Guys, I really need your help on this one.

I gave my old folks my ASUS P5W & the E6600 Core duo and one of my 80Gb
Maxtor harddrives. They got the 8500GT 512, Geil Ram, etc.

Yesterday, I put the HDD in my computer (but was plugged into the SATA3 port) and
installed Vista for them, and added all the relevant software, etc. Cool.

Today, I assembled their new PC, and when I booted up, it was asking for the boot
device - so it wasn't booting up. Now, since i've used this MoBo before, I had no probs.
If you know the layout of the P5W then you'll know what am goin on about here.
The Sata HDD is now plugged into SATA1 on the MoBo. There is SATA1,3 & 4.
Don't ask about SATA2 cos i aint seen one, but that's besides the point.

SATA1 is where I'd my master HDD in when I had it. But in BIOS, is has it listed like
this:

Primary IDE Master : SONY DVD-RW
Secondary IDE Master: Not Detected
Primary IDE Slave: Not Detected
Third IDE Master: Maxtor XXXXXX
Fourth IDE Master : Not Detected

What I can't understand is why the Maxtor is the Third? And why the Sony drive is
showing at all? On my Commando MoBo, my WD HDD is Primary IDE. No DVD Drives
are shown at all?

Going back to the start of this post, I mentioned that when I formatted and installed
Vista in my Rig (same chipset as P5W) it was plugged into the Third IDE SATA slot.
All i done was disconnected the Primary Master so it didnt' think the Maxtor would be
C-Drive. Hope this's not too confusing.

Ok, so my old folks puter recognises the Maxtor is in and there, but there's no boot
media when it's booted up? And if i set boot sequence to Sony DVD Drive, so i can
reinstall windows agaaaaain nothing happens.

I've never experienced this ever. So i'm baffled by all of this. I've thought that since I
installed windows vista on the SATA3 Port, that this might be the reason? But surely
this can't cause this problem. Surely not?

Can anyone help me with this, or have an incline as to what the hell's going on?

Much appreciated,

Tam....

Come on FordGT you're the man that can help me out here!!!!

It's show it as 3rd in BIOS, is because it's including the IDE channels. You must have IDE mode enabled for SATA. Lot easier to just install windows in the final setup, instead of installing it before hand in a different setup.

As far as why you can't see the drive during install, perhaps pressing F6 and providing a SATA driver during install could help. But that's just my guess.

Thanks Dr.Peaceful, I shall have a look in a few moments

Yeah im scratching my head to

Haha! Nope, I've tweaked and changed the IDE settings and still nothing!!
I did however managed to get the HDD as Master Primary, and it still never booted
so I put the HDD back into my rig, and it booted no problem at all. The P5W i had in
my system until i got my Commando back a few weeks ago, so i'm totally stumped here
and i'm well p**sed off! Any other suggestions???

My P5B did something similar. Had a Maxtor 300 GB connected to SATA1, no other SATA drives connected. I installed XP and then reconnected my data drives, and for some reason it started trying to boot off SATA3, which has an identical Maxtor connected.

I just changed the boot sequence back to the proper drive in BIOS and it fixed it. I have no idea why the mobo decided to go to an entirely different port to boot from. That drive has never had an OS installed and I had reset the BIOS to the defaults before I installed XP.

There's only one Hard drive in my parents computer, and one DVD drive.
I've tried everything I can think off. I just think the P5W doesn't like this particular
Maxtor. I'm really p**sed off today. I built this thing at about 4pm today, and been trying
to get this thing working since about 5pm. It's now 02:18. I just wanna chuck the f**kin
thing out the window. And for the record, i hate maxtor with a passion. Nothing but
problems with that company and their products. The Maxtor drive's been lying around
for over a year in my house, i thought i'd do the good deed and pass it on. I knew
it was a mistake to use such a s**t harddrive. It's wasted my day!!


REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE
OR INSERT PROPER MEDIA IN SELECTED BOOT DEVICE AND PRESS A KEY

Grrrrrrrr

TamTheBam said:

Since it worked fine in the other computer, I rather doubt it is the drive itself that is the problem.

Here are some thoughts:

I personally would expect problems in a situation where I install the OS on one system and then try to use it in another system, especially with system and CPU-specific drivers and all the "validity" checks Microsoft has the OS performing these days.

Also, did you mark the partition "active" to ensure it would be bootable? (compmgmt.msc)

I would try removing/disconnecting all other bootable devices, simplify the system.

You might try setting the drive (if possible) to SATA1 mode.

I would also check to see if the problem computer will boot off of anything else...bootable diagnostic disc, floppy, LIVECD, etc.

Ok, I installed WIN XP and it works?? For some reason, Vista isn't liked on my folks
SONY DVD Drive? It's like it's skipping? So now that XP is working, am gonna try
another DVD Drive, and see what happens. But, I still can't figure out why Vista
which was already on the Harddrive and is the same chipset (only essential drivers installed)
never worked? That confuses me. I'll keep you posted...

Right, wtf is goin on here. What I've experienced over the past few days is something
of a pain in the arse. The problems I have experienced are dumb and stupid to say the
least.

I installed XP fine. Rebooted, ran some software. The OS worked sweet as hell.
So i decides to now try and install Vista. What I am about to explain, I will summarise
it to stop blabbing on about it. Here goes:

Install Vista, gets passsed the first stage of selecting country, then it's like the
disk's sticking? Soooo

Remove that DVD Drive, and install another. Same problem Soooooo

I get MY DVD Drive from MY rig (and before i took it out, I could get to the installation
process of Vista) put it in my old folks rig, and the same problem - sticks after the
the country selection W.T.F!!!!!!

I takes my dvd drive out from my old folks pc, puts it back into mine, and voila
I could install Vista on my puter with the same DVD DRIVE!! WTF!

I used 2 different ribbons for the dvd drive. So either both are faulty (impossible cos
i managed to install XP with them) so wtf's goin on?

Why is Vista disk NOT wanting to work in the DVD drive in my folks puter,
but will install when i put dvd drive into mine?