Well I'm redownloading the chipset drivers for Win7 from the MB manufacturer's site, it's a huge file and the one I got from the PC support site was NOT this big so maybe there was something wrong with it. I also downloaded the latest BIOS file but what I'm reading at various advice sites is not to mess with the BIOS except as a last resort.

There's no IDE option for the drive configuration, I assume the SATA option includes it. The options are SATA, RAID, and AHCI. I downloaded the AHCI driver just in case.

I really think that may be the issue as I can't see why I would only have a problem after hooking up the second drive... although there's no problem with the extra drive in XP and I haven't installed any special driver for AHCI, but maybe it's included in what came with the system.

Frau! I must ask again, what are your basic specifications on the computer, which I obviously have missed,:o I think there is a simple solution to this...:yep:

Proc: AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8 GHz Dual Core
MB: Asus M3A78-EM
RAM: 6 GB DDR2 PC6400 800 MHz
Gfx: ATI Radeon HD4650 1 GB PCIe
Power Supply: 500 W
OS: Win XP Pro 32-bit

In normal cases, is the change of O/S to reformat you hard drive first, of course, and then insert the disc to make an install, check that the boot sequence is correct, and to boot from the disc and the change is made in the Bios if this were needed, after installation, so drivers must be added, in which Windows is capable of good self, but some drivers, you must apply yourself and move up later depending on the needs that exist,W7 will search for the current update, so it is done by automatic,so do not do updates now that they still disappear when a format other than Bios, but I do not think it necessary to do that right now, but you focus on the primary first

I don't have any problems booting from the CD, in fact I've always been able to start the installation process... the first time I had 7 up and running and it rebooted successfully numerous times while updating files with Windows Update and also as I reinstalled programs. It was only after I hooked up the second hard drive that I started having problems. I could only start up in Safe Mode, otherwise I would get the Starting Windows screen and then the screen would go black and just hang there instead of loading Windows.

Did you remove your second hdd now ...

No, I hooked it back up before reinstalling XP to make sure there was no problem with the connection or the drive itself. It's there in XP, with no problems. Although it has not been partitioned so it all shows as unallocated, but it's there. And I do not have AHCI enabled, so that's not a problem at least with XP. In fact I never had AHCI enabled, the BIOS was set for SATA all the time. If you choose AHCI in the BIOS there's a message saying to make sure you have the proper driver for your OS, which I didn't have at the time.

But I'm wondering if I *must* use AHCI in Win7 for some reason, and not changing over to that before the upgrade caused a problem once I installed the second disk after getting Win7 up and running.

I did a similar setup as you describe earlier this fall, on one of my computers, and had no problem as you, with either AHCI or IDE, and then I had about the same spec,as you

Look here,
 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/48...win7-reinstall

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/how-to-ena...-installation/

http://www.w7forums.com/enabling-ahc...all-t4006.html

http://thegreenbutton.net/forums/t/83281.aspx

http://www.windows7news.com/2010/05/...-in-windows-7/

Thanks for the links!

But I don't think I need AHCI unless it's necessary for Win7 for some reason, nobody is reporting huge upticks in performance and other than that the only reason to have it enabled is for hotswapping disks which I don't really care about.

The only reason I would enable it is if I must do so to run Win7, and that doesn't seem to be the case.

Edit: oh wait, there's something there about it allowing you to use the "extra" SATA ports, maybe that's the problem. I just assumed that all the SATA ports were okay to use without special changes being made.

Typically the majority of the ports is driven by the northbridge, with some additional ones on the southbridge. Those are 2 individual chips on the motherboard, basically the core of the chipset that ties everything together. I would just set both to AHCI for SATA drives, there really shouldn't be a reason this wouldn't work; Win7 has all the drivers you need packaged with it.

In XP, you need to provide these drivers separately during install, because XP does not have those drivers packaged. I think that's what the manual is refering to when it says that you need to make sure to have the drivers handy.

Usually the sata ports have different colors to indicate which are which.


I looked up the board model at Asus' site: there's 18 BIOS updates fixing all kinds of issues. I know it's only advisable as a last resort, but I think in this case it would be in your best interest.

All the internal SATA ports are the same color. And there's only one place to enable AHCI in the setup, so I assume that takes care of both chips? And yeah, in one of the links Vendor posted someone said that Win7 already has decent drivers for it for any recent Intel/AMD products so that's a relief.

Re: BIOS updates, I downloaded the last one - would that be the latest "release" and include everything in all the others?

According to the manual I should a utility for updating the BIOS within Windows on the CD that came with the motherboard.

Yep, BIOS is cumulative, just need the latest.

You can use whatever is on the disk but I prefer downloading it from the manufacturer, always get he latest that way: http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=KjpYqzmAd9vsTM2D

Just select your OS and find it under BIOS-utilities.


If there's no difference in color-coding it's perfectly possible only the northbridge has a HD-controller, so then you would only find a single option.


I think you also have EZ flash; it's a utility build into the board that let's you update the BIOS without running something from an external device (floppy, USB stick). If you start that up (apears as an option under 'tools' in mine) you should be able to flash it there too.

Don't think it really matters which utility you use. I've flashed BIOS' from floppies, USB sticks and from Windows on all kinds of boards without any trouble, but you need to make darn sure that the file you want to update with isn't corrupt. That's the risk: flash it with a corrupt BIOS and that board is toast.


* if it comes down to either that Afudos or EZ flash, I'd go with the latter.

Pretty sure I have EZ Flash, I remember seeing it in the setup menu. Does it allow you to save the current BIOS file during the process? Or would I need to do that manually? I know the Asus Update is supposed to have the option of backing up the current BIOS before making any changes.

Erm, not sure, but looking at the picture in my mb manual it says '[b] backup', so I'm asuming it offers that function. :hmmm:

I can also access it during boot by pressing alt+F2 aparently, but the option through the BIOS menu does the same thing.