Trouble with SATA2 HDD on 8RDA3+

[Bilbo766]

I was wondering if you guys had any ideas on a problem I am having installing the new HDD I just purchased.

I have some troubleshooting skills and some aid from a buddy of mine but we are out of ideas.

First of all, here are the components:

New Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000GB 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 32MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive


OS: XP Service Pack 2
CPU: AMD Athlon 1800+
Board: EPOX 8RDA3+
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 80 GB IDE


The new 1T drive is detected when starting up but hangs at detection. There is an option to enter a RAID utility but this
does not work. From this screen all I can do is restart.

I am able to boot into XP again when restarting with the new drive unplugged.

I have updated the BIOS to the current version which I listed above hoping that this would alleviate the hang. This
obviously didn't work.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

[MUff1N]

IF you are not running a RAID Config, then disable this in the bios so that screen doesn't come up.

IF you have your drive set to Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) in drive configurations, then it will not work in XP without the drivers.

You have to use the F6 option during the initial OS installation to install these drivers & have that config work.
In Vista you can do this after the fact but not with XP.

I have my Seagate Barracuda SATAII HD's set to IDE configuration in the bios.

NOTE: I've tested drive speeds and with AHCI & Native Command Queuing enabled & it was actually slower.
This option is good for Servers but not for a Home PC where you are looking to get the most performance.

[cloasters]

Can the older BIOS of this mainboard be a problem in this case?

[Bilbo766]

I figured it out after combing some other forums. Actually, you're all partially right. The Silicon Image SATA controller needed a BIOS update. But you can't just flash that BIOS only.

For future reference, if anyone else has this problem, the solution is as follows. As I can't add links in my post, I'll quote it:

" The solution? Basically, as described in the thread above, you (1)download the latest BIOS (from ASUS's web site), (2)download the latest SI BIOS separately Silicon Image - Delivering pure digital content everywhere), (3)patch the new SI BIOS into the ASUS BIOS, and (4)flash the result onto motherboard. I did it and now everything works perfectly! I used Winflash to do the flashing, BTW, since I don't have a floppy drive. "

It says ASUS, but you can insert Epox in there and still find the solution. Though since Epox doesn't have downloads on their site anymore, you'll have to scrounge around for their latest BIOS update.

Thanks for the help!

[cloasters]

Welcome to AOA, Bilbo766!
Glad that you figured out the problem, it's not an easy solution!