XP won't boot after SATA install

[Dennari]

I have asus A7V8X without onboard SATA and with the newest bios. Windows XP is installed on a 120gb IDE drive. I needed more disk space so i bought a Silicon Image 3112 SATA controller and a Maxtor Diamondmax 9 Plus harddisk.

Now the problem is that after I installed the adapter and the disk, windows XP won't boot up anymore. On POST the SATA controller tells me it found the disk just fine and also the ide IDE drives seem to be fine. But when it should start loading XP, there's just a blank screen. It either hangs there or reboots itself after a while. The problem only occurs if the drive is actually connected to the controller. If it's not, the system runs fine. I've installed the windows XP drivers for the controller.

I just can't see why the SATA drive would somehow prevent XP from loading, as I have not altered the boot sequence. It seems that the system somehow still doesn't accept the SATA disk. Somebody please help me, this is making me soooo frustrated. Thx in advance.

[Captain Morgan]

Have you double checked that you have the right drivers ? Maybe also try the SATA controller in a different slot.

[DemolitionMan]

Do you have a floppy disk that came with the Mobo or HD with the SATA drivers on it ? Try booting up with that ?

[Rbreb13]

Boot to your XP CD. At the prompt at the very beginning of setup press F6. When it asks for the drivers have them ready on a floppy. Then just exit out without installing XP or anything.
If that doesn't work then do the same thing but at the setup screen do a repair install.

[Dennari]

I already tried to put the controller on a separate slot, but with the same results, also i'm sure the drivers are the right ones. And anyways, according to the manual that came with the controller, the computer should boot up just fine without any drivers, if you're just adding to an existing windows installation.

I tried to boot up from the XP CD but without results. Somehow it won't even try to boot up from anywhere. If the drive is connected, the only thing i get is a blank screen after the post. No attempts of loading the OS no matter what the boot sequence is. I'm simply don't know what to try next. Could the drive or the controller be damaged or something? The controller bios still finds and identifies the drive correctly, so there can't be anything too bad.. Thx for your time.

[rstarr]

What is your current boot sequence?
List 1 - 4 boot devices in your bios.

[C_deck]

it must be in the bios boot sequence. on some bios's, there are two settings for sata so look around.

you can try this as well:

pull out the old hdd. with only the new hdd installed, boot to the windows xp cd. get to the hdd partition screen. delete any partition on the hdd and create the new partition(s). exit xp install now. now try to boot with the old hdd installed.

this will kill any active boot record on the new hdd.

[Dennari]

Ok it's getting weird.

On my primary IDE channel I have a 60gb IBM as a master (XP is installed here, incorrect in the first post) and a 120gb Maxtor Diamodmax 9 Plus as a slave.

When I plugged the 120gb Maxtor off, XP started normally and my new SATA drive worked like a charm. I used the XP Disk Management to create a new NTFS partition. I thought the problem must be solved now, plugged the 120gb Maxtor back on and ... it doesn't work. The same problem still. It won't even try to load the XP with all three drives connected. On my boot sequence list there's the 60gb IBM as the first one, ATAPI CD as the second and floppy drive as the third. What's happening here? Why does it affect the boot up if I plug the slave drive on?

[C_deck]

you most likely have a floppy (or cd) that came with the controller. you must reconfigure the sata controller to set it on another channel.

[rstarr]

Originally Posted by Dennari

Ok it's getting weird....

Actually, that progress! It's a matter of properly setup your Sata drive
to work. Do as C_deck said about loading the Sata drivers up and configure your Sata in the bios.