I am building a computer so I'm using totally new parts. I have a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L 64 bit and a Sata HD from Seagate on which I'm trying to install Vista Ultimate.
I set the BIOS to boot from CD first and then inserted my windows vista ultimate CD. When I get to the the point of the install to choose a harddrive, nothing appears. At this point I can attempt to locate drivers so I have done 2 things: first I inserted the Mobo CD and mucked around for a Sata driver. I found nothing. Second I downloaded this driver from Gigabyte support called "Intel ICH9R/ICH10R Driver" and tried to find it from my USB drive. Vista install could not recognize this .exe file.
I have gone back into the BIOS and looked for some way to enable SATA. There only appear to be 2 options regarding this: Sata AHCI mode and Sata port0-1 controller. I have tried all four possible ways: First with AHCI enabled, which results in the BIOS not even recognizing the HD. Second with both enabled, same result as the first way. Third with Sata port0-1 native mode enabled, the BIOS could see the HD but Vista could not, nor find the drivers (I didn't try the mobo CD here, but I don't think it would matter). Both disabled was the default. Could I be missing something from the BIOS options?
Notable points: I have switched out sata cables, but since bios recognizes the HD I think the hardware is fine. Also, I spoke with Seagate (gigabyte doesn't offer live support) and they told me to hit F6 when the option appeared during the boot sequence for vista. This option doesn't appear for me. I don't think this is an issue because I can actually search for drivers for the HD at one point of the install. Finally, the BIOS lists my HD among 6 channels as "IDE Channel 2 Master". The other channels all say IDE (0,1,2,3,4,4slave) but there is no way to change this to sata. I don't know if this is an issue or not.
I think that's all the information I can think to include here. From the looks of it, this problems seems to be specific to this 64 bit mobo, 64 bit vista and seagate sata HDs. Has this been articulated elsewhere and I missed it? Also, is this in the correct section (drivers?). Thank you for your time and help!
Have you checked the Bios Boot priority?
set sata as ide in the bios
Finally, the BIOS lists my HD among 6 channels as "IDE Channel 2 Master". The other channels all say IDE (0,1,2,3,4,4slave) but there is no way to change this to sata. I don't know if this is an issue or not.
This is the correct setting for your BIOS, the 6 channels are your six SATA ports on the Motherboard.
You have the Motherboard plugged into the third Port (it should work here but you can change it to the first (channel O) port if you want to
Insert your Motherboard disc when prompted during the install and load the IHC9R Driver
Well, this is how I fixed this problem. I don't know if there's a way to get the vista software to recognize the seagate HD from this particular gigabyte motherboard. But if you install a different OS and then vista, chances are the other OS will recognize it and once the HD has been recognized in some sence, then vista will pick up on it. chalk it up to another one of those strange computer things...
