Frustrating HDD install problem!

[azzfox]

Hey all, I have a very frustrating problem that I hope someone can give me pointers on before I neck myself lol.

So, XP gave up the ghost once again as it does from time to time for me, and instead of installing XP again I decided I would give Windows 7 a go seeing how everyones raving about it. Now I diddnt have anywhere to back up all my stuff so I bought a 1.5TB WD Caviar Green to install to. This is where the fun begins...

My motherboard is a Sapphire PC-A9RD480Adv (pos Im starting to think) that requires 3rd party sata drivers. I have the drivers for XP that I found on Sapphires support page but I cant find any for Vista/7. When I use the XP drivers it finds the HDD but wont allow me to install to it, saying bios may not allow to boot from this disk and to check controller settings. But the funny part is it wont allow me to install XP either! Says its not a supported partition or some crap. My old 320gb WD had no problem.

I might also add that it gets stuck on startup in bios where it searches for HDD's, so I have to pull the data cable and plug it back in after its skipped that part. I have the lastest bios version listed for my motherboard (released in 2006, hmm) and have gone through the bios menu many times now looking for options. I have also tried the jumper settings on the HDD for XP as listed on the HDD but makes no difference.

Now I dont know whether to find a new motherboard or get another HDD. I know a ASUS mobo I had before this one had an intergrated sata controller and diddnt need 3rd party drivers. Im starting to think this is the path I should be going down again.

Any ideas?! Cheers.

[levymetal]

is your old 320gb sata too or ide? either way it sounds like the correct home for that motherboard is in the bin if it needs third party sata drivers. if it was me i'd just go and get another mb . the green power wds are great so i'd want to keep that. maybe someone else can be of more assistance but i can't really see a way around the crappy mb.

[azzfox]

320gb was also sata which had no problems installing to providing I had the driver. The other thing that comes to mind is that the new HDD is an "Advanced Format Drive" which Im thinking is conflicting with the motherboard/driver. It says to create multiple partitions with XP you need to run 'WD Align', single partitions set jumpers 7-8 and all other OS's you dont need to do a thing. Either way I think its time for a new motherboard! The only reason I picked this one up when I did was because my ASUS A8N-E died and this popped up as a quick fix.

Thanks for your input! I diddnt think it was right to need 3rd party drivers either. It has sata connectors on the board, I havnt added PCI cards or anything FFS

[_R_J_K_]

You can get SATA/IDE converters relatively cheaply off eBay -

ide sata converter, Computers, Electronics, Tickets, Travel items at low prices on eBay.com.au

Failing that, see what a local computer shop will charge you, although it will probably be substantially more.

[azzfox]

I was thinking of going down a similar track but getting a SATA PCI card. The SATA/IDE converter would work in theory but IDE is much slower.

Anyway I just came across an idea! Ive stuck the HDD im mums PC and Win7 is currently installing. Im hoping that once its ready to go I can slap it back into my PC and hope it boots from it.

Stay tuned...

BTW, Im still looking for another mobo but it seems to be very hard to come across decent socket 939 (AMD) ones. Anyone got any ideas besides ebay? I also had the thought of upgrading to socket AM2 or the likes but I cant really be bothered buying a new CPU and RAM.

[azzfox]

Well that diddnt work. Win7 installed and runs smooth on the other PC. But still gets stuck in bios on mine. PITA. At least I know its not the HDD now.

[azzfox]

WOOOT I got it working! I had one last look in bios settings. Deep down I found controller settings. It changed it from RAID (default) to IDE and what do you know Win7 started booting, but then PC restarted and came up windows diddnt start properly. No doubt because I diddnt install windows in this PC. Now I will.

EDIT: Installing now. Diddnt even need drivers! Dunno if thats caus of Win7 or it was set on RAID the whole time even with XP. Either way Im over the moon now

[_R_J_K_]

Good to here you got it working! Going back on the SATA/IDE converter though, speed wouldn't be much of an issue, as the mechanical nature of platter based hard drives isn't fast enough to use all of the bandwidth of SATA anyway, or even IDE for that matter probably. IDE cables suck though.