Member Avatar for jamintyala

my computers motherboard has the sata conectors on it but it wont read them and then i went and bought a sata controller it says it is installed corectly but still no hard drive
what do i do

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rexmo

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Good progress in the thread so far — , and covered the obvious checks (cables, BIOS visibility, drivers) and identified the controller chip. Below is a compact, practical checklist and a few less-obvious troubleshooting points that respond to the posts and help isolate whether the problem is the drive, the card, the motherboard BIOS or power.

  1. Confirm the drive actually powers and spins. Swap the power lead with one known to run an optical drive or use a different Molex/SATA power feed. No spin = power or a dead drive.
  2. Test the drive in another PC or in a simple USB-to-SATA dock/enclosure. If it is invisible there, RMA the drive.
  3. Try different SATA cables and different SATA ports on the motherboard. Some OEM ports/cables fail intermittently.
  4. With the add-in controller installed: reseat the card, try another PCI slot, and watch boot messages closely for the cardʼs option-ROM prompt. If the card never posts, the system BIOS may be blocking option ROMs — check BIOS settings that affect PCI option ROMs or legacy expansion ROMs.
  5. In Windows (if Windows boots from IDE drive), open Computer Management -> Disk Management and Device Manager: a controller-only problem sometimes lets Windows see the disk as "unknown/uninitialized" even when BIOS does not. Be careful — initializing a disk will erase data.
  6. For older OS installs (Windows XP) remember third-party SATA controllers often require supplying drivers during setup (F6) or installing the vendor driver after first boot. If the card uses the VIA VT6421A (as noted by @rexmo), mention that chip when hunting drivers or posting for help.

If after these steps the drive still fails to appear or spin, the most likely causes are a defective drive or defective add-in card — try swapping each into a known-good system before buying replacements.

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All 21 Replies

Member Avatar for willcomp

How about telling us what motherboard and SATA controller you have. What hard disk(s) you have and what you have tried.

Also, are you trying to install Windows and, if so, which version (XP, Vista)?

I'm very proficient with PCs but not too good at reading minds :)

Member Avatar for jamintyala

i have A7V8X-LA (Kelut) motherboard that came with my HP pavilion A510N i recently purchased a deskstar 160G hard drive which i guess is made by hitachi. i also purchased a sata controller card for and it stil will not show up. i talked to hp for hours and it is not showing up in my bios. i want to have this as my secondary drive to an IDE 20G drive i have

Member Avatar for willcomp

Let's try to get drive working with motherboard SATA controllers. Remove add-in controller and connect drive to a motherboard SATA connector.

Ensure data and power cables are fuly seated. Boot PC. Enter BIOS Setup and look for any SATA related entries (I assume HP tech walked you through this). Post back what BIOS settings are available. I couldn't find BIOS setup info on HP web site. Should be in one of the manuals but isn't.

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

and to add when you get in the bios let us know if the drive is detected.

Member Avatar for jamintyala

im sorry to sound stupid but where would it show up in the bios if it is in the first page where the other drives are listed it does not show up i ahve tried without the card already and still the same stuff shows up my IDE hard drive and my two cd drives and my floppy and my IDE bus is set to both like they told me to set it to

Member Avatar for willcomp

Look in BIOS for any settings related to SATA. I'm not referring to drive table on first BIOS page but rather one where SATA is enabled and/or mode set. It would be helpful if we had BIOS Setup layout from HP, but we don't. What are BIOS page headings in your BIOS?

With card installed and drive connected to it, drive will not show up in BIOS. The SATA controller card BIOS will configure the drive and pass information to Windows. What SATA controller do you have?

Just to be sure -- is there an SATA power connector attacched to drive? It's over twice as wide as signal cable connector.

Member Avatar for jamintyala

i found what my bios looks like and where it says there is sata support in the pictures there is nothing in my BIOS. the hard drive i currently have in is not the one that came with my hp so i think i may have lost the drivers when the first hard drive went out but i dont know here is the website with the pictures

Member Avatar for jamintyala


sorry forgot to add it

Member Avatar for jamintyala

also the new drive is powered by a regular power connector not a sata power connector

Member Avatar for willcomp

You need to install drivers for VIA 8237 southbridge (SATA controller).
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1180&SubCatID=143

Also install chipset drivers if you haven't already done so.

Although BIOS setup info is generic, it's much better than nothing. I didn't even find that and I'm very familar with HP's web site.

Any other little tidbits of major importance you've neglected to pass on?

Member Avatar for jamintyala

i just downloaded and installed both of those and still i have nothing. and sorry i was not withholding i went and looked it up after your last post. is there anything else you can recomend there is still nothing showing up in my BIOS

Member Avatar for jamintyala

i also have the contorller card which is a creative I/O pci serial ata host control card

Member Avatar for willcomp

I'm beginning to wonder if you have a faulty hard disk. Is the disk spinning up? You can listen or place your finger tips on top of drive to feel vibrations from motor.

With those drivers installed and drive properly connected, it should be recognized by BIOS and by XP.

Try installing controller card and connecting drive to card. There should be a key to press during bootup to access controller BIOS. You also may get a message that controller BIOS was not installed since no drives were detected.

Do you have a model number for controller card?

Member Avatar for willcomp

I can't find any mention of an SATA controller card on the Creative web site. Are you sure Creative is the manufacturer?

Member Avatar for jamintyala

i believe it is a faulty drive i am sending it back nothing is working thank you so much for your help

Member Avatar for thunder2020

I can't find any mention of an SATA controller card on the Creative web site. Are you sure Creative is the manufacturer?

"Creative I/O" is not the same company as "Creative Labs" (which makes sound-related equipment).

Member Avatar for hughv

The power connector shouldn't matter.
Are you saying that the SATA options in Figure 3 /Advanced don't show in your BIOS?
Some SATA mobo connectors are known for failing-try another connector or another cable.

Member Avatar for rexmo

the card is NOT manufactured by creative labs (R) it is manufactured by a chinese co. called "creative i/o" There is probably a trademark infringement here as often happens with chinese companies. If anyone has the driver disk or can find a copy of the drivers I desperately need them too. Can't seem to find 'em anywhere!

Member Avatar for rexmo

the card I have is :
SATA Controller Card Creative I/O
sy-via-150

s/n:080124gs0120091

the 150 does not supposedly support RAID but uses the RAID driver the 150r is the true RAID.

I still am in desperate need of the drivers! PLEASE can anyone copy their install disk? My disk got broken :(

Member Avatar for willcomp

Can you read controller chip information? Manufacturer and model.

Most inexpensive cards use SiI chips. Generic drivers are available on SiI website and elsewhere.

Member Avatar for rexmo

ok, sorry it took so long but here's the chip info:

VIA
VT6421A
0748CD TAIWAN
21A0029881

Any URL's would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks a lot!! ;-)

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