Problems With Fitting a New SATA Hard Drive.

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Working away on my computer, I suddenly noticed an ugly, grinding, vibration noise that wasn’t there before. It wasn’t exactly a loud noise, but something that electrical components shouldn’t make, all the same.  I decided to open up my computer case to see if I could see where the noise was coming from.

That was easier said than done as the vibration went right through the frame and it could have been any of the components. So the first step, I thought, was to disconnect the hard drive and switch the machine back on again. If the noise were still there, it would have to be one of the fans, because they were the only other components that were moving parts. With the hard drive disconnected I switched on. There was no noise – it just had to be the hard drive. 

I connected it back up and booted back up gain. I noticed now that it booted up much slower than usual and programs like Internet Explorer were also taking longer to load. I would have to back up all my files (which took me a few hours), and fit a new hard drive. That would give me the opportunity to fit a much larger drive. I had a 80GB installed and had always fancied one twice the size. I didn't want a poor quality one, but got a good deal by searching the Internet.

I’ve always found the fitting of computer hardware very easy to do. (See my other articles for more information), but it’s the software installation that can cause a few problems and this brand new 160GB SATA drive nearly had me taking the tower around to my local repair shop for them to get it to work!  Apart from feeling stupid, I would also be parting with cash and probably get frowned upon because I had bought the hard drive from the Internet and not my local repair shop. They don’t seem to like that. I don't suppose I can blame them, even though their drives are up to a third more expensive than the net!

I hard started by switching the machine on and inserting the Windows XP installation CD but nothing would happen. Then, after visiting a few computer forums using my laptop, I discovered that many others had difficultlty with Windows XP installation on a SATA drive too.  Then I discovered a long forgotten floppy disk in my computer’s box that was meant to be used to install SATA drivers so that Windows XP would recognise the SATA drive. Then is was more or less plain sailing.

Please bear in mind that this is my experience on my custom-built PC and yours may differ. But here are some instructions on how I got it to work.

1. Turn on PC. It will not recognise an operating system because the disk will be empty.
2. You can now open the CD drawer and insert the Windows XP installation disk.
3. Switch machine off using the on/off switch .
4. Switch on again and if your machine doesn’t begin to boot from CD, switch off, then on again, this time pressing F8 on your keyboard continuously until you get a blue screen that asks you where to boot from.
5. Using the up/down arrows on the keyboard, scroll down to your CD drive with the XP installation disk in and press “Enter” (or it may be labelled “Return” on your keyboard).
6. Another blue screen appears that tells you to Press F6 is you wish to load a third party RAID (or SIS Serial ATA Drivers).
7. Press F6 and insert the Floppy Disk.
8. The disk will whirr for a while and another screen will pop up and you will see your disk listed. Ensure it is highlighted and press return.
9. After some whirring again, Windows XP will start to install. It will ask you the usual questions like, if you want to do a full format etc. Which, you will have to do if it is a brand new disk, but if it is a used disk that has already been formatted, you will probably be able to do a “quick format” that will take less time.
10. From here on in, just follow instruction to set up Windows XP the way you want it.

Please note, that the above article is a guidance only, based on my experience and all installation of hardware and software is done at your own risk.