New Build setup

[shawnee]

Hello: I finished a new build Saturday. The computer is working well: GA EP35-DS3R; E8400 Core 2 Duo; 2GB G-Skill 1066 RAM; Radeon HD 3650; WD 500 GB HD, Creative sound, LG 22-inch monitor, Samsung DVD and Vista Home Premium..
I have internet and home network working well, and watching dvd movies.
I didn't want a raid setup, but I thought using the ACHI capability of the MB would use the best features of the sata hard drive. I had read that Vista didn't need a sata driver installed in Vista setup; that installing the Intel Matrix storage manager could wait until after Vista's installation. Bios recognized my hd and dvd; I connected the hd to sata 0 connector, and the dvd to sata 1, and configured the bios for autodetect.
I then selected Sata AHCI mode.
But now, even though the computer is working, and the HD shows up in explore, as does the dvd, when I check the bios, neither drive shows up at all in the Standard Cmos screen. And although I didn't install a floppy, and didn't enable one in the bios, Vista explore shows a Floppy Disk Drive (A).
After Vista loaded, and completed its updating, it offered an update of the Intel sata ICH9 driver. I accepted and loaded that, but I'm wondering just what's happening in the bios and what configuration I actually have.
In Device Manager, it shows, under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers:
ATA channel 0
ATA channel 1
Intel ICH9 SATA AHCI controller
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE controller

Should I just leave it alone and enjoy the computer, or is there a better way to configure the setup? Thanks for any help.
Shawnee

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: New Build setup

Virtually all motherboard BIOS's recognize SATA interfaced devices as IDE.
That means you need to have your SATA/IDE control mode on IDE and your SATA/IDE Device Enabled. Furthermore, you need to have SATA RAID/AHCI Disabled and SATA Port-3 Native mode Disabled.

AHCI is basically a "hot plugging" interface which allows you to literally "plug and play" SATA interfaced devices. It is often use along with RAID and usually employs the use of external drives. Unless you plan on switching your hard drive for another one while the system is up and running on a regular basis SATA AHCI is of no benefit to you whatsoever.

So, in a sense, you have both your HDD and DVD set up as "plug and play" devices and that is why they're not being detected in the BIOS.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: New Build setup

NCQ?

But yeah, the above is right. Not really any better, and actually will slow your boot times with AHCI enabled as the AHCI BIOS will need to be loaded.

So if you do want AHCI, I would suggest a clean install with the proper driver loaded before Install, and the correct BIOS settings per AHCI

[shawnee]

Re: New Build setup

Thanks for responding. My bios in Standard CMOS has IDE Channel 0, 1 Master/Slave. I had set this to auto. The HD is plugged into SATA 0, the DVD in SATA 1. Should the DVD drive be in SATA 1, or should I change it to SATA 2?
Under Integrated Peripherals, it has: SATA/RAID AHCI Mode (Intel ICH9R Southbridge):
Disabled Disables RAID for the SATA controllers and configures the SATA controllers to PATA mode. If I set this to disable, will the bios then recognize the drives, especially the Hard drive with Vista already loaded?
Thanks for helping a newbie; is there a good url with bios setup ideas or instructions for novices?
Shawnee

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: New Build setup

I'm pretty sure that you and I have virtually identical BIOS.

Below is a pic of the Integrated Periferals. If you have yours set the same way you'll be just fine.

Plug the HDD in the SATA 1-0 port and you can plug the DVD into any of the other remaining SATA ports (not the purple G-SATA) and your BIOS will see it. Doesn't matter if you got drivers installed or not in Vista. With the exception of plug in play, hot plugging-swapping the BIOS sees everything before the operating system.

[shawnee]

Re: New Build setup

Thanks for your assistance. I'll let you know how it works out.
Shawnee

[shawnee]

Re: New Build setup

I can now see the drives in bios. Both are present in IDE channel 0, with the HD as master, and the DVD as slave.
However, Vista's explore still is showing an A drive floppy, when it's disabled in bios, and no floppy is installed. Is this a bios problem?
Thanks, Shawnee

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: New Build setup

Vista's explore still is showing an A drive floppy, when it's disabled in bios, and no floppy is installed. Is this a bios problem?

I don't think it's a BIOS issue. It might be Vista's way of configuring a USB floppy drive. The only thing I can remember about Vista (since using the 32 bit Ultimate Trial a year or so ago) was how much I wanted to get it off of my system. After about 2~3 weeks...forget it. Couldn't stand it anymore. I'll keep the rest under my breath.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: New Build setup

Do you have a USB floppy?

Have you went into Device manager and uninstalled the "Ghost" floppy you are seeing?

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: New Build setup

It doesn't matter if someone's got a USB Floppy hooked up or not. I'm pretty sure XP does the same thing even if you don't have a standard floppy installed. It all part of the OS installation package. Wouldn't do any good to uninstall it. XP or Vista would just reinstall it all over again at the next boot up.

If you don't want to see it in the Windows/Vista Explorer the best thing to do is disable it in the Device Manager.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: New Build setup

Ya, I guess I wouldn't ever notice. I wont setup a system without a floppy so I would never know