Not found any disk!! Please wait.....

[None of the above]

A few months ago I built this PC as a Vista/XP dual boot machine - I still have software that will run only on XP. I chose to use a SATA HDD and partitiion it for the task accordingly. On boot up, I always got the above message. I had no previous experience of SATA drives so I assumed that the system was looking for another drive in a RAID configuration and, having failed to find it, just carried on booting up. I adopted the 'working well, leave it alone' approach. Today I have rebuilt the system with a dedicated drive for each OS and the same message comes up.
It really isn't the worst of my worries at the moment, but if possible I'd like to get to the bottom of it. I can't find anything in the BIOS that looks as if it might be the guilty party, so PPRuNers assembled, any ideas, Gentlemen?

Thanks in advance,

N o t a

[Saab Dastard]

Is the second disk also SATA? If you have no IDE disk, perhaps the BIOS is complaining about no IDE disk?

Have you got the CD / CVD drive(s) on the Primary or Secondary channel?

If they are on the primary, try moving them onto the secondary, then set the 2 primary IDs to "not present".

SD

[None of the above]

Thanks for that, SD.

Yes, both hard drives are SATA and the optical drives are on the primary IDE channel. I've had a delve and changed them over to the secondary channel but to no effect. In the BIOS, primary channel devices were noted as 'not detected' (having effected the change to IDE 2). I take it that qualifies as setting them to 'not present' as you advise?

Don't bust a gut over it, but if you have any other ideas I'd be pleased to hear from you again.

Ta

N o t a

[green granite]

Have you tried setting the boot order so that the hard drives are the first boot device rather than an optical drive to see what that does?

[Saab Dastard]

n the BIOS, primary channel devices were noted as 'not detected' (having effected the change to IDE 2). I take it that qualifies as setting them to 'not present' as you advise?

Nope, you should be able to set them to Not Present. Not detected is the problem!

SD

[None of the above]

Thanks, GG.

Just having one quick look at PPRuNe before repairing to my chamber so I'll give that suggestion a try tomorrow.

It's a been bit of a puzzler..........

Thanks for that,

N o t a

[None of the above]

Thanks again, SD.

I'll have a look tomorrow and see if I'm missing something blindingly obvious. It has been known!

N o t a

[Saab Dastard]

Your BIOS might have a setting under the IDE, boot or SATA sections (or even somewhere else!) that tells the system not to wait for an IDE hard disk to boot from. Maybe an RTFM event?

SD

[Return to base]

It sounds as if you have the same problem I have and I am only installing XP.
XP, unless you have a version with SP2 incorporated, does not load the drivers required for it to "see" the SATA drive. These must be installed via a floppy or CD during installation.
A google search will show up the various ways of doing this.


rtb

[Saab Dastard]

RTB,

I think that NOTA has both XP and Vista running fine.

SD

[None of the above]

Thanks one and all......

Unfortunately, I'm no further forward. I tried changing the boot order so the HDD(s) is/are the first the first boot device(s) but to no avail.
Thanks for the suggestion, GG.

SD..........

I managed to change the secondary IDE channel devices to 'Not Present' but that didn't make any difference, I'm afraid.
Also, as recommended, I've had a delve in the manual but there doesn't seem to be anything relevant to this particular problem.

Don't concern yourselves over it too much, Gentlemen. I'm grateful to you all for your time and efforts but it won't be the end of the world if I don't find a solution to the problem.

Ta,

N o t a

[Earl]

Sata Drives

I had this same problem a couple of years ago with a new Sata drive.
Drove me crazy trying to figure out why this HD was not recognized.
If I remember correctly there is a driver that has to be installed.
This should have come with your mother board if you built this one yourself.
If not you can download the driver from the HD website, western digital, seagate or whatever company that made the hard drive.
It will ask you to install by floppy I think, so you will have to transfer this driver to a floppy from the CD.
When installing XP during the first minute or so it will tell you to press f6 i think for the sata drive installation,Dont remember the actual wording.
Then it will ask for the floppy with the driver on it.
After this XP should install normal.
I hope this helps and i have the info correct as it was a couple of years ago.
Someone please feel free to correct me or add if I am wrong.

[None of the above]

Thanks for that, Earl.

I'm not that well read as far as RAID is concerned, but I understand that it enables two disks to be used as one, so to speak.
As I was installing two disks with different systems, I assumed that it wasn't necessary to install RAID drivers, so I just skipped that section. Having just undertaken a mammoth re-installation, I think I'll leave things as they are at the moment, rather than go back to the beginning and loading the RAID drivers in the early stages of a WinXP installation.

N o t a

[stickyb]

The definitive answer (or at least one!)

I guess you have an ASUS mothrboard with an onboard JBMicron Raid controller. In the bios this can set to disabled, ide, sata etc. If not set to disabled it expects to find some raid discs that you have set up using the the software that came with the motherboard. The rathr quaint message "not any discs found" is because the controller is enabled but finds no raid discs. if you don't want to use raid, then just disable the controller in the bios and the message wikk go away.

[None of the above]

I guess you have an ASUS motherboard.........

Hit the nail squarely on the head there, stickyb!

A delve into the innermost depths of the BIOS has rectified the situation.

Many thanks,

N o t a