Vista - Re: Cannot Install Vista on SATA Drive

john:
- The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3. The BIOS version I believe is
whatever shipped with it (version 1.0 rather than 3.3). I can't seem to
update the BIOS - in the flash utility it uses, can't detect a floppy disk.
Now that I can get into Windows, I tried to open a floppy disk again, and it
says "please insert a floppy disk". The disk is in and it's not empty, so I
suppose the drivers may need to be installed for the floppy drive? Do I get
them from the motherboard CD?

- I have 3 SATA ports on the motherboard - two are orange and one is purple.
The orange ones seem to be controlled by Intel ICH8, whereas the purple one
is controlled by Gigabyte SATA2. I have the SATA drive connected to one of
the orange ports, which means Intel ICH8. Is this okay, or should I be using
the purple one? I also think I should install drivers for the SATA drivers -
but I have no idea how to. Are these on the motherboard CD as well? Can they
be installed within Windows or should they be installed at some other time
somehow?

- I don't think the manual says to use a particular "header". Which one
sould I be using?

- I have downloaded some SATA drivers, but I think one version installs in
Windows and one installs via pressing F6 during Vista installation. When can
you press F6 to install the SATA drivers - I don't recall seeing that option
with Vista. But my floppy drive doesn't seem to work at the moment anyway!

- I think RAID settings are disabled in the BIOS, yes.

Adam Albright:
- How can I get my floppy drive to work? It doesn't work at the moment, so I
won't be able to F6 any SATA drivers.

John Barnes:
- Yes I have installed Vista - it's on my IDE drive. The SATA drive is also
connected but is doing nothing at present. I didn't "F6" any SATA drivers - I
don't think the floppy drive works at the moment.

Richard Urban:
- The computer now, does have a mix of hard drives, but before it just had a
SATA drive in it, and it couldn't install Vista. I am installing Vista from
the DVD - how else can you do it!? Vista doesn't even install - it gets to
the "completing installation" phase, hangs and restarts with the
aforementioned error appearing... and the cycle continues. I get this
regardless of if I have the Vista DVD in the drive or not.

Any help guys? :-/

My post wasn't to you. There is no F6 for Vista. There is a point it asks
you if you have drivers, and they don't need to be on a floppy anymore.
You may just have a read problem with the floppy. I suggest you reformat it
and reload it. Better, why don't you use the Windows BIOS update that is
available for Gigabyte drives. You can see which version you have on the
first boot up screen for the BIOS.
I don't know if that MOBO requires SATA drivers, but if it does, you will
need to have the proper drivers for the edition of Vista you are installing
(64 or 86).
You can have them on a USB flashdrive or hard drive.
Personally, if you are installing the full version, I would install with
just the SATA drive connected.

"[cookie]" <si_cookie@hotmail.com(donotspam)> wrote in message
news:9D89965A-259C-42CF-A61E-667A46B060E8@microsoft.com...
> john:
> - The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3. The BIOS version I believe is
> whatever shipped with it (version 1.0 rather than 3.3). I can't seem to
> update the BIOS - in the flash utility it uses, can't detect a floppy
> disk.
> Now that I can get into Windows, I tried to open a floppy disk again, and
> it
> says "please insert a floppy disk". The disk is in and it's not empty, so
> I
> suppose the drivers may need to be installed for the floppy drive? Do I
> get
> them from the motherboard CD?
>
> - I have 3 SATA ports on the motherboard - two are orange and one is
> purple.
> The orange ones seem to be controlled by Intel ICH8, whereas the purple
> one
> is controlled by Gigabyte SATA2. I have the SATA drive connected to one of
> the orange ports, which means Intel ICH8. Is this okay, or should I be
> using
> the purple one? I also think I should install drivers for the SATA
> drivers -
> but I have no idea how to. Are these on the motherboard CD as well? Can
> they
> be installed within Windows or should they be installed at some other time
> somehow?
>
> - I don't think the manual says to use a particular "header". Which one
> sould I be using?
>
> - I have downloaded some SATA drivers, but I think one version installs in
> Windows and one installs via pressing F6 during Vista installation. When
> can
> you press F6 to install the SATA drivers - I don't recall seeing that
> option
> with Vista. But my floppy drive doesn't seem to work at the moment anyway!
>
> - I think RAID settings are disabled in the BIOS, yes.
>
> Adam Albright:
> - How can I get my floppy drive to work? It doesn't work at the moment, so
> I
> won't be able to F6 any SATA drivers.
>
> John Barnes:
> - Yes I have installed Vista - it's on my IDE drive. The SATA drive is
> also
> connected but is doing nothing at present. I didn't "F6" any SATA
> drivers - I
> don't think the floppy drive works at the moment.
>
> Richard Urban:
> - The computer now, does have a mix of hard drives, but before it just had
> a
> SATA drive in it, and it couldn't install Vista. I am installing Vista
> from
> the DVD - how else can you do it!? Vista doesn't even install - it gets to
> the "completing installation" phase, hangs and restarts with the
> aforementioned error appearing... and the cycle continues. I get this
> regardless of if I have the Vista DVD in the drive or not.
>
> Any help guys? :-/
>
>
>
>
>
>

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:20:13 -0700, [cookie]
<si_cookie@hotmail.com(donotspam)> wrote:

>john:
>- The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3. The BIOS version I believe is
>whatever shipped with it (version 1.0 rather than 3.3). I can't seem to
>update the BIOS - in the flash utility it uses, can't detect a floppy disk.
>Now that I can get into Windows, I tried to open a floppy disk again, and it
>says "please insert a floppy disk". The disk is in and it's not empty, so I
>suppose the drivers may need to be installed for the floppy drive? Do I get
>them from the motherboard CD?
>
>- I have 3 SATA ports on the motherboard - two are orange and one is purple.
>The orange ones seem to be controlled by Intel ICH8, whereas the purple one
>is controlled by Gigabyte SATA2. I have the SATA drive connected to one of
>the orange ports, which means Intel ICH8. Is this okay, or should I be using
>the purple one? I also think I should install drivers for the SATA drivers -
>but I have no idea how to. Are these on the motherboard CD as well? Can they
>be installed within Windows or should they be installed at some other time
>somehow?
>
>- I don't think the manual says to use a particular "header". Which one
>sould I be using?
>
>- I have downloaded some SATA drivers, but I think one version installs in
>Windows and one installs via pressing F6 during Vista installation. When can
>you press F6 to install the SATA drivers - I don't recall seeing that option
>with Vista. But my floppy drive doesn't seem to work at the moment anyway!
>
>- I think RAID settings are disabled in the BIOS, yes.
>
>Adam Albright:
>- How can I get my floppy drive to work? It doesn't work at the moment, so I
>won't be able to F6 any SATA drivers.
>
>John Barnes:
>- Yes I have installed Vista - it's on my IDE drive. The SATA drive is also
>connected but is doing nothing at present. I didn't "F6" any SATA drivers - I
>don't think the floppy drive works at the moment.
>
>Richard Urban:
>- The computer now, does have a mix of hard drives, but before it just had a
>SATA drive in it, and it couldn't install Vista. I am installing Vista from
>the DVD - how else can you do it!? Vista doesn't even install - it gets to
>the "completing installation" phase, hangs and restarts with the
>aforementioned error appearing... and the cycle continues. I get this
>regardless of if I have the Vista DVD in the drive or not.
>
>Any help guys? :-/

I feel your pain... I mean really I do.

Since you have a Gigabyte board, dig out the manual and see if your
model supports @BIOS. This is a method to update your BIOS via a web
site and download and install just like any other application. Kind of
cool. I used it to update my BIOS and worked fine and you don't need a
floppy. Of course you need to have the computer working first. :-(

As you've probably already discovered the Gigabyte web site can at
times be painfully slow. Look at your motherboard carefully.
Somewhere, probably near one of the edges is the model number and
REVISION number of your particular board. You'll need that when
looking for drivers on the Gigabyte site.

You only need to F6 for a clean install. Again, most everything, at
least for my MB comes in two flavors as far as offered driver files.
Some flie versions you need to download and then put on a floppy and
also many, in fact most also come as a .exe file. Read the list
carefully to be sure to download the right ones. They are zipped so
you'll need some kind of application to unzip probably.

Now assuming your board also uses Award BIOS most likely, if you go to
the page that's titled 'Integrated Perpherals' you'll see up to four
lines dealing with hard drives.

Yours, because your MB is a different model may be different than
mine.

The first BIOS line under Integrated Perpherals probably says SATA
RAID/AHCI Mode. Set this wrong and all kinds of goofy things can
happen. Here's how I have mine right now and why. The default is IDE
mode. That's where I have mine. ONLY set this to AHCI (for SATA) if
your boot drive is a SATA drive. The problem is this presents a
chicken or egg kind of issue in that the only way to boot into AHCI
mode to support SATA is to have the drivers ALREADY present. Setting
this to IDE allows any SATA drive regardless which connector (orange
or purple) to run your SATA drive in IDE mode. It will be slower, but
that's all. It will work.

The second line SATA native mode, leave disabled. The third line
further down the page Onboard SATA/IDE device needs to be set to
enable. The forth line Ctrl Mode you can try either way.

Sadly, none of what I just wrote will help IF you are trying to
install Vista onto a SATA drive for some Gigabyte boards. Just to give
you an idea how convoluted the process is for my Gigabyte board if I
went the clean install route (which I didn't) they devote over a dozen
pages of what you're suppose to do to set it up in the manual, all
before you try to install Windows.

So, my suggestion would be to install Vista on a IDE drive (how I have
mine) and you avoid the F6 and chicken or the egg issue totally. I
only use SATA drives for data purposes.

The real villain in all this is Intel for their half-ass way of
decompressing the hard drive controller files, assuming your board
uses the Intel ICH8R as the South Bridge since it won't do it unless
it sees AHCI mode active, which can't happen unless and until the
system boots and loads into that mode which it can't if you run IDE,
hence the chicken or egg thing. Good luck.

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:17:06 -0500, Adam Albright <AA@ABC.net> wrote:

>On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:20:13 -0700, [cookie]
><si_cookie@hotmail.com(donotspam)> wrote:
>
>>john:
>>- The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3. The BIOS version I believe is
>>whatever shipped with it (version 1.0 rather than 3.3). I can't seem to
>>update the BIOS - in the flash utility it uses, can't detect a floppy disk.
>>Now that I can get into Windows, I tried to open a floppy disk again, and it
>>says "please insert a floppy disk". The disk is in and it's not empty, so I
>>suppose the drivers may need to be installed for the floppy drive? Do Iget
>>them from the motherboard CD?
>>
>>- I have 3 SATA ports on the motherboard - two are orange and one is purple.
>>The orange ones seem to be controlled by Intel ICH8, whereas the purpleone
>>is controlled by Gigabyte SATA2. I have the SATA drive connected to oneof
>>the orange ports, which means Intel ICH8. Is this okay, or should I be using
>>the purple one? I also think I should install drivers for the SATA drivers -
>>but I have no idea how to. Are these on the motherboard CD as well? Canthey
>>be installed within Windows or should they be installed at some other time
>>somehow?
>>
>>- I don't think the manual says to use a particular "header". Which one
>>sould I be using?
>>
>>- I have downloaded some SATA drivers, but I think one version installsin
>>Windows and one installs via pressing F6 during Vista installation. When can
>>you press F6 to install the SATA drivers - I don't recall seeing that option
>>with Vista. But my floppy drive doesn't seem to work at the moment anyway!
>>
>>- I think RAID settings are disabled in the BIOS, yes.
>>
>>Adam Albright:
>>- How can I get my floppy drive to work? It doesn't work at the moment,so I
>>won't be able to F6 any SATA drivers.
>>
>>John Barnes:
>>- Yes I have installed Vista - it's on my IDE drive. The SATA drive is also
>>connected but is doing nothing at present. I didn't "F6" any SATA drivers - I
>>don't think the floppy drive works at the moment.
>>
>>Richard Urban:
>>- The computer now, does have a mix of hard drives, but before it just had a
>>SATA drive in it, and it couldn't install Vista. I am installing Vista from
>>the DVD - how else can you do it!? Vista doesn't even install - it getsto
>>the "completing installation" phase, hangs and restarts with the
>>aforementioned error appearing... and the cycle continues. I get this
>>regardless of if I have the Vista DVD in the drive or not.
>>
>>Any help guys? :-/
>
>I feel your pain... I mean really I do.
>
>Since you have a Gigabyte board, dig out the manual and see if your
>model supports @BIOS. This is a method to update your BIOS via a web
>site and download and install just like any other application. Kind of
>cool. I used it to update my BIOS and worked fine and you don't need a
>floppy. Of course you need to have the computer working first. :-(
>
>As you've probably already discovered the Gigabyte web site can at
>times be painfully slow. Look at your motherboard carefully.
>Somewhere, probably near one of the edges is the model number and
>REVISION number of your particular board. You'll need that when
>looking for drivers on the Gigabyte site.
>
>You only need to F6 for a clean install. Again, most everything, at
>least for my MB comes in two flavors as far as offered driver files.
>Some flie versions you need to download and then put on a floppy and
>also many, in fact most also come as a .exe file. Read the list
>carefully to be sure to download the right ones. They are zipped so
>you'll need some kind of application to unzip probably.
>
>Now assuming your board also uses Award BIOS most likely, if you go to
>the page that's titled 'Integrated Perpherals' you'll see up to four
>lines dealing with hard drives.
>
>Yours, because your MB is a different model may be different than
>mine.
>
>The first BIOS line under Integrated Perpherals probably says SATA
>RAID/AHCI Mode. Set this wrong and all kinds of goofy things can
>happen. Here's how I have mine right now and why. The default is IDE
>mode. That's where I have mine. ONLY set this to AHCI (for SATA) if
>your boot drive is a SATA drive. The problem is this presents a
>chicken or egg kind of issue in that the only way to boot into AHCI
>mode to support SATA is to have the drivers ALREADY present. Setting
>this to IDE allows any SATA drive regardless which connector (orange
>or purple) to run your SATA drive in IDE mode. It will be slower, but
>that's all. It will work.
>
>The second line SATA native mode, leave disabled. The third line
>further down the page Onboard SATA/IDE device needs to be set to
>enable. The forth line Ctrl Mode you can try either way.
>
>Sadly, none of what I just wrote will help IF you are trying to
>install Vista onto a SATA drive for some Gigabyte boards. Just to give
>you an idea how convoluted the process is for my Gigabyte board if I
>went the clean install route (which I didn't) they devote over a dozen
>pages of what you're suppose to do to set it up in the manual, all
>before you try to install Windows.
>
>So, my suggestion would be to install Vista on a IDE drive (how I have
>mine) and you avoid the F6 and chicken or the egg issue totally. I
>only use SATA drives for data purposes.
>
>The real villain in all this is Intel for their half-ass way of
>decompressing the hard drive controller files, assuming your board
>uses the Intel ICH8R as the South Bridge since it won't do it unless
>it sees AHCI mode active, which can't happen unless and until the
>system boots and loads into that mode which it can't if you run IDE,
>hence the chicken or egg thing. Good luck.
>

I have the exact same DUO Core MB with a 6300 CPU. I cheated and
swapped in this MB from previous GA915 MB with a single core CPU.
VISTA handled the new MB/CPU really well. About 8 minutes of finding
new hardware and installing drivers for it and 1 reboot and all is
well with new setup. I have 2 SATA drives both in the orange SATA
ports. 160gig SATA was originally setup with VISTA on hte GA-915 MB
without issue.

Not sure if this helps but once setup VISTA flys with 2gig of RAM and
this Duo Core.