[875P Neo Series] SATA help for 875 Neo FIS2R

Question

Hi,
I am hoping someone can help me.  I am trying to install an Hitachi SATA HDD (Deskstar 7K250) to the system listed below.  I tried to install the drive on SER1 but when I tried to install the installed the Intel IAA driver it said “no compatible hardware found”.  I then tried to install the drive on SER3.  I installed the SATA 378 driver, which asked me to restart my computer.  I shut down, connected the SATA to SER3, and turned on the system.  All seemed fine.  I went into disk manager to initialize and format and that’s when the system restarted itself.  When it restarted it said “error loading OS”.  I restarted the system and opened the BIOS.  Under the boot from section I noticed the C: drive that XP is on the name was “Maxtor” to something like “Maitorllll?????”  I tried to repair windows to with the SATA drive still attached and the system started fine until just before the desktop would appear when the system restarted.  I unplugged the SATA HDD and then had to repair windows again to get the system working.
Does anyone know what’s going on?????????
Here is my BIOS setup:
Integrated peripherals:
   USB Controller – enabled
   USB Legacy – disabled
   On-board Chip IDE – Native mode
              P-ATA Only
              SATA keep enabled -  Yes
               PATA keep enabled – No
              PATA channel – Both
              Combined mode – PATA 1st channel
              SATA ports – PO-1st/Pi- 2nd
              Configure RAID – no
      CSA Gigibit – auto
      Onboard 1394 – enabled
      Promise – as SATA
      AC’97 – auto
CD151

Answer 1

OK, Not sure the state of everything now but this may help:
1- You don't need the IAA driver unless you enable the Intel controller "as Raid" in the Bios. It senses this and that's why it says "no compatible hardware" If the SATA ports are enabled in the Bios(your settings indicate they are) then you just need to format/initialize it like any other drive.
2- You indicate you have "PATA Keep Enabled" set to no. This should be set to yes for your IDE1 & IDE2 devices to work. The other settings on this menu look OK
3- The "Promise As SATA" should be changed to "Disabled" if you have nothing on Serial 3&4
It would help to know where the OS is installed. It sounds like it's on the IDE1 port(Maxtor).
I think you should should start by:
- temporarily disconnect the extra drive controller card
- check all the remaining drive power/data connections and reconnect the new drive to serial2
- re-enable the "PATA keep enabled" to "Yes"
- Set Promise Controller to "disabled" if nothing on it now.
- Look for a Bios setting called "Clear NVRAM" and set "yes" (It will reset to "No" after the next reboot which is what you want)
- Save Bios and reboot but re-enter Bios immediately.
- Check the "select boot order" menu and make sure the drive with the OS is before any other HDD's
- Save and reboot.
Hopefully if the OS is still intact, you'll be in it again and can use Windows drive manager to see, format and initialize the new SATA drive. Again, you only need IAA if you are using the Intel Raid controller. Also keep in mind that the SATA drive might bump all your other drive letters (from the Adaptec card) up by one so if this is a concern, just get the OS up and running then re-attach the Adaptec card and finally the new SATA drive.
Hope it works out!