Re: SATA harddrive Setup

In article <1143905587.727412.175570@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"JoshuaCurrie@xxxxxxx" <JoshuaCurrie@xxxxxxx> wrote:

I made that floppy you mentioned. But since this stuff is way above my
head because I'm so use to the older crap. I only upgraded so my
computer could handle my college courses I'm taking to design video
games. I also didn't know how to use that floppy.

OK. What do we know now ? You have a K8N-E Deluxe motherboard.
You have one CD with WinXP Home original edition.
What I am unclear on, does the second CD from Microsoft contain
just the Service Pack, or is it an install CD in the same sense
as your WinXP Home original CD is ?

To combine the effects of an original install CD and a Service Pack
file, there is this tool "AutoStreamer". This appears to be the same
version I used to make myself a Win2K SP4 install disk.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562&st=240
http://mhtools.knoware.nl/raptor/autostreamer/AutoStreamer.exe

What Autostreamer does, is use the original CD, plus the big service
pack file (which you would normally download), and combine them to
make a WinXP Home OEM SP2 disk. You would need another computer,
a computer that has a CD burner on it, in order to burn a CD with
the new information. The Neowin site has several threads about
Autostreamer, so any broken corner cases have already been discussed
(like dealing with Dell OEM CDs).

If you make yourself a WinXP SP2 install CD, and boot from it on
the new computer, that should install the native mode Microsoft
driver, and that should work with any Nvidia NF3/NF4 chipset port.
Your board has some SATA ports connected to the Nvidia chipset. Those
two SATA ports are SATA1 and SATA2 in the middle of the motherboard.

******

As for the Makedisk thing, Asus provides those on the motherboard
CD. You should "Explore" the Asus CD and have a look around.
There are hidden gems on the CD which you can find by looking in
the folders on the CD. I cannot tell you what is on your CD, so
you'll have to look around.

If you wanted to install your SATA disk on the SIL3114, the
BIOS has a setting called "Silicon Image Mode". The options
are RAID mode and SATA mode. You would use SATA mode. Then
find the appropriate Makedisk file by "Exploring" the CD,
execute it and insert a blank floppy in the floppy drive
of the other computer you are using. The floppy should end
up with something like this as a file list. The "txtsetup.oem"
file is what the OS uses to figure out what is on the floppy
and what you are trying to install as a disk driver.

TxtSetup.oem <--- how Windows knows what the floppy is for.
SI3114.inf
Si3114.mpd
Si3114.sys
SilSupp.cpl
SiWinAcc.sys
SiiSupp.vxd

To use the SIL3114, you would connect to one of the four SATA
connectors near the bottom of the motherboard. Insert the
WinXP original install CD, boot, and press F6 when prompted.
Your floppy disk should be inserted to give Windows the
SIL3114 drivers.

******

These are a few of the variations on disk controllers/installs.

1) Some chipsets have SATA ports on them that are only
used for RAID. There may not be drivers for all possible
modes that the hardware supports. For those, you might
install two disks, and F6 install RAID drivers on a floppy.
Or, if the RAID BIOS configuration screen offers JBOD as
an operating mode for a single disk, use that plus a
RAID driver.

2) Some chipsets have native SATA ports. The Microsoft native
SATA driver, which is present if the install CD is SP1 or
greater for WinXP, would work with that.

3) Chips which are outside the Southbridge, such as your
SIL3114, come in a couple of flavors. The flavors really
depend on which BIOS modules were installed by Asus.
Your SIL3114 seems to be set up for "dual personalities".
If set to non-RAID, the BIOS treats the disk as non-raid,
and you would search for a (ATA/IDE) driver to match. If
set to RAID, then you set up the disk as JBOD (just a bunch of
disks), load a RAID driver, and your single disk uses
a SCSI emulation layer.

In BIOSes which only run in RAID mode, then setting up as
JBOD is how you do it.

It is certainly not possible for me to test all these combinations,
and I only have experience with a few here on my home machines.
When I do an install, it is a matter of trying a few things,
before I get the recipe right. In your case, I would want to make
sure my WinXP install CD was SP1 or greater, and if the CD you
bought from Microsoft is not an install CD, but just contains
the Service Pack files, I would use autostreamer to build a
CD image. I would only use the Nvidia IDE drivers if it was
a last resort. The reason for all this caution, may only
become apparent when you add other storage devices to
your computer. If using CD/DVD burners on your new computer,
I would prefer the Microsoft driver to the Nvidia one, for
best compatibility with any burning tools you might be
using.

I am naturally suspicious of chipset manufacturer provided
drivers, as they always seem to have one issue or another.
If you can get the Microsoft driver to load for a device,
it is bound to work better.

HTH,
Paul
.