# Win. 7 Fresh install - No S-ATA Driver?



## sweeper (Dec 31, 2009)

*General Information :	 
Disk Controller :	Intel 82801EB (ICH5) SATA I/O Controller 

Drive Controller Features :	 
Mode :	IDE <----
AHCI :	No *

Bit confused? I know XP and lower OS's needed to have floppy disks inserted during setup for S-ATA support but didn't figure Win. 7 would? It was just installed but I noticed my 500GB WD S-ATA II HDD is running - UDMA 6 (ATA-133) ???

Specs:
Pentium 4 3.2GHz 'E'
MSI 865PE Neo2-P
WD 500 S-ATA II HDD
Pioneer S-ATA DVD/RW
2GB DDR400
XFX Radeon HD4650 1GB AGP

BIOS:
On-Chip ATA(s) Operate Mode - Native Mode
ATA Configuration - S-ATA Only
S-ATA Keep Enabled - Yes
P-ATA Keep Enabled - No
S-ATA Ports Definition - P0-1st / P1 2nd
Configure S-ATA as RAID - No


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## erocker (Dec 31, 2009)

Apparently default chipset drivers for you motherboard aren't a part of Windows 7's library. You will need to find the sata drivers and put them on a floppy or a USB stick.


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## sweeper (Dec 31, 2009)

There's another problem..... can't find them. I've tried several Intel Chipset Drivers and they all say my Chipset isn't supported. ?? I ran the Intel Chipset Utility and it didn't even recognize my board or chipset.


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## erocker (Dec 31, 2009)

x64 or 32 bit Windows?

This is what Intel has for you chipset. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18494&lang=eng


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## newtekie1 (Jan 1, 2010)

It is set to IDE mode in the BIOS, it has nothing to do with Windows.

IDE Mode, ACHI/SATA, and RAID modes are all configured in the BIOS.  It doesn't matter what driver you try to install, it will always say IDE mode unless you change it in the BIOS, and changing it after installing Windows is not recommended.

Basically, what is happing, is that your motherboard is masking the SATA controller as an IDE controller, and hence the drives show up as IDE drive.  Early SATA controllers didn't do this, and hence needed special drivers during the OS install as you've mentioned.  IDE mode was quickly implemented to eliminate the need for special drivers to be loaded during the OS install.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> It is set to IDE mode in the BIOS, it has nothing to do with Windows.
> 
> IDE Mode, ACHI, and RAID modes are all configured in the BIOS.  It doesn't matter what driver you try to install, it will always say IDE mode unless you change it in the BIOS, and changing it after installing Windows is not recommended.



I noticed that too? Why do I have SATA ports if the BIOS only see's it as IDE-0 ? I don't have an option to change it in the BIOS to change it to SATA? 



erocker said:


> x64 or 32 bit Windows?
> 
> This is what Intel has for you chipset. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18494&lang=eng



I've tried that. It does nothing.....


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> It is set to IDE mode in the BIOS, it has nothing to do with Windows.
> 
> IDE Mode, ACHI/SATA, and RAID modes are all configured in the BIOS.  It doesn't matter what driver you try to install, it will always say IDE mode unless you change it in the BIOS, and changing it after installing Windows is not recommended.
> 
> Basically, what is happing, is that your motherboard is masking the SATA controller as an IDE controller, and hence the drives show up as IDE drive.  Early SATA controllers didn't do this, and hence needed special drivers during the OS install as you've mentioned.  IDE mode was quickly implemented to eliminate the need for special drivers to be loaded during the OS install.



So am I stuck just installing the OS and leaving it as is? Benchmarking the HDD only shows 126.9MB/s compaired to SATA-150MB/s


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## erocker (Jan 1, 2010)

sweeper said:


> So am I stuck just installing the OS and leaving it as is? Benchmarking the HDD only shows 126.9MB/s compaired to SATA-150MB/s



126.9mb is good and very normal.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

Should I put the Jumper to 150mb? I noticed there is no jumper on the drive.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KS


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

I'll try it out. Thanks.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

So to sum it up... the only speed I will achieve via the ICH5 chipset is ATA/133 (UDMA Mode 6) ? There is nothing in the BIOS that will change the way the HDD is installed other than on an IDE. It shows up on boot IDE-0. This is with the HDD and DVD/RW both running off the SATA connectors on the board with SATA cables. Is this correct? 

As far as installing the jumper it didn't change performance. Is this just an over glorified (SATA) description as far as this MB is concerned?


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## newtekie1 (Jan 1, 2010)

Hard Drives don't actually come close to the 150MB/s SATA provides, so no matter what you won't see a performance improvement.  Not even 10,000RPM Raptors come close to 150MB/s.

What are you using to benchmark the drive?  126.9MB/s seems WAY high for an older hard drive, unless it is the burst speed, which is useless.  You want to make sure you are looking at sustained speeds.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

Sustained speed and or Average speed rate of the drive is roughly 60MB/s. Burst speed can go as high as 129.6MB/s. I'm using HD Tune Pro 4.00 to run tests on the drive. It's just annoying seeing UDMA MODE 6 (ATA-133).


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## Wile E (Jan 1, 2010)

AHCI or RAID is what the BIOS would need set to. It likely won't list SATA as a mode.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

Well AHCI isn't available or I'm not seeing it. If I set it to raid it blue screens and restarts in repair mode.


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## Wile E (Jan 1, 2010)

sweeper said:


> Well AHCI isn't available or I'm not seeing it. If I set it to raid it blue screens and restarts in repair mode.



That's normal. It was installed in IDE mode, so windows expects the boot drive to be IDE. It does not like going from IDE to AHCI or RAID on the boot drive. The only way to fix it is a clean install.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

So if I were to clean install again, how do I set up the bios? I don't have a floppy and I don't believe Win. 7 asks anyway? If I set up the bios as raid then what do I select?


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## Mussels (Jan 1, 2010)

sweeper said:


> So if I were to clean install again, how do I set up the bios? I don't have a floppy and I don't believe Win. 7 asks anyway? If I set up the bios as raid then what do I select?



win 7 doesn't need the floppy, that was an XP thing.

set the BIOS to raid/AHCI, and hit the 'load driver' button when choosing what partition to install 7 to (might have to hit the advanced options button first)

vista and 7 can read from CD, floppy, USB drives, whatever - just make sure the drivers are there (and not zipped or anything) and you're good to go.


since there are no mechanical drives that can do 133MB/s (sustained), it really makes no speed difference if its in IDE mode or not. RAID/AHCI only matters so that you get hotswap and NCQ support.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

So with it installed in Native Mode but "Raid" not enabled (which is the ONLY option) I have NO AHCI option in the BIOS, it makes no difference then installing it with RAID enabled and having the ICH5 SATA drivers installed rather than IDE ATA drivers?

As of now I have NO SATA drivers in the device manager listed at all even though SATA is enabled in the BIOS but RAID is not. It's all IDE ATA.


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## Mussels (Jan 1, 2010)

sweeper said:


> So with it installed in Native Mode but "Raid" not enabled (which is the ONLY option) I have NO AHCI option in the BIOS, it makes no difference then installing it with RAID enabled and having the ICH5 SATA drivers installed rather than IDE ATA drivers?
> 
> As of now I have NO SATA drivers in the device manager listed at all even though SATA is enabled in the BIOS but RAID is not. It's all IDE ATA.



in IDE compatibility mode, they show as IDE drives/controllers. Thats why you bluescreen if you change it on the OS drive without reinstalling windows (it tries to run IDE drivers on a SATA controller)


after actually looking properly at your first post, its only ICH5 - that things SATA I and therefore has no AHCI mode (which came out later)

Your SATA controller is effectively IDE with a sata adapter on top


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

so an over glorified SATA port/s basically as I listed earlier. ? . 

MB Brand : MSI
MB Model : MS-6728
NB : Intel i865P/PE/G/i848P rev A2
SB : Intel 82801EB (ICH5) rev 02  :shadedshu


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## Mussels (Jan 1, 2010)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/aboard,617-10.html


there we go


its SATA 150 on the PCI bus - capped at 133MB/s due to PCI


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

D'OH!!!!


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## Mussels (Jan 1, 2010)

oh, if you havent already - install the intel matrix storage manager

it wont help your PCI problem, but it may at least list them as SATA and not IDE


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

Tried that. It gives me a message saying my system doesn't meet the minimum system requirements needed.


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## Mussels (Jan 1, 2010)

sweeper said:


> Tried that. It gives me a message saying my system doesn't meet the minimum system requirements needed.



kay. probably requires RAID/IDE mode to work - but i thought it worth a shot.

Oh well, at least we know why your speeds are capped.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

I'm thinking of just reinstalling the OS with RAID enabled so the SATA drivers can be loaded and see what I get out of it. 

What do you think? Worth a shot? Will it install with just one SATA drive?


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## Mussels (Jan 1, 2010)

sweeper said:


> I'm thinking of just reinstalling the OS with RAID enabled so the SATA drivers can be loaded and see what I get out of it.
> 
> What do you think? Worth a shot? Will it install with just one SATA drive?



you still cant get past 133MB/s (burst), your drives slower than that anyway (sustained) and the controller doesnt support hotswap or NCQ - so you wont get any benefits at all, unless you actually do RAID with another drive (and even then... 133MB/s cap)


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

Ok... I'll leave it be. That pretty much sucks. Oh well.


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## newtekie1 (Jan 1, 2010)

Mussels said:


> you still cant get past 133MB/s (burst), your drives slower than that anyway (sustained) and the controller doesnt support hotswap or NCQ - so you wont get any benefits at all, unless you actually do RAID with another drive (and even then... 133MB/s cap)



Corrects, not benefits to this.  And chances are the burst rate wouldn't improve much anyway since it is an older drive.  And burst rate doesn't matter anyway...



sweeper said:


> Ok... I'll leave it be. That pretty much sucks. Oh well.



You can re-install after changing the setting in the BIOS.  Chances are you won't even need to load a driver, Win7 will likely have it already.  If Vista had my ICH7R drivers, I would almost bet that Win7 has ICH5 drivers already.  If it doesn't. it is easy to load them off a flash drive when it asks.

But, again, this won't really add any benefit other than changing the drive to show up as SATA drives.


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

maybe I'm just to picky.......... dunno. I just like to have my OS installed correctly for the way it's being used. Esp if I add other drives maybe in a RAID array and get rid of this older HDD. My brother is looking for a SATA drive. Maybe I can get 2 drives and reinstall and run the RAID array at a whopping 133MB.  or maybe I'm just OCD.


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## newtekie1 (Jan 1, 2010)

I don't believe your motherboard actually supports RAID anyway...


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## sweeper (Jan 1, 2010)

grrr... what a marketing gimmick! What's the point of having 2 SATA connectors, 2 IDE ATA(133) connectors, supposed support for 6 devices (4 on the IDE connectors, 2 SATA connectors) if the SATA is no better than the IDE?


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## Mussels (Jan 2, 2010)

sweeper said:


> grrr... what a marketing gimmick! What's the point of having 2 SATA connectors, 2 IDE ATA(133) connectors, supposed support for 6 devices (4 on the IDE connectors, 2 SATA connectors) if the SATA is no better than the IDE?



purely for the new connection type. that controller is first generation SATA.


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## newtekie1 (Jan 2, 2010)

sweeper said:


> grrr... what a marketing gimmick! What's the point of having 2 SATA connectors, 2 IDE ATA(133) connectors, supposed support for 6 devices (4 on the IDE connectors, 2 SATA connectors) if the SATA is no better than the IDE?



When it comes to a lot of hard drives on the market today, most do not even exceed the 133 MB/s speed of IDE.  SATA offers some benefits, but speed generally isn't one, unless you are buying higher end drives.  The speed increase provided by SATA hasn't really been utilized until we started to see SSDs hit the market.


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## Mussels (Jan 2, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> When it comes to a lot of hard drives on the market today, most do not even* come close to* the 133 MB/s speed of IDE.  SATA offers some benefits, but speed generally isn't one, unless you are buying higher end drives.  The speed increase provided by SATA hasn't really been utilized until we started to see SSDs hit the market.



fixed.

My best 1TB and 1.5TB drives peak at 120MB/s, with 90-105 being more common across the whole drive - and these are the best SATA II has to offer


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## sweeper (Jan 2, 2010)

Well the system is terribly unstable running in RAID mode since the chipset only has ONE driver that can be used to run the ICH5 which dates back to 2003. Any other driver or update will crash the system. So clean install of Win. 7 with the driver on a Flash drive created a mess. Back to the old IDE ATA install and I'm averaging 60MB/s for the drive. I'll keep it as is. 
Not sure why Intel NEVER updated drivers for this particular chipset. Guess they planned on phasing it out ASAP.


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## Mussels (Jan 2, 2010)

they probably forgot the chipset ever existed. like how they wish everyone will forget about prescott


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## sweeper (Jan 2, 2010)

LOL.... True. I'd really like to know why they even made the damn thing? It ran fine using it for browsing the internet, etc etc. , but no program could find the HDD except windows. wtf:

I tried Sandra to see if it would detect the HDD and what it was set at but it locks up when searching for the HDD. Everest found the HDD but couldn't diagnose the speed or configuration of the drive. I'm like WTF? How can I have a drive and have it operating but no secondary programs find it? Performance Test 7.0 failed as well. How annoying can installing a SATA HDD be?


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