Just put together new computer, hard drive help

[falen55]

Hey ppl, I just put together a new rig but I have a problem. Before I begin here are my specs:
Athlon 64 3500+
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
X850 XT PE
Western Digital 160GB SATA HD

Ok, everything seems to be working fine but I have no clue what im supposed to do now. I put my boot disk that came with my mobo into my cd drive and when the time comes to press any key to boot, I get an error message stating that I have no hard drive installed. The hard drive is connected properly, I am using the 4-pin power connector and Ive also tried using the other SATA power connector, but not together. Ive tried connecting the hard drive to every single SATA slot that it has with different cables. Im sure theres probably something that I have to do either in the BIOS or install something to get everything working but I just dont know what. I really need your help. And, also, when the computer starts up I can hear the hard drive spinning and doing its little dance.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mechBgon]

What you want to do is

1) unplug your network cable and make sure your hard drive's SATA data cable is plugged into one of the SATA fittings up by the fan-cooled southbridge, not the ones along the bottom edge of the motherboard.

2) get out your Windows or Linux CD and put that in the optical drive

3) reset the system, let it POST, and see if you get a Press any key to boot from CD message on the screen after a little bit (if so, press a key to begin Windows Setup or Linux Setup or whatever).

If you don't get that prompt, then go into your motherboard's BIOS menus and set your boot-device priority so that the CD-ROM is the first boot device.

4) Proceed through Windows Setup (if you're using Linux, I'm not the guy to help with that ). Once it's complete, enable the Internet Connection Firewall (if your Windows CD has Service Pack 2 on it already, then it's named "Windows Firewall" and is already enabled for you). If you don't know where to find the Internet Connection Firewall, click Start > Help and search for "Firewall" and it should guide you on that. Also install your antivirus software if you have it.

5) Once you've got your firewall protection going, connect your network cable and get Windows patched at the Windows Update site, and update your antivirus software.



If you can download the entire Service Pack 2 installer file, burn it to CD, and patch the computer to SP2 level offline, that's a good move too. The idea here is not to let your computer get exposed to network connections until it's got its armor on (firewall) at the very least.

 

[billyjak]

f you don't get that prompt, then go into your motherboard's BIOS menus and set your boot-device priority so that the CD-ROM is the first boot device.

After that operation, Start the bootup with the windows CD in the drive. Hit F6 immediately to load the Sata drivers when prompted. You will have to hit the S key when it says so, then put a floppy with the drivers in and hit enter to load the drivers. if no more drivers are needed hit enter to continue. If you need additional drivers hit the S key again and load them.
You will be asked later to put the floppy back in so windows can copy the file.

Go to next step.

 

[nick1985]

your computer is mad at you for pairing an SLI board with a non-SLI card. :Q

 

[l Xes l]

Originally posted by: nick1985
your computer is mad at you for pairing an SLI board with a non-SLI card. :Q

does that really matter?

 

[joshc]

Originally posted by: krnxpride83

Originally posted by: nick1985
your computer is mad at you for pairing an SLI board with a non-SLI card. :Q

does that really matter?

there was obviously some sarcasm involved in that comment...

 

[mechBgon]

After that operation, Start the bootup with the windows CD in the drive. Hit F6 immediately to load the Sata drivers when prompted. You will have to hit the S key when it says so, then put a floppy with the drivers in and hit enter to load the drivers.

I'm hoping this part won't be necessary if he uses his native nF4 SATA jacks. In non-RAID mode, they ought to (famous last words ) behave transparently and not need drivers on floppy.