NF2 and SATA300 SG160 HDD

[E_Net_Rider]

Chaintech 7NJL6 nor MSI Delta2FSR will recognize SG160 SATA300 HDD in BIOS.
Need advice to overcome?

Ultra Wizard midATX case, Belkin USB ergo kybd & 5button mouse.
PSU Ultra X-connect 400W- 3.3V 30A, 5V 32A, 12V 16A, -12V 0.8A, -5V 0.3A, 5VSB 2A
MSI K7N2 Delta2- bios B50, Spire WhisperRockIV cooler
Sempron(Barton)3300+socket A, 2200MHz, 512KB, 400MT/s, 11x, 1.65V, 64W, SDA3300DKV4E Patriot 2x1GB DC PC3200 low latency 2,3,2,5 ATI9600 (bios PRO)128M
MasterATA primary & slave WD800BB-22JHA0 SecondaryATA primary LTR-52327S -(CS all)
USB2- 80GB HDD, DVDRW SOHW-1673S,

[uddarts]

did you set the jumper on the hd to run sata 150?



ud

[E_Net_Rider]

I found a jumper that I was able to force fit.
Jumper did trick as far as recognizing in BIOS and setting up. And also found it was turning on USB mouse that would break the loading of SG disk tools.

But now have new set of problems.
Always loads as two disks in Windows Explorer, D and G because main drive has 3 partitions. one of them being removable.
Only shows one in device manager. But also shows auto-insert notification in properties, default on. And if that is not bad enough, the D shows up in MSDOS compatibility mode. And the speed is of 10MB era drives or slower.

Turn off auto-insert. change from removable, remove it, and machine will hang during restart.

I can get auto-insert to stay off, but it always reloads, comes up as removable. What am I missing? (besides most of my sanity)

[uddarts]

a friend called last nite and had a similar problem with the his replacement sata II drive not being recognized when trying to load windows. so i was already for your question today.

now your testing me! i think windows like installing the drive letters for each hd first. go into the administrator tools/disk management and assign the drive letters you want. that is if i understand your dilemma.


ud

[E_Net_Rider]

You understand my problem. wrong OS, running WME.
It acts similar to USB HDD if left plugged during reboot. Apparently in early stages of boot, assuming one HDD with say CDE, and USB with 2, it looks like this once booted.
C, then D (first partition of USB), then E & F being D & E shifted up one.
Then F, 2nd part of USB.
And then G & H listed as removeables, but duplicates of D & F respectively.
If I change away from removeable via device manager, then D & G and F & H will show same name in Explorer.
If I designate a drive letter via device manager, then G & H will shift to the allocated space, say Y&Z.

Because of the similaries I wonder what could be connected with USB and SATA via windows. I know that is not clear, but hope you get it. (suffering brain fry)
Can't think of anything driver related other than both are HDD and last device in chain of device manager.
Different controllers.
All to often I've goofed and forgotten to use the tray tool to disconnect USB prior to reboot.
Sometimes it has refused a disconnect, but learned a trick around. I just go ahead with reboot and watch USB lights. When they go out, safe to unplug, but do before it gets into reboot process. As soon as it starts, lights come back on. Part way through the windows boot screen, the lights will go out for a second or two. Safe to replug anytime after they go out. Once windows gets up, everything looks and works find.
Lots of options in the BIOS as to which of a group of devices to boot from. Removables, HDD, CD/DVD, but apparently no way to tell bios to ignore a device totally during initial boot.

[uddarts]

guessing as usual, i would think this a windows deal and the bios doesn't have a say in it.

if it is a driver loading sequence, try uninstalling the usb drivers and boot into the bios and shut what usb options you can. then boot windows a couple of times and then turn the usb ports back on and let windows reinstall the drivers.


ud

[E_Net_Rider]

Leaving USB alone for moment, and HDD disconnected, so as to treat as separate issues. Erase most of what I had written as it would have been too confusing for most and was at the level of fixing engineer issues.

Back at SG site, (deleted).
Troubleshooting section, a totally different approach is presented, almost as if, "Yeah, we know the software is broken, but we aint admitting, so do this instead."
There is presented 2 options, install OS to new drive, make drive new storage.
Here is link.
( http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SATA_Troubleshooter_-_Windows_98_Me_Installation_Basics&vgnextoid=f3c44a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD )
Step by step, they ignore that if you do step 4, it is too late to do step 5. Written poorly as is the interface of their disk tools. Try to follow step 6, you might be able to do it, but you might or might not be able to, even if sitting at the writers machine.
T
o do the added disk procedure, (read between lines) throw away our install disk.

It appears that I can get to about step 20 as the drive is shown, just too many times. Note they say to use "fdisk"

And there may lie the trick to stop multiple lettering. I considered doing the same with USB drive since not creating any primary partitions supposedly stops the "letter mash".
I didn't try then because I already had lots of data on USB drive. For some reason, perhaps decided to do it non-destructively like with PM7. That did not work, maybe wasn't able to hide USB partitions, don't remember anymore.
I have Partition Magic 8. Loaded it before I lost everything trying to do MOBO and add drives swap.
I may try doing the hide the partition (primary anyway), designate bootable, etc portion of tools. I lost confidence in the utility when I discovered that major meltdowns people had was likely tied to the voodoo it employs in resizing partitions. It really does not do that.
If you know of a utility that truly moves partition boundaries, let me know.

Or of one that can truly hides, blows away, and re-creates partitions on the fly, non-destructively to the data, let me know.

Decision time. Fdisk new drive or try to use PM8 which will leave tracks to every partition from the install. Testing drive copy would be another good choice, just to see if it works using a SATA and PATA, but not when I'm down to one machine and it takes around 18 hours.
Think I will fdisk since drive is empty. Will learn if it at least works rather than discover PM* won't help when loaded. Then wipe with fdisk to only find it did not work either, but killed all data.
Like, "do not verify a weapon is unloaded by pulling trigger."

Norman

[uddarts]

at this point, i'm just keeping you company.

one thing though i might mention.

http://www.largeharddrivesupport.windowsreinstall.com/

i use the enable lba tool. to fix the registry.


ud

[E_Net_Rider]

Thanks for info, I haven't jumped on it yet.
Your info indicates the opposite of something I was told. Nothing like bad info.
I was told WME and all W9x did not support 48 bit LBA.
And SG tool seem to agree, somewhat. Caveats for WME and 48b LBA are addin card or bios upgrade. No try it and see in the setup.

But looking at that site, didn't clear issue as to whether BIOS can deal with it or not?
Do you know of sure fire way to check?
MOBO maker no longer selling MOBOs, not in manual.

[uddarts]

#1 you are using the delta2? i've had no problems with a 200 gig storage drive, once i got past the registry issues on my delta ilsr.