Member Avatar for Markienolarky

Help, I have been trying to load Windows Vista Ulitmate to a new Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 SATA 320gb. H/D is plugged into the SATA 1 socket and all runs ok till it starts to look for a H/D driver ?? Vista does a search and tells me it cannot find any driver. Hitachi tell me that all drivers are loaded with Vista. the BIOS is up to date. Help anyone as this is driving me mad. I have copied the XP driver to a memory stick, but I am nervious about running the software again, should I and pint Vista towards the generic driver on the stick?

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Most likely cause: the Vista setup is missing the motherboard/storage-controller driver, not the Hitachi drive itself. The Deskstar T7K500 is a standard SATA device and does not need a special "Hitachi" driver; the installer needs a driver for the SATA/AHCI/RAID controller that manages that port. This is the piece to supply during setup.

Recommended troubleshooting steps:

  1. Check BIOS SATA mode. Switch the controller to IDE/Compatibility mode for the installation to allow Vista's generic driver to see the disk. After Windows is installed, reinstall the proper AHCI/RAID driver from the motherboard vendor and switch back if AHCI is desired. Changing modes after install may require installing the vendor driver first or registry adjustments.

  2. Move the data cable to a different SATA port (preferably the primary chipset ports labeled SATA0/SATA1). Many boards have a secondary controller for extra ports that needs its own driver.

  3. Use the installer’s "Load driver" option and supply the storage/chipset driver on a USB stick. Vista accepts INF-based drivers from USB; prefer Vista-specific drivers from the motherboard or chipset vendor (Intel/AMD/Marvell/SiliconImage), not only XP-era packages.

  4. Update motherboard BIOS/chipset drivers beforehand and disconnect any extra drives to reduce variables. Confirm power and SATA cables are firm; if possible test the drive on another system or with a boot CD to verify visibility.

A note on ’s comment: a SATA port does not inherently limit capacity to 250 GB — partitioning, BIOS addressing or controller firmware can create limits, but the fact the disk was seen under XP indicates capacity is supported. For : point the Vista installer at the motherboard/chipset storage driver (not a Hitachi "drive" driver); that is the usual fix.

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Member Avatar for jbennet

SATA 1 only supports up to 250gb doesnt it?

Member Avatar for Markienolarky

Hi, when using XP the machine 'has recognised the H/D as 320gb. Not sure what you mean, I would have thought that Vista would still load even if it only is a smller size storage area.

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