SATA HDD refuses to boot in older computer

[viperx45]

Hello gentlemen, and gals,

-TLDR-
I'm having a very rough time getting this older computer to boot to windows XP from a SATA drive. I've even gone as far as installing the OS, on the SATA drive, using a much newer computer, in which it booted with no problems, so I'm assuming the HDD is good. When I then inserted the drive into the older computer, it fails to boot. The farthest I get is to the screen that lets you choose safe mode. When i choose safe mode, it gets to a file named "Mup.sys", and immediately reboots. No blue screen.

-specs-
Mobo -  ASUS A8V - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_939/A8V/
Ram   -  2x 512MB sticks
PSU   -  Dynex 350W  - http://www.shopping.com/Dynex-Dynex-350-Watt-ATX-CPU-Power-Supply-DX-PS350W/info?sb=1

SATA HDD being used is a western digital WD3200AAKS - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&lang=en

-Details-
- System is at least 5 years old
- System worked just fine with windows xp on a IDE hard drive
- I wanted to upgrade to a larger SATA drive and use it as the boot drive
- Had difficulties installing windows xp on SATA drive.
- Yes I am loading the SATA driver at the beginning of the install with a Floppy drive disc
- Would blue screen after first restart when trying to boot from SATA to continue windows installation
- Performed many HDD checks with windows and western digital software and corrected bad sectors
- Keep in mind the drive does boot from a newer computer
- Tried installing Windows XP on the drive using my newer computer
- inserted drive into older computer after first reboot... same problem
- completed windows installation on newer computer... got to desktop while on newer computer
- transferred drive to older computer, got to windows boot option select screen... failed on both normal boot and safe mode
- no blue screen this time

- I've checked bios for better sata boot options
- made sure SATA is limited to 1.5Gb/s data rate with jumper
- Tried using Ubuntu installation... failed at recognizing hard drive... something about what platter type is being used. wouldn't continue.

Sorry for the long post. I've tried a lot of things. It just won't boot to the SATA. I'm thinking the motherboard is too old, but then again it has 2 SATA ports right on the MOBO.
If anyone has anything that I may have missed, please let me know. I've easily overlooked small things before.
If anyone has any wisdom to share, or other things to try let me know.
I'll be happy to provide more information if you would like.

[viperx45]

Successfully installed Ubuntu
Booted right up
I'm not familar with Ubuntu or any Linux software really.
Likes to hang up here and there.
I'm going to run more in depth HDD tests on this drive later
Still no luck with windows xp though

[viperx45]

Ran hitachi's DFT program. It gave me error code 0x70 on the advanced test which means that it found corrupt sectors on the drive.
since it's not a hitachi drive I cannot run the recommended "Erase Disc" utility.

I'll see if seatools or western digital software can help with that...

[patio]

Data LifeGuard is the Western Digital tools...

[nickgr5]

If you ever notice any weird freeze/hang up with Ubuntu (or any other Linux Distribution), then it will most likely indicate a hardware fault.

[Quantos]

You can safely ignore that post.  Linux flavors run into issues as well.

[viperx45]

Thank you for letting me know that about Ubuntu. It would hang and freeze randomly every once in awhile. Had to hold the power button to fix it sometimes.
Didn't get any error screens.

I ran Western Digital's Data LifeGuard last night using the old computer. My IDE drive still has a good copy of windows xp on it. Performed "write zeros" to the disk, and it started running into errors about %40 of the way through. Hit a section of errors were it could not write zeros to. Since each ploblem sector required me to select ok, I canceled it.

Put it in my newer computer today. Did "write zeros" using the same program, Data LifeGuard, and it finished with no errors.

newer computer is running windows 7 64-bit BTW

I want to guess that there is something wrong with the SATA controller (whatever it's called) on the motherboard. Maybe trying to update bios would help?

I'd like to try installing a PCI SATA card and see if that works, but I don't have one available right now.

[viperx45]

Tried installing windows xp on that SATA drive again using the Computer it will be going into.
Still have same problems.

Screen shot of blue screen below. this is what I get if I skip the raid driver that windows asks for just before putting windows files on the HDD for the first time.
When the computer reboots, I get this.
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/782/bs2011.jpg

I'm going to give up on this for now. Not really worth my time now. I could get a SATA controller card, but... yeah not feelin up to finding the problem anymore.
I'll just go back to booting windows on the slow PATA drive .

[patio]

Very early on in the setup process there is a bottom screen prompt "press F6 to install additional drivers"....
You have to then insert the MBoard driver CD and continue...
XP will not install if this step is skipped.

[Lumpy44]

This a legit copy of windows xp? Seen the pirated versions not work with some hardware sometimes, not sure why or what would even make it possible but its an idea.

[Computer_Commando]

Tried installing windows xp on that SATA drive again using the Computer it will be going into.
...Screen shot of blue screen below. this is what I get if I skip the raid driver that windows asks for just before putting windows files on the HDD for the first time...

Many computers used SATA in a RAID configuration as the default.  You do not want RAID.   Look in BIOS for SATA compatibility mode, set it to IDE & no 3rd party drivers will be required.  My P4 from 2005 works this way.
My BIOS has:
SATA Devices Configuration
On-Chip Serial ATA
Disable, Auto, Combined, Enhanced, SATA Only

Auto & Enhanced worked for me with no 3rd party drivers

[viperx45]

Very early on in the setup process there is a bottom screen prompt "press F6 to install additional drivers"....
You have to then insert the MBoard driver CD and continue...
XP will not install if this step is skipped.

I've been doing this, I've lost the motherboard CD, but i am using a driver that i got from the ASUS website, it's a raid driver.

This a legit copy of windows xp? Seen the pirated versions not work with some hardware sometimes, not sure why or what would even make it possible but its an idea.

I'm not entirely sure of the legitimacy of this CD. It's a family CD and many copies have been made.

Many computers used SATA in a RAID configuration as the default.  You do not want RAID.   Look in BIOS for SATA compatibility mode, set it to IDE & no 3rd party drivers will be required.  My P4 from 2005 works this way.
My BIOS has:
SATA Devices Configuration
On-Chip Serial ATA
Disable, Auto, Combined, Enhanced, SATA Only

Auto & Enhanced worked for me with no 3rd party drivers

I'll have to look into that. A program runs shortly after the bios boot that controls raid stuff. I'll look there and see what I can dig up.


Sorry for the delayed response. I assumed this thread disappeared into the depths history.
I gave up for while. I could've sworn I had this computer boot from a SATA before, I could be wrong though.

[patio]

No problem...at least you have some things to look into/try in the meantime...
Let us know.

[Raptor]

If you want to run a 3.0Gpbs SATA drive on older machines, you need to set it to 1.5Gpbs through the use of jumper or software. After that you have to load the SATA floppy driver from the download section during the driver loading of XP. (F6)

If the RAID BIOS doesn't detect the drive, you've probably not configured the drive properly for 1.5Gpbs.