i've tried setting them both as master and the system doesn't know what to do, it says "detecting devices" for few minutes then says to insert a boot disk and press any key.

 

Just as i thought, you will need to use a program like nlite to slipstream the SP1-2 onto the install disc. This way you can have full access to the drive on install. This is unless you dont mind making a second partion on that drive after SP1-2 reveals the rest of the space on the drive.

Once you apply SP2 to your current installation, you will be able to see the new space in disk manager.

If you want to boot off of the sata drive and not the ide drive you need to set that up in the bios. Setting them to master or slave can help fix the issue but inreality you can just be more specific to the computer and tell it waht drive to boot off anf and it will.

For example in one of my computers i have both XP and Vista and they are both on diffrent drives. If i want to boot to vista i tell the PC to boot off of the vista drive and not the XP drive. Computers are only as samrt as the people who use them but they can be Told what to do.

Dont mess with slave and master to much as you will probably end up confusing yourself and the computer more than anything. If you want semd me make and model number of your mobo and ill look it up on the manufacurer's website and tell you how to do the bios changes.

 

ok i wasn't aware that that would be an issue without SP2. when i get a chance i will install SP2 and see how things go, I mainly want to get my SATA drive running up to par, cause i am pretty sure if i screw around with the IDE drive it is gonna die soon, it was at the point where windows was taking 10+ minutes to load during a restart. and every time i tried change programs it would lock up for like 5 minutes. and dont even get me started at game loading times, it was at the point where Half life 2 would take near half an hour to load.

Hopefully i should get everything running fine tomorrow.

 

Yeah sounds like that drive was going out of the window soon. Please feel free to PM me if need be and i will help you out as best i can. Im a PC junkie and troubleshooting is one of my strong points.

 

Nah don't worry about it, if i don't get it to work i will just take it to my dad, he's been an IT guy for as long as i've been alive basically. if anyone can get it to work he can lol.

But i am fairly certain that i should be able to get it to work somehow, after i get the drive read properly, i will find a way to get my IDE read as well. then get the contents from it then trash it lol.. well it may just become a paper weight.

 

"The Jmicron controller is pretty bad-it can't run an eSATA drive and IDE drive at the same time and it doesn't run either one too well. You can avoid this by using only SATA drives and using an SATA to eSATA bracket adapter or PCI card."

Everywhere else I've looked has all had issues with the Jmicron controller, all talk about how crappy it is. Possible fixes from what I've seen included flashing the BIOS and installing a more up to date one to installing new drivers for the Jmicron controller. None of these solutions seemed to end anywhere good. The Jmicron controller seems to have 2 PATA (IDE) connections and 2 SATA (one for internal drives one for external) connections. Maybe if you try to make sure the SATA drive is connected to whichever one runs on the Jmicron controller that might do the trick. None of the stuff I've seen explicitly says you can't run SATA and IDE drives at the same time (that quote says eSATA, which is extended SATA but he doesn't say regular SATA and IDE drives wont work).

Everywhere I've looked has had nothing but complaints about the Jmicron controller so I'd say just try to avoid it like the plague.

Is there anything wrong with the drive? I wouldn't trash it if it was fine, hell you could format it and send it to me if you're just gonna toss a perfectly good drive. :P

 

i dunno if there is anything wrong with the drive specifically, once i get what i want from it i will format it and sell ti probably, that or give it to my Dad and let him use it.

The problem with avoiding the Jmicron controller is that it is what is installed on my motherboard, i haven't check for any bios updates for my mobo yet though, i will take a look and see if there is... ... i am starting to think that the Mobo cpu combo i got was a bad idea... Asus usually has really good mobo's and i have never in my life had an issue with one, neither has my dad and he has been in the computer industry for ages.... maybe i will look into getting a new one possibly... we shall see. it wont be anytime soon if i do though.

 

Yeah ASUS is usualy pretty good. This particular motherboard seemed like it was one of the first runs of new Core 2 Duo mobos and the ONLY problem people seem to have is the Jmicron controller, otherwise people have nothing but great things to say about it. The Jmicron controller, from what I can tell, is only there to run the IDE/PATA drives. Some places I've seen has also labeled it as running 1 of the SATA slots and 1 external SATA input.. so it shouldnt be doing anything to 5 of the 6 SATA inputs that are listed as being on the motherboard. Which is why people say as long as you stick to the SATA stuff you'll be fine.

ASUS did have a capacitor problem a while ago and they have never exactly been top of the hill stuff. I've really liked the nForce boards for a while now, they're ace.

 

hmmm..... well i just finished reinstalling everything, and My computer still only recognizes 127GB, but if i go into the BIOS it shows that it is a 320GB drive...[sm=headbang.gif]

 

You need to get SP1 or 2. XP originally didn't support anything higher than like 130-140 or something, it's fixed in SP 1 and 2.