Massive SATA Maxtor problem with my A7N8X Deluxe mobo

[phillai]

Hi there!

OK, I've got a big problem with my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.
I've had it for just under a year and it works fine except I've just recently bought two new Maxtor SATA 160Gb hard drives and I can't get these to work on the motherboard at all.

I've updated to the latest 1007 bios and I've also reset all the defaults in the bios.
I've also updated the latest drivers for all my PCI cards in my PC as well as having my operating system fully updated through Windows Update.
I've also taken all my other pci cards and I've even changed the memory to a Samsung type and it's still giving me the same problem.

Worst still is that I've tested my new Maxtor SATA 160Gb hard drives on a different ASUS motherboard and they work fine so I'm beginning to question if my SATA controller on my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard is faulty.

Anyway here are my specifications of my PC...
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard (1.04 I believe)
Enermax 450w power supply
256mb OCZ PC 3500 ram
2 x Maxtor 80Gb 133 ATA hard drives
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI card
Toshiba 6x SCSI DVD drive
Plextor 12/10/32 SCSI writer
Pioneer A05 DVD writer
Sony floppy drive
Winfast PVR PCI TV card
Netgear Wireless PCI card
4 x 80mm Cooler Master neon case fans
1 x 120mm Papst case fan
Enermax ATX tower case
Window XP Professional

All the above works fine.

I got two new Maxtor SATA 160Gb hard drives that don't work with my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

Basically what happens is this.
I unplugged both my IDE drives and I'm trying to freshly install Windows XP Professional onto one of my new Maxtor SATA 160Gb hard drives.

I got the bios to detect CD-Rom then SCSI then floppy.
When it detects the CD-Rom I've pressed F6 to install the Silicon SATA drivers which it then installs.
After partitioning when I'm about to install the operating system it says that Windows can't install until I format the C: partition.

Upon doing that I've got four choices...
Quick Format NTFS
Format NTFS
Quick Format Fat 32
Format Fat 32

I've been trying to format it to NTFS using both methods and both come to the same conclusion.

After Windows XP insisting that my partition needs to be formated
I did either a Quick format FAT32 or Quick format NTFS stays stuck at 20% then when it's 100% done, it tells me that the drives are either damaged or that the hard drives not installed properly...

It says that the drives are either faulty or that the SCSI hardware isn't installed properly.

I've also tried to use both the IDE drives and my SATA drives at the same time but it makes my PC crawl and when I finally get to disc management Windows XP sees the partitions but isn't able to format them at all.

Please advise me, I'm really at my wits end over this and I've tried for over a week now and still can't get it done.
I honestly believe that my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard is faulty as like I said before I tried the SATA drives on the ASUS motherboards at work and they work fine.

I hope someone can help me out here. Please reply to me as soon as you can.

P.S. I don't intend to RAID the two SATA hard drives when I get them working.

[yashiro]

Remove all except essential hardware.

Check the jumpers on the HD's.
Make sure they are plugged in correctly and have power.

Check the bios for any bizarre settings. (See forums below for known issues.)

Read a more specialist forum.

http://forums.amdmb.com/

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/

[andy572]

Having possibly reached the time to build a new PC, I'm only just looking into this kinda thing and funnily enough, the 'larger than 120-ish GB drive thing' has had me reading around a lot. Now, it's been years since I've messed with SCSI and haven't yet been near SATA, but...

As Yashiro first suggests, checking the drive jumpers will be worthwhile (it's all elimination, right? ). Aren't SATA 'primary'/master (if we're still allowed to say that!) anyway?

Now, the SCSI thing. Knowing that SATA drives are (at least in Windows) listed as SCSI, might this be a region of conflict and worth disconnecting those drives etc., at least?

I have also read of disk-related BIOS options that only appear when using multiple drives and could easily go unnoticed. Is there a 'boot' screen in which you can set which drives are read/used at this time? A Google search brought a solution via this route, first selecting the drives read/used at boot-up, then setting the typical boot order e.g. CD, floppy, hard drive. In this case selecting the drive listed as something like "3M- WD120" ('3M' apparently meaning '3rd IDE Master' - the first of the SATA drives;the remainder obviously relating to your drive/model number), saving, leaving the BIOS screen and rebooting should get things going.

It seems to have worked for the guy that followed the experience of the thread's contributor, so I hope it helps. If you need more, I found that at techsupportforums.com.

Sorry if it's as hazy as I am. I'm tired and typing as I read (regarding something that I've not yet used!).

Er, let us know how you get on!

[phillai]

Still can't get it working!
It's got to the point where I say screw this, get a new mobo and start afresh... :-(