Problem Installing XP on a Serial ATA Drive

[geforce27 0]

I recently purchased a Maxtor 200 GB Serial ATA drive and a Silicon Image 3112a PCI controller card. I am able to get the computer to see the drive, create partitions, and install Windows XP on it. However, when the machine reboots after installing XP, nothing happens.... the machine posts, and then when it gets to the point where XP should load, black screen.

 

To test, I tried installing 2000, and it did the same thing, but showed an error message that it couldn't find a particular file. What I think is happening is that the partitioning information works when you are in the XP setup - you can create partitions and drive letters, but then when the computer reboots, it can't find the partition info, or the driver letters changed.

 

I have the Sil 3112a card set in the BIOS to be a startup drive. Has anyone else run into problems installing XP on a drive that is connected to a PCI controller card?

[sapiens74 0]

http://www.48bitlba.com/winxp.htm

 

It is a known problem unless you are using SP1

 

If your install cd is not SP1, then we can help you with that

[geforce27 0]

Quote:

During the installation, when it says to hit F6 for third party driver installation, did you do so & insert a diskette of driverware from the manufacturer of this board?

Yes... the drivers that shipped with the controller card yeilded the same result as the most recent drivers downloaded from the Silicon Image web site. They of course provide incredibly poor documentation on their drivers and very little troubleshooting information.

I'll have a look at the .inf files to see if there any any oddities.

[geforce27 0]

Quote:

http://www.48bitlba.com/winxp.htm

It is a known problem unless you are using SP1

If your install cd is not SP1, then we can help you with that

My install CD is not SP1, but I am an MSDN subscriber so I can d/l and give that a try.

[wellmann 0]

Have you solved your problem eventually?

I have the same problem with that controller on Windows 2000. (installation works but then black screen)

[geforce27 0]

Quote:

Have you solved your problem eventually?
I have the same problem with that controller on Windows 2000. (installation works but then black screen)

Have not had a chance to look at it yet... the new drive and controller are sitting on my desk collecting dust at the moment. When I get a chance I will give it another go and post the outcome. 8)

[wellmann 0]

thx

 

What mainboard are you using?

Mine is the Abit KT7A-Raid (rev. 1.0 - BIOS A9)

[wellmann 0]

The card works in the first PCI slot.

Too bad, that it is sharing the IRQ with the graphic card and blocks its cooler now.

[robbx2 0]

I have the same problem using an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe with one SATA Maxtor 80GB.

 

The CD, Floppy, SCSI option works and gets it to try to boot. Also the jumper helps out tremendously (duh).

 

Yes, I did the F6 and I've done it both with the ASUS files and the Silicon Image files. The ASUS files have an R at the end of the filename indicating RAID while the silicone image files from their site do not.

 

For me, the problem is that I actually install WinXP Home and it runs. However, when I check to see if the driver is installed under Hardware it is not. There is a yellow ! RAID option so I updated that driver with the same diskette. It seems happy and puts the SCSI RAID symbol further down and does not have any conflicts asking me to restart so I do.

 

But no matter what, when I restart, turn off, or otherwise leave XP the first time it gets mad and tries to ask me to go into safe mode and all that.

 

Then, when I plug my other hard drive back in and boot off of it guess what!?! It gives me a dual boot option and the SATA drive I just installed can be booted from! Whoa! Too bad I don't want to dual boot and have to choose every time!

 

So, my only other option right now seems to be the FAT32 fix from the Microsoft Knowledge Base. However, that sounds scary and time consuming.

 

I also don't think I have the NVidia data problem because that is for multiple drive RAIDs and I'm just doing a single drive in SATA.