[Jeremy]

Ok, I just switched my old WD 120GB IDE drive with a Seagate 160GB SATA2 NCQ drive and enabled SATA in my BIOS, and ever since then, when it gets to "Verifying DMI Pool Data.........." it won't go any further.

Any ideas?

[Jeremy]

Ok, I changed the boot order so I booted from the CD first, and it seemed as if the DMI Pool Data was verified, however... When I load Windows Setup, it tells me no drives were detected. I have SATA enabled in my BIOS and it is working because I can feel it vibrating. It is picked up when my PC scans for SATA drives, too. What's going on?
..... why can't computers be nicer to me...

[nmX.Memnoch]

You need a floppy with the drivers for your SATA controller. When you start the Windows setup press F6 so it asks for disk controller drivers.

[MCT]

ya, that & also some bios have a weird thing where u have 2 disable raid for it 2 detect SATA drives without installing drivers (my friends gigabyte mobo does this)

[Jeremy]

So, I NEED a floppy drive? The mobo came with a CD with drivers and I browsed it, no SATA drivers. I tried to boot from it but it didn't work.

[Jeremy]

This is no longer an issue with DMI Pool Data.
My floppy drive died.
My hard drive died.
I have a new Seagate SATA 160GB NCQ 11MS drive, but am just downloading the SATA drivers now and will integrate them with nLite into a new XPCD to hopefully boot from and allow my PC to see my SATA drive in Windows Setup without the need of a floppy. If so, I can probably make it in time to do my nLite presentation in class (college) mentioned here.

[Jeremy]

Well, that didn't work. I'm not going to college today. I spent 5 hours last night trying to get this working and 4 hours today. Floppy and HD dead... I'm just not in the mood...

[ripken204]

have you tried clearing the cmos?

[Jeremy]

WHat good would that do? I have SATA enabled in the BIOS and the drive is picked up but when I get to Windows Setup, it says it couldn't find the disk drive.

[ripken204]

Jeremy, on Jan 7 2006, 02:05 PM, said:

WHat good would that do?

it can fix it, thats what it can do. when you change hdd's that can happen. just give it a try, if it doesnt work then we can move on.

[Jeremy]

Didn't work.

[Vitalix]

What is the motherboard? I know that some have 4-8 SATA slots, and they have different controllers. 1-4 for example, may be controlled by a Promise RAID chip, and the other 4 could be an onbard HighPoint or something.
Have you tried using a different SATA plug or group?
Kinda strange that your HD and floppy went at the same time. U don't think that when the IDE HD went it zapped the rail on the PSU do you? Maybe enough of a zap that the SATA drive is picked up but not enough that it actually functions correctly.
Try throwing Linux (any newer flavor) on there and see if it is picked up. Linux is pretty automatic with hardware.

[Jeremy]

My Motherboard
2 SATA connectors. My drive is currently on the Primary. My floppy died and then my IDE drive died. My IDE drive went because it was dying anyway, had nothing to do with a zap of any kind.

[ripken204]

and you can see it in the bios, right? try setting everything to autodetect in the bios. set the hdd as the 1st boot device.

but what the problem most likely is, is your bootsector, the bios cant find where to boot from.

[Vitalix]

How about BIOS revisions? Have you tried stepping up or down a level?
I'm not extremely familiar with nLite, but did the F6 feature work when installing XP from scratch?
Is there a txtsetup.oem file on the floppy when you first tried?

Also, how did the Linux attempt go? If Linux can't find it, there may be a problem with hardware.
You've tried both SATA connectors, right?

This post has been edited by Vitalix: 07 January 2006 - 07:14 PM

[ripken204]

are you overclocked at all?

[Jeremy]

You guys are completely in the dark here.
By the time I put the floppy disk containing the drivers, it DIED.
Then before I could go download the drivers, my IDE drive died.
Now my Seagate SATA drive is brand new. I'm not booting from the drive, I'm booting from a CD and when I get to Windows Setup, it says no disk drive was found.
nLite's Help box in the Driver Integration section says for textmode drivers you need to have a "txtsetup.oem" file in the same folder. Well, I searched the entire PC and no such file exists before or after nLite-ment.
I'm thinking it may not have worked the first time with nLite because I checked the "Delete after install" box, so I will waste another CDR without having that checked and see if it works.
Also, my SATA controller is a SiS 964. I downloaded the latest drivers from the SiS homepage for WinXP and they're called "SiS 180" drivers, but they are for SATA/RAID.

[ripken204]

well all of that stuff sucks, i dont see how those 2 things can just die, maybe mobo is going bad?

is the new drive showing up in the bios at all?

[Vitalix]

The txtsetup.oem file is used differently than the typical INF and sys files for windows drivers. That file only works at boot. I use that F6 prompt fairly often building servers at work, and always with a floppy with that file. I'm not sure how nLite would slipstream that. I've never gotten it to work otherwise without a floppy.
The SIS drivers you mentioned have a FloppyImage folder. Is that where you got the txtsetup.oem file to slipstream? That file (and its matching resource folder) should be all that's needed from a floppy standpoint, but unfortunately I cannot help with nLite.
Just had to do the same with an Opteron board.

This post has been edited by Vitalix: 07 January 2006 - 08:55 PM

[Jeremy]

Vitalix, thanks for that info. I guess I should just get a floppy drive. GreenMachine's guide to integrating SATA/RAID drivers confuses me a tiny bit. He says that by doing what he does, you don't need to use the floppy nor press F6. But I guess I did something wrong.
I tried integrating again with nLite, and left the "Delete After Install" box unchecked, didn't work.
Windows Setup still said it couldn't find the disk drive. If It could only see it!!

This post has been edited by Jeremy: 07 January 2006 - 09:29 PM