SATA Drive Not Being Recognized

[jgilla]

Motherboard is an Asus K8V SE Deluxe

BIOS recognizes the drive within the boot priority, however it's not really showing up anywhere else in the BIOS.  I proceed to install Windows7 and I can't even get it to recognizes after installing the drivers from a jump drive.  Win2003 drivers for this motherboard is what I read; acquired directly off ASUS's support page.  The computer startup without entering the BIOS recognizes the SATA HDD to the point where I can enter it's menu to manipulate the array settings.  Not sure what else to do at this point.  My friends are informing me the SATA Drive should be popping up in the primary or secondary master/slave listing within the BIOS.  Nothing there except the CD/DVD Drive installing windows.  SATA Drive is plugged into the Primary SATA spot on the motherboard.

Any ideas on how to get my computer to recognize this thing?

[Computer_Commando]

...BIOS recognizes the drive within the boot priority, however it's not really showing up anywhere else in the BIOS...

That should be good enough.  Depending on the BIOS, it may not show on the 1st page.  Sometimes they list only the non-SATA's unless you configure BIOS for "SATA IDE compatibility mode".

[jgilla]

I would have thought so as well, but I just can't get windows to recognize a hard drive.  Of course there isn't a SATA driver for win7 on this motherboard but after researching it said to use the win2003 sata drivers.  Still have had no luck, and I just keep hitting a dead end on the OS install when it comes to look for which drive to install the HD as it doesn't see any.
I really would like to keep this SATA drive as it's brand new, but I'm almost to the point where I am willing to go back to an IDE.  I've been through every menu and opiton in the BIOS and have not seen a place to modify the settings to SATA IDE Compatibility Mode.

Any thoughts?

[patio]

The SATA drivers are MBoard compliant...not the drive.
Use your MBoard driver CD or DLoad them from the site...

[Computer_Commando]

Asus K8V SE Deluxe User Guide

p.4-23 (p.89)  Onchip SATA Boot ROM [Enabled]
p.4-24 (p.90)  Onboard Promise Controller [Disabled]
                    Operating Mode [Onboard IDE]

[jgilla]

Alright i applied those settings; disabled the promise controller.  I made it through the forefront of the windows install again and attempted to install the SATA drivers (acquired off the asus support site), and again it will not identify a hard drive to install windows.  Since there are no windows7 drivers for this motherboard I read that the 03 drivers will work.  Not sure if that's the road block or not. 
Feel so close yet so far away.  And thanks for your help thusfar.

[Computer_Commando]

SATA drivers are not necessary, unless Promise Controller is enabled.  Promise is for RAID which you don't have.

[patio]

SATA drivers are neccessary...at least 90% of the time...

[jgilla]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to install some type of driver, whatever that may be.  So is there any reason why upon installing the SATA drivers, it continually comes back as no HDD found?
With the Promise Controller Disabled my startup is stating that there's no hard drive found whatsoever now, and it is no longer listed in the Boot Priority.  Additionally it doesn't prompt me with the option to adjust the array setting by hitting ctrl + some other key I can't recall at the moment, upon startup.
Should I leave the promise controller disabled and/or what driver should I be attempting to load given my specifications?

[Computer_Commando]

I'm confident this is what's wrong; The 4 SATA ports are not using the same controller.
Must Read the Manual

p.5-2 (p.108)   Promise & Via controllers
p.1-2 (p.16)  Dual Serial ATA RAID

p.3-1 (p.25)
Need to find the correct ports for the Via controller
p.2-24 (p.46)  You want the Via SATA ports shown in the picture. (the pair on top of one another, marked SATA1, SATA2)
p.2-25 (p.7)  You do not want these, they are for the Promise RAID. (the pair side by side, marked PRI_SATA, SEC_SATA).

This would explain why it's not showing up in the BIOS where you expect it.  It won't, if plugged into the Promise.
Motherboard even has an ATA RAID connector.  I have an add-in PCI card in an old PIII Asus that is very similar, 1-ATA, 2-SATA.

Your Asus is a transitional motherboard, a very early SATA-150 & when large hard drives were under 160GB, so RAID was a viable option.

[jgilla]

Thank you.  Your settings helped and your references to the specific areas in the manual.  I went ahead and put a jumper on there to limit it down to 150mb/sec since you mentioned it's such dated board for SATA.  Jumper worked and I'm moving forward.
Much appreciated.

[Computer_Commando]

...I went ahead and put a jumper on there to limit it down to 150mb/sec since you mentioned it's such dated board for SATA.  Jumper worked and I'm moving forward.  Much appreciated.

...motherboard host controllers using the VIA and SIS chipsets VT8237, VT8237R, VT6420, VT6421L, SIS760, SIS964 found on the ECS 755-A2 manufactured in 2003, do not support SATA 3 Gbit/s drives.
Yours is the one shown in bold.