Windows XP won't boot after installing SATA HDD

[r00tcracker]

Hi guys, I am having this strange problem.. here it goes!..

I bought a 300Gigs Seagate SATA HDD to add as a second hard drive (I already have an 80gigs IDE), installed it, drivers, everything.... so far so good, no problems at all.

Today I turn the computer on, BIOS recognizes the SATA hdd , then goes to boot windows... I get the windows logo with the progress bar moving.. after that, the screen goes black, i get a little of HDD activity and after 20 seconds the Windows logo apears with the blue screen behind (like when you get the users to sign in) bit instead of the user sign in screen, it says.... loading settings......... and it stays there FOREVER!!!.

If I go to the BIOS and disable the onboard sata, windows boots normally!!.

WTF is going on?!?!? How come this is happening!?!?!?. I really need help.

This is what I tried.....

Reinstalling sata drivers,

Changing cables.

Unplugging IDE devices.

And I think thats about it.

I have Windows XP pro SP2

AMD Athlon 3000+

Gigabyte GA7n400 Pro2 Motherboard

Any help would be appriciated!

Thanks in advance.

I forgot to say that it was working for a week with no problems!!

[djeso]

perhaps the o/s went corrupt try re-installing

[r00tcracker]

Tried that, didn't work!!!

I run that Seagate tools, and the drive its there, tests it, recognizes it.

I tried everything!!! I don;t know what to do!!

All my stuff is on that drive!!!

[JustGeorge]

Well sure as hell don't reformat then! If you have to, load XP back onto your IDE HDD and boot from that and recover your bounty off the SATA.

[Deactivated Account]

ok I'm scared now.. Just got 2x Seagate 250GB SATA the other day. have not put them in the system yet. anyone know of any bad things with the 2 that i have?

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 Serial ATA

Model

ST3250823AS

Firmware

Drive 1: 3.04

Drive 2: 3.03

[JustGeorge]

  dl0711 said:

ok I'm scared now.. Just got 2x Seagate 250GB SATA the other day. have not put them in the system yet. anyone know of any bad things with the 2 that i have?

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 Serial ATA

Model

ST3250823AS

Firmware

Drive 1: 3.04

Drive 2: 3.03

Seagate Drives are reliable so don't be afraid. Everyone gets a dud at some point. BTW, I don't think SATA drivers are needed unless running RAID configurations. I haven't installed SATA drivers on the two PCs I own.

[gshapiro]

The first time I added a SATA drive to my system I had problems also. I really don't recall what it was.

Anyways, I booted into safe mode and then rebooted into normal mode and the problem went away.

Who knows?

[Ataru]

Well, it might be something you didn't do correctly. Did you boot the second one as a slave and follow directions to the dot? I had hard drive failure a few days ago and bought a Seagate 160GB and it's been working perfectly.

[r00tcracker]

Hi denzilla, the problem is, that I was ALWAYS running XP of my IDE disk. I never installed XP on the SATA.

It worked for a week and then BOOM. Doesn't work anymore!!!!

[JustGeorge]

  r00tcracker said:

Hi denzilla, the problem is, that I was ALWAYS running XP of my IDE disk. I never installed XP on the SATA.

It worked for a week and then BOOM. Doesn't work anymore!!!!

My apologies as I misunderstood your post. Have you re-seated your SATA cables, or tried a different cable?

[r00tcracker]

Yes, I did all that!..

The thing I noticed is when I installed it, i made it a Dynamic drive (i don't know if thats the problem).

The problem is with Windows I think, because when I boot the computer the drive works, but when it tries to start windows, it dies!.

There was ONE time that the computer booted and I went to the disk manager, and it showed the drive as OFFLINE... I tried to get it back on line, but I got a TIME OUT message and can't do anything.

The other thing is, when i tried reinstalling windows WITH the SATA drive connected, It wouldn't install either, I had the disable it from the bios to reinstall windows on my IDE drive!!

WIERD!!!

HELP!?

[JustGeorge]

  r00tcracker said:

Yes, I did all that!..

The thing I noticed is when I installed it, i made it a Dynamic drive (i don't know if thats the problem).

The problem is with Windows I think, because when I boot the computer the drive works, but when it tries to start windows, it dies!.

There was ONE time that the computer booted and I went to the disk manager, and it showed the drive as OFFLINE... I tried to get it back on line, but I got a TIME OUT message and can't do anything.

The other thing is, when i tried reinstalling windows WITH the SATA drive connected, It wouldn't install either, I had the disable it from the bios to reinstall windows on my IDE drive!!

WIERD!!!

HELP!?

Any BIOS updates available for your board?

[r00tcracker]

I updated the BIOS, and NOTHING!! Same problem!!!

I think you are running out of answers!!!

:no:

[JustGeorge]

What Sata port do you have it plugged into? I'm not sure if its required to be in the first port but try plugging it into another port. If that doesn't work there are only three options:

1. OS is corrupt somehow.

2. SATA controller on motherboard is bad.

3. Hard Drive itself has failed in some way.

At least these are the only three I can think of. Could you take your HDD to a local repair shop and ask them to plu it into another PC to see if it can be accessed? Also, check MB manual and make sure the BIOS doesn't need to be configured to use SATA. If seatools says the drive is fine, I'm leaning toward the first two possibilities I listed.

[djeso]

try putting in windows xp cd installation but don't click any key to start from the cd, if the computer boots it may be that the hardrive has a bad boot sector.

[RottGutt]

You didn't happen to install BOTH type of power connectors to the SATA hard drive did you? Connecting both power connectors would be a bad thing! I did it the 1st time I installed a SATA hard drive, then was looking thru the manual later that day and saw the BIG warning not to do so, as it could very well cause the drive to go bad.

[r00tcracker]

RottGutt, I don't understand what you are saying. I only have 1 power connector.

Djeso, I am not booting from the sata drive, the comptuter boots fine if I disable the SATA from the Bios.

denzilla, I connected the sata drive to both ports Sata0 and Sata1, nothing happened.

I will try to take it to a different computer.

Another thing, I donwloaded SLAX linux live CD and it Recognizes the drive!!!! But I can't copy my files from the SATA to the IDE. I can't even create folders on my IDE from linux.

Is that because I have NTFS partitions???

Thanks for all your answers!!!!

[JustGeorge]

  r00tcracker said:

RottGutt, I don't understand what you are saying. I only have 1 power connector.

Djeso, I am not booting from the sata drive, the comptuter boots fine if I disable the SATA from the Bios.

denzilla, I connected the sata drive to both ports Sata0 and Sata1, nothing happened.

I will try to take it to a different computer.

Another thing, I donwloaded SLAX linux live CD and it Recognizes the drive!!!! But I can't copy my files from the SATA to the IDE. I can't even create folders on my IDE from linux.

Is that because I have NTFS partitions???

Thanks for all your answers!!!!

I don't know enough about linux to give you an answer on that but if you can browse the drive with linux but not copy, I guess it could be NTFS related. NTFS support isn't perfect on linux from what I've heard. Maybe try a different Live CD?

[r00tcracker]

Well denzilla!!!..... Thanks for your help........... I am transfering my files from the SATA as we speak!!! Thanks to LINUX and Partition magic.

Now for the solution.

After reading on linux forums, i now know that Linux cannot write on NTFS partitions.

So, I had some free space on my IDE, created a FAT32 partition with Partition Magic 8 and its working now!! :)

After finishing this I will reformat the SATA and see what happens!!!!!

I will keep you informed anyway denzilla!

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

[JustGeorge]

  r00tcracker said:

Well denzilla!!!..... Thanks for your help........... I am transfering my files from the SATA as we speak!!! Thanks to LINUX and Partition magic.

Now for the solution.

After reading on linux forums, i now know that Linux cannot write on NTFS partitions.

So, I had some free space on my IDE, created a FAT32 partition with Partition Magic 8 and its working now!! :)

After finishing this I will reformat the SATA and see what happens!!!!!

I will keep you informed anyway denzilla!

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Glad to hear you're able to recover your data :) In the future, I would setup your SATA to boot from and your IDE as storage since the SATA will give you faster performance in booting, gaming, etc.

[r00tcracker]

Well my friend!!! I DID IT!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D

I made the partition NTFS and BASIC and the drive is working now!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your help

Especially you denzilla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Skinner]

Hi I bought a SATA 80Gb drive and after buying a RAID controller card (as my computer is older) it worked fine as a second disk. Then I thought why not transfer the system to this disk as it is faster then the IDE my system is currently on? I did all this and made sure when installing Windows to use the option to install SATA drivers, by copying these from the system CD supplied with the 80 onto a floppy, then selecting them during install... Did you do this? Or is it not a system disk?

[Gowcra]

  denzilla said:

Seagate Drives are reliable so don't be afraid. Everyone gets a dud at some point. BTW, I don't think SATA drivers are needed unless running RAID configurations. I haven't installed SATA drivers on the two PCs I own.

I just built a system, and bought a sata drive, plugged it in and wham, worked with no problems, so i agree here