SATA detection

[Vu Pham]

On Fri, 2007-03-09 at 04:07 -0800, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Ric Moore wrote:
> > On Thu, 2007-03-08 at 21:09 -0800, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> >> Net Llama! wrote:
> >>> On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> >>>> Net Llama! wrote:
> >>>>> On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> >>>>>> OK, I'm trying to install blag linux, which has an installer that
> >>>>>> searches for drives.  It does not find my SATA drive controller.  But
> >>>>>> the bios sees the controller mounted on the PCI buss and announces the
> >>>>>> two drives I installed.  When I set the bios up on this Gigabyte
> >>>>>> motherboard to select boot order, it offers me a list of possible boot
> >>>>>> devices.  It does not offer a "plug-in controller" like the bios on my
> >>>>>> intel MB, but it does offer a SCSI option.  I assume that this must be
> >>>>>> the same as a plug-in controller.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> So I cannot tell if this is a problem with the installer not knowing to
> >>>>>> look for a SCSI controller or if this is a bios problem.
> >>>>> Is the SATA controller not being detected, or is the disk attached to it
> >>>>> not being detected?
> >>>>>
> >>>> When the installer looks for hard drives, it cannot find those attached
> >>>> to the controller.  It does not separately talk about seeing a
> >>>> controller or disks, it just cannot find disks.
> >>> Does the controller detect the disk during POST?
> >> I don't know what is POST.
> > 
> > During boot, when all those bios comments flash and scroll by at
> > 400mph... if you're lucky you can hit Pause/Break 
> 
> Are these Function keys? ( like F5, F6, etc)
> 

POST is Power On Selft Test, it is the period since you power on the PC
until it starts reading the boot record of your drive.

Go to the motherboard BIOS settings and select it boots from Hard Drive
for all cases, no floopy, no CD, not network. This forces the BIOS not
to try other devices to boot even when no hdd found. Then see what error
message you have. If it says something like "no disks found" then the
motherboard cannot see the hdd thru your sata pic controller. Another
indication is looking carefully to the HDD led when the system finishes
the POST and starts reading the disk.


I hope you don't see something like "No BASIC BIOS found. System
halted" . I remember this message on those PC/XT AT long time ago. :)

Vu