Assembly Questions/Issues

[mjoe]

My build and parts are listed here. I appreciate all the help this site has provided, but I do have a couple of questions.

1) First, my DVDRW and HD are both SATA, which is different than the assembly instructions from Rob (http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_install_cdrom.shtml). My MOBO has spots for SATA0, SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, and SATA4. I connected the DVD at 0 and the HD at 1. As such, the BIOS lists the DVD as Master 2 and the HD as slave 2. Is this what I'm looking for? If not, do I need to change the connection spots or change the BIOS?

2) If I go so far as to try installing XP, I can get to the point where I am supposed to insert the MOBO disk with drivers (http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_sata_install_windows_operating_system.shtml) but the installation program is looking for the A: floppy drive and I am not installing a floppy. What I can't find is a way to have the XP install program just get the driver from the DVD drive. I'm not sure what I am supposed to do to fix this.

2.1) Additionally, are the drivers I am looking for in the above step located on the CD that came with my MOBO? My HD just came wrapped in bubblewrap without any extra parts or documentation.

Thanks.

[chunkylover53]

1) Don't think SATA 0,1,etc. order matters, so you should be fine.

2) The MOBO Rob used needed SATA drivers updated, but yours does not, so ignore that part.. Go into the BIOS and change the boot order to CD first, and HDD second.

2.1) Yes, the drivers you will need are on the CD that came with the mobo, and you don't need to install until after XP is installed. That will be the very first thing you do once XP is in, becasue you need the ethernet driver on that CD to connect to the internet, sound driver to test sound, etc. You should not need a driver or documentation for the hard drive, and OEM HD's always come in bubble wrap like that. Once you have the drivers for everything else updated, you can go to the HD Mfr site to download their diagnostic tools (highly recommended to test HD).

Time to load XP my friend. Change the boot order to CD, pop in the XP install disk, and reboot!

[mjoe]

Great.

Thanks.

[zburns]

MJOE, I want to ask a few questions that may help; if I am saying something wrong or misleading someone else jump in please. While I am in basic agreement with Chunky Lover, I am curious about use of SATA 0 as a "numbering term". You have a mobo book, what does it say about "when" to use SATA0 vs Sata 1 thru 4. Also, your BIOS lists DVD as Master 2 and HD as Slave 2; well, then "what are" and "where is" Master 1 and Slave 1. Does your mobo instruction book define or make a distinction between Master 1 and Master 2, and Slave 1, Slave 2.

Also, Vista which I have had virtually all drivers to get me going and then I downloaded a few at the end from mfg websites, etc.. One other point, Rob's book, I believe (from memory) goes to a lot of detail about downloading current drivers as opposed to any disc drivers for any device incl the mobo.

Tell us your mobo, please; might help. Another point is that if your mobo CD is recent, datewise, to your mobo intro time, drivers will probably be current enough; believe Rob says something like this. Good luck!

[mjoe]

Well I skipped the step with a driver and installed XP and now my HD is only 130 GB, not 640 GB.

What now?

[mjoe]

MJOE, I want to ask a few questions that may help; if I am saying something wrong or misleading someone else jump in please. While I am in basic agreement with Chunky Lover, I am curious about use of SATA 0 as a "numbering term". You have a mobo book, what does it say about "when" to use SATA0 vs Sata 1 thru 4. Also, your BIOS lists DVD as Master 2 and HD as Slave 2; well, then "what are" and "where is" Master 1 and Slave 1. Does your mobo instruction book define or make a distinction between Master 1 and Master 2, and Slave 1, Slave 2.
To the best of my ability, I cannot find in the book any distinction between any of the SATAs. Anytime it references a SATA connection, it lists them all together. Such as, connect the SATA wire to the MOBO SATA_0/1/2/3/4. It also doesn't tell the difference between the Master/Slave setup.

I do have to apologize for being an idiot and not linking my original thread (http://forums.mysuperpc.com/showthread.php?t=2191).

Here is my MOBO. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128360)

[chunkylover53]

Well I skipped the step with a driver and installed XP and now my HD is only 130 GB, not 640 GB.

What now?

Keep going. Load the drivers from the install CD. When you loaded XP, did you create partitions?

[mjoe]

Keep going. Load the drivers from the install CD. When you loaded XP, did you create partitions?

I chose not to.

[zburns]

Just saw your reply. My suggestion is slow down on the assembly and make sure you understand the next step before going forward. Even if someone on this forum tells you what to do, make sure you understand and agree with them before proceeding. Ie. , what you are doing has to make sense to you also!

Also your statement about the hard drive now being 130 instead of 640 gig. As I said I have Vista, you have Xp. I had to decide how much HD space to give Vista as a dedicated HD partition, and everything else went into the remainder of the HD. My WD HD is a 320 gig, I believe 140 is dedicated to the OS and the remainder, 180 gig to everything else. However, I had to make that decision during the OS setup with the OS disc (Vista). Sounds to me like your Xp had you do the same thing; however, I point out that if so, you had to make a choice of 130 in the Xp disc setup instructions. ( I have never used Xp but what you describe on your HD comment of 130/640 sounds very familiar to me when I installed Vista)

A word on Rob's book or his online instructions. Try to follow them everywhere you can, but figure out the alternative when you cannot. If your mobo is not the same as Rob's, then depend on your mobo book; try to fit into Rob's stuff, things that your mobo book says where Rob's is not applicable; then go to the next step. Not trying to lecture, but just take your time and make sure you agree and understand each step.

Just wanted to make a quick comment! I will look at your mobo shortly, and get back.

[chunkylover53]

No problem on the partitioning.

Don't worry about how Windows is reporting the size of the hard drive just yet either. Load the motherboard drivers, then reboot. Also be sure to go back in the bios to change the HD as first boot device in the boot order.

After restart, go back into windows and check to see if it's back up to 600GB yet (keep in mind that a 640GB HD might only show up as 600GB in reality). Either way, next step is download the Western Digital diagnostics. You really should run a full scan to check for bad sectors on the HD even if it seems OK.

[mjoe]

No problem on the partitioning.

Don't worry about how Windows is reporting the size of the hard drive just yet either. Load the motherboard drivers, then reboot. Also be sure to go back in the bios to change the HD as first boot device in the boot order.

After restart, go back into windows and check to see if it's back up to 600GB yet (keep in mind that a 640GB HD might only show up as 600GB in reality). Either way, next step is download the Western Digital diagnostics. You really should run a full scan to check for bad sectors on the HD even if it seems OK.

I did do the WD diagnostics prior to XP installation, everything checked out okay.

[chunkylover53]

zburns makes a great point. I know your in the middle of your build, so I'm trying to stick with you today and answer your questions quickly. But if any of our answers don't seem right or we start to confuse you, just ask more clarifying questions.

I think your in good shape so far, but now might be the time to take a step back and go through the checklist again up to where you are now. Just to make sure you've hit everything.

[zburns]

I am curious. Your WD diagnostics had two segments, one short segment and one long segment. Do you remember approximately about how long it took to run each segment. By the way ChunkyLover, you are point here, I'm the bat boy!

[mjoe]

I am curious. Your WD diagnostics had two segments, one short segment and one long segment. Do you remember approximately about how long it took to run each segment. By the way ChunkyLover, you are point here, I'm the bat boy!

Probably about 90 minutes each for the long HD check and the long write zeros check.

The two short tests were 5 minutes or less.

[chunkylover53]

In windows, Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management and then select Disk Management. What's showing up in there under your drives?

[The Wise Monkey]

It sounds as if you are using XP SP1 - this has an inbuilt limit of 128GB for HDs. Download and install SP3. :)

[mjoe]

I'm currently updating XP. Will check everything again when it is done.

Thanks everybody.

[zburns]

MJOE, your original thread says you have an old version of XP, so it helps to know that; obviously your updates will help.

Your times on the WD diag test sound correct. Keep your cool! We can lose ours, but you are not allowed!

[chunkylover53]

It sounds as if you are using XP SP1 - this has an inbuilt limit of 128GB for HDs. Download and install SP3. :)

You are a fountain of knowledge for such a youngster! :D

[zburns]

I looked up the mobo specs. It accepts 1 PATA 1x ATA 100, 2 devices max. and 5 SATAs. This means Master 2 and Slave 2 are Sata drives. Master 1, Slave 1 would be the correct description for PATA devices but you do not have any; that would be why, I presume, you see only Master 2 and Slave 2 in your BIOS. Based on the above being correct, you are seeing what you should see in the BIOS. You have already indicated your MOBO book does not say otherwise; this being the case, my assumption sounds ok.

MJOE, the following is a question I have for Chunky or Wise Monkey or Rob. EDIT about 11:30pm EST. I am not comfortable with my above comment! Master/Slave terminology applies to Pata devices. His DVD and HD are connected to SATA 0 and SATA 1 respectively. His BIOS shows Master 2 and Slave 2. His is the first build on this site I have seen with a SATA DVD/CD; I tried to research it quickly but only came up with all SATA devices independant of each other. Have I missed something in recent previous posts on the forum that relate to this subject? HELP.

[zburns]

Mjoe's mobo was fairly inexpensive meaning it could have been on sale, etc.; could it have an old version of the BIOS, not updated by Gigabyte. Master/Slave could just be a BIOS error in terminology.

Mjoe, as a precaution maybe you should check the version number of your BIOS on line with Gigabytes latest version number for your mobo. Just trying to explain why Master / Slave terminology is used.

[The Wise Monkey]

You are a fountain of knowledge for such a youngster! :D

Heh, thanks. :D

SATA hard drives and CD drives have no concept of Master or Slave - they are all treated as Master drives, if you are running them in conjunction with IDE drives that is.

So it really doesn't matter where you plug the drive into, as long as you know which port goes to which component. I personally like to have the hard drive(s) for the OS in SATA 0 and go from there.

[zburns]

Wise, No argument with the following: "SATA hard drives and CD drives have no concept of Master or Slave . So it really doesn't matter where you plug the drive into, as long as you know which port goes to which component."

On mjoe's gigabyte mobo, I still do not understand what logic calls two Sata drives connected to Sata 0 and Sata 1, master 2 and slave 2 respectively. I assume some capable software engineer approved this language in the BIOS for a reason; if the language does not matter or is, only, an oversight it does not speak well of Gigabyte for allowing it. Mjoe says the Gigabyte book does not address it. So it is a "loose end" from my perspective. Does not make sense that it is really a problem either!

[mjoe]

Update: Well, after the biggest bunch of headaches this side of the Mississippi I finally have SP2 successfully installed. The HD still reads at 130 GB.

I am currently installing SP3. We'll see what happens.

Thanks everybody, I would be lost without this forum.

[The Wise Monkey]

Because you installed SP1 originally, the HD would only have a 130GB partition on it for the OS. When you install SP2 or SP3, the rest of the HD will be available under Disk Management as "Unpartitioned Space" iirc. Chunky gave directions to finding it:

"In windows, Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management and then select Disk Management."

You will not be able to resize the OS partition from inside XP unless you pay for a partitioning program such as Norton's Partition Magic, or use a free program such as GParted http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ which boots from a CD and allows you to make changes.

Be sure to make a backup of your data first, and read the instructions thoroughly.

[chunkylover53]

DOUBLE POSTER!!!

:):(:confused::mad::p;):D:o:rolleyes::cool::eek:

Edit: Shoot, I thought I had you WM. The powers of the mods!

Edit (by TWM): Power indeed. :D