SATA II Drive Recognition

[LarryAllen]

After much hassle, I was finally able to successfully install the Nvidia Sata controller driver version 5.10.2600.666 dtd 4/24/2006 which is now driving both of my SATA drives. My WD2500KS, a SATA II drive, is listed as the drive on the Primary Channel (connected to SATA Pin 1 on my MOBO). Within Device Manager the properties of this Primary Channel list the transfer mode as “Serial ATA Generation 1 - 1.5G; the drop down allows selection of Sata II which I have attempted to select. This selection requires a reboot. I have attempted this many times and every time after reboot I am still left with the transfer mode for this drive as being Sata Generation I.

I believe the issue may lie with the driver being used for the WD2500 itself which is listed in Device Manager as being Microsoft 5.1.2535.0 dtd. 7/1/2001. I know that when I installed the Nvidia drivers a caution Window opened advising that the IDE SW Driver would be installed; I have attempted to use “Update Driver” to replace the Microsoft driver by directing the driver search to my Nvidia Update 6.86 Folder. I am consistently advised that the installed driver is the most current and directed to accept or search again. Further when I use the Windows “Search” to find the IDE SW driver, it is not found which is perhaps why I am unable to “Update” the driver for this hard drive.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get the WD2500 into a SATA II transfer mode? By the way, no jumpers are used on the WD drive itself as WD says this is the default jumper setting for SATA II.

[ripken204]

By the way, no jumpers are used on the WD drive itself as WD says this is the default jumper setting for SATA II.

so are there jumpers or not? the standard windows driver works fine, you shouldnt have to use the nvidia driver.

is the drive in the purple or orange sata slot? it should be the purple. the orange doesnt support sataII

[LarryAllen]

ripken204, taking it from the top – none of the 8 pins on the WD are jumpered; the driver being used for the WD is Microsoft (I am unable to update this to anything else); my board has SATA pins not slots – per manufacturer the 4 orange use the Nvidia SATA II controller, the 4 yellow use the Silicon Image controller. I am using an Nvidia pin for this drive. It has been suggested to me that the problem may lie with my BIOS which would really be ugly as I’m shaky about flashing an update. Thank you for the input though, if you have any more suggestions, I’m all ears (I envy you the DFI board, it was really my first choice when I built this machine but I was in a hurry and ended up with the MSI).

[ripken204]

ya i saw a pic of the back of that hdd, i see what you mean. and slots/pins, you get what i mean. are they in the purple or orange tho? and a bios update is easy now, dont worry about it, just do it.