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Heres How to find the right SATA drivers for F6 during install


towsarboy

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Hello. This might help if you are installing windows and you need to use SATA drivers when prompted with F6.

Note: This is regarding windows installation where you need to press F6 to install SATA drivers from floppy.

First note why you need to install using a floopy. Answer: because you cannot browse during installtion from CD.

Second note: Do not mess around with your BIOS if you are not sure what you are doing. In your desperation or frustration you might make things worse. More on BIOS further on down the page.

So where do you find the right SATA drivers to put on your floppy? Simple: You get them from the driver CD that comes with your motherboard. No CD don't worry, more info further down.

Open your driver CD (at local internet cafe) Open the readme.txt file in your driver CD, then search the document with keyword SATA.

You will then see the corresponding folder where SATA drivers are located.

They are usually found in SILICON folder. There maybe 2 sub folders named 3114 etc..

If more than one folder then open each folder and simply copy all the files in each folder to a floppy. So if two sub folders then you need two floppys, one floppy for each folder, try the floppy with 3114 files first during install, if doesn't work then try the other floppy.

That's all there is to it.

Further notes: To print these instructions out, please higlite the text I typed, and click print, then click selection to print only what you have selected on this web page.

Help! I don' have the CD that comes with my motherboard:

If you do not have the CD that came with your motherboard, then you need to find out the type of make and model your motherboard. Then go to the website for that make. From there search drivers for the motherboard, Each motherboard has it's own SATA drivers, simply download the SATA drivers for the motherboard, and copy onto floppy.

BIOS:

You do not need to do anything to your BIOS. The motherboard has it's own SATA drivers that work with any serial hard drive, regardless of the make of hard drive.

If you wish to check your BIOS out of curiosity, then look through the BIOS to see if it has anything that mentions SATA, if so check to see if it is enabled. If not then enable SATA and save BIOS settings, then you your BIOS should see your hard drive. Note you may need to go into BIOS again to make sure BIOS is on AUTO to automatically find drives etc..

If your BIOS doesn't have a SATA enabled feature then chances are you won't be able to get your BIOS to pick up the serial hard drive without the SATA drivers option during install.

The BIOS maybe only a couple of years old but the firmware might be older. If you are savvy you may want to re-flash your BIOS with a later version of BIOS firmware. Again go to the website and download the ultility that re-flashes your BIOS with a later version. Don't do this if you are a leyman like myself.

One more note:

What are PCI SATA drivers?

One more note: Older motherboards may require a PCI card that plugs into the motherboard that allows the motherboard to communicate with the serial hard drive. To know if this is your situaion is simple.

If the hard drive cable plugs directly into the motherboard then you don't have a PCI card, the motherboard has the chip set built in.

But if the cable is plugged into a card that is in tern plugged into the motherboard then you need PCI SATA drivers, again you should have a floppy that coems with the PCI card, else again you need to go to the website and dowload PCI SATA drivers.

I hope this has helped someone out there. Have fun - towsarboy

Edited by towsarboy
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