I have just hooked up a brand new 160G Seagate S-ATA HDD. Problem is, my PC jumps straight into the Safe Mode screen everytime I boot up. I have a fresh install of XP on my 40G WD and so far it's fine. However when I plug the S-ATA in it goes to the Safe Mode Options screen, and when I choose Safe Mode (or any mode for that matter) it reboots and does the same thing.

There are no slave jumpers on the 40G atm. I tried it with the slave jumper in the "master with slave" position and same deal.

And here was me thinking I actually be able to just plug it in and hey presto! it would work. No such luck.

Anyone had this issue?

Hmm thats odd make sure you install all the lastest sata drivers for your mobo/card, setting up the sata in slave is pluging it up to sata port 2 or 4, 1/3 is master if you have 4 ports.

also whats yout mobo's sata or sata card?

last edited by 0z at 00:31:49 09/Aug/05

Yeah i just recently fixed an issue like this, it was with a 160gb SATA drive also, the board required a BIOS update due to some compatibility issues with SATA. Check the BIOS updates section for your motherboard and check to see if they have any fixes that will improve your SATA compatibility.

cool thanks i will try that.

bootup without it plugged in, then once in windows plug it in.
sata is hotplugible so its all good.

see what happens?
format the drive, install sata drivers etc

Hot plugable??
Dunno about that...seems kinda sketchy plugging s*** into the mobo while the power is on...Can anyone confirm this is safe??

However, I haven't fixed the problem. I have tried the SATA cable in all ports...no go.
I plug it in and reboot and I get a screen saying Windows couldn't load. It then has options to start in Safe Mode, but when I choose any opyion it reboots and goes back to the same thing.

I am trying to avoid flashing the BIOS as I understand this can be problematic, and I'm not really that keen to have to replace parts.

OK here's the stats:

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo (pro) Intel 915P Express Chipset
HDD: 1 x WD 40gig
1 x Seagate 160gig
OS: Windows XP (installed on Sunday)

I haven't changed any BIOS or CMOS settings. I have done the update from the gigabyte site. The only thing I haven;'t done is flashed/updated the BIOS.

Any other suggestions??

Flashing BIOS isn't as scarey as you think, I did it with and old mobo and it was all good. And you can always flash it back.

Dunno about that...seems kinda sketchy plugging s*** into the mobo while the power is on...Can anyone confirm this is safe??

I disconnected an IDE hard drive while windows was going messed around with windows, it froze so I reconnected the drive and windows came right back like nothing happened. It was connected when I booted up as windows is on that drive though.

so yeah, I'd say it's probably safe, however if something does break don't blame me.

What is your SATA controller enabled as in the bios? I think mine has an IDE or RAID mode (nfi why sata has an ide mode but it's something like that). Make sure it's not in RAID mode.

Nah it's in IDE mode.

Also how does the Master/Slave arrangement work whenyou have two different types of HDD? Do I need to set the IDE as Master or will they both run as a master??

Didn't think plugging in a freakin HDD would be so complicated.

Just have the IDE HDD on master as it only needs the headers for IDE drives.

Fuknukle is correct with sata been hotplugable.
refence Sata Spec sounds like you do indeed need to flash your bios.

Might be worth checking seagates site out for firmware update for you sata drive also Seagate Support


last edited by 0z at 20:43:26 09/Aug/05

i used to unplug ide drives all the time, hardly ever pluged em back in tho since there was no point untill the machine rebooted anyways since it'd only recognise on boot(-from memory). however sata is offically hotplugible, therefore when u plug one in it'll popup in mycomputer just like a usb hdd will.

seems kinda sketchy plugging s*** into the mobo while the power is on...Can anyone confirm this is safe??

its just as safe as turning on your computer, even for a ide hdd, fans, etc, altho if u do it with a ide drive, plug in the ide cable first, then the power.

however dont do more than one at the same time as when you plug each one in it will cause a slight drop in power for a second as for eg, the fans spinup(fans use heaps more while not moving-shorting sortof)
in either case it wont do any favours to your hardware but eh.

Good choice on the seagate sata drive, seagate are the only ones that use a native sata interface, the others are converted ide interfaces.
at least they were last time i bought a sata drive... accually over 6 months ago, so hopefully im wrong on that one and they've since changed.?

last edited by Fuknukle at 21:37:22 09/Aug/05

its just as safe as turning on your computer, even for a ide hdd, fans, etc,

Not exactly good for your hardware. If you've done any study in digital electronics courses, you'd know why.

Luckily most power supplies handle the change in load relatively well, so it doesn't cause any problems.

i totally agree which is why i said:

however dont do more than one at the same time as when you plug each one in it will cause a slight drop in power for a second
in either case it wont do any favours to your hardware but eh.

its not good, but every now and then eh [shrugs]

however sata is totally sweet with it so its not bad bad. also usb. maybe you shouldnt plug in usb devices while your pc is running eh :P :D

last edited by Fuknukle at 22:12:01 09/Aug/05

Thanks to all who contributed here.
I didn't have to flash BIOS after all. The links Oz posted to the seagate site were very helpful and I succeeded (after a bit of mucking around in BIOS) to get the puter to boot. From there it was matter of following the instructions on the seagate site, and d/l a small installer from seagate to get the ball rolling. This site also had vital info on setting up the HDD in WINXP.

Again, thanks.

I didn't try the hot swap, as I fixed the prob using BIOS settings and software but thanks for the info anyway.

And now I can finally go to bed.

WOOHOO!

woot go Oz!

i totally agree which is why i said:

Hah, you expect me to read full posts? Never :)

heh allways good to help out a someone, also RTFM allways helps unless it oem :P