jun 18, 2010)

Installing a driver won't make a bit of difference, or even be possible, if the BIOS doesn't see the drive.

There were some old mobos with SATA 1 controllers that were not compatible with SATA 2 drives. As posted above you need a hard drive that has the jumper to set them into SATA 1 mode. That is if changing the BIOS settings has no effect.


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## 95Viper (Jun 18, 2010)

Patch download for compulsory SATA 1.5 Gbps setting & SATA 3.0 Gbps recovery.
^The files are located at the bottom of page.^

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do not have a jumper block, then you can just get a fine piece of wire (like one strand of multi-strand speaker wire) and wrap the two posts using a pair of forceps or good tweezers or thin (micro) needle nose pliers.  Make sure of your wrap before you install it back in the system.  Remember always double check to be sure and safe.


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## Hockster (Jun 18, 2010)

Nice bit of info there. I had no idea current drives could be set to the old SATA standard. Figured it needed to be a part of the firmware or something.


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## LittleLizard (Jun 21, 2010)

I think i have to udpate this. Tried to change it to sata 1.5gbps with the Samsung software and still doesnt work. Also i have it now installed in my other computer (core 2 duo, g31 mobo) and though the bios detects it no problem, windows doesnt see it.

BTW this is the drive. http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...=94&subtype=98&model_cd=227&tab=fea&ppmi=1219

EDIT: im going to specify a bit. after i installed it, it turned on, go into windows and i got a message that the controller for the samsung drive has been installed correctly. However, it doesnt appear in my computer nor in tuneup utilites or everest. And yes, i rebooted after that.


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## francis511 (Jun 21, 2010)

The little jumpers can be got from a computer shop for like pennies... Go to "administrative tools"->"computer management" and try to find your hdd there.


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## Widjaja (Jun 21, 2010)

A brand new drive will not be formatted to show up as a mapped drive in windows.
Totally different issue from the one you had before.
What the above says will get your drive recognized as ntfs or fat32....whatever you decided to format the drive as.

I knew the software to get the drive to be recognized in BIOS on your motherboard would not work.

Get a jumper from somewhere...even an old hard drive or motherboard will have one and use it on the hard drive.

Follow the diagram Viper95 has posted.


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## robn (Jun 21, 2010)

LittleLizard said:


> I think i have to udpate this. Tried to change it to sata 1.5gbps with the Samsung software and still doesnt work. Also i have it now installed in my other computer (core 2 duo, g31 mobo) and though the bios detects it no problem, windows doesnt see it.
> 
> BTW this is the drive. http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...=94&subtype=98&model_cd=227&tab=fea&ppmi=1219
> 
> EDIT: im going to specify a bit. after i installed it, it turned on, go into windows and i got a message that the controller for the samsung drive has been installed correctly. However, it doesnt appear in my computer nor in tuneup utilites or everest. And yes, i rebooted after that.



I think you now need to add a partition & format:
Right click on your My Computer icon and choose Manage. Then go to Disk Management. The new one should be listed. Choose some empty space on it and partition & format. That should do it.


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## LittleLizard (Jun 21, 2010)

i did what robn/francis said and in fact the hdd was not initialized. however i now get two ways of partitioning it. GPT (GUID Partition table) and MBR (master boot registry). Which shall i use?

EDIT: forget, windows recommends MBR

EDIT2: however, nothing happened.

EDIT3: As far as i understand, what i have to do know is to assign the empty space to a basic partition. The point is that i have no idea of how to do that


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## LittleLizard (Jun 21, 2010)

YAY, i fixed it. I thanks everyone who tried to help my stupidity.


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