Having BIOS recognize WD SATA drive

**tullamore** · 19-01-2011

I am retired with a little computer experience that let me put together a computer system that boots and seems to function as it should. I have software loaded (video editing) and no crashes or seizures. However, I would like help properly setting up SATA drives on this new build - hopefully without having to reinstall everything.

My principal components purchased recently include:
AMD Phenom 11 X4 955 BE
Win 7
M/B GA 890GPA UD3H Rev 2.1 FD Bios
8 GB Ram
PSU 650 W
Hard Drive WD Caviar Black Sata 3 7200 RPM (on Blue Sata 3 Port 0)
DVD player on Sata 2 grey/white port
Older WD IDE empty drive on ribbon cable

I will be purchasing and installing a second WD Caviar Black Sata 3 7200 RPM

I installed everything in keeping with the M/B manual. Integrated peripherals section of the BIOS were set is as per the default in the manual
OnChip Sata Controller - Enabled
OnChip Sata Type - Native IDE
OnChip Sata Port 4/5 Type - IDE
OnChip Sata Raid 5 Support - Enabled
OnChip Sata 3.0 Support - Enabled
OnChip Sata Port as ESP - Press Enter (it seems locked out as nothing happens after pressing enter)
OnBoard GSata/IDE Ctrl - Enabled
Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode - IDE

I want the existing WD Caviar to remain as an independent drive with the O/S and files etc. Similarily, the 2nd WD Caviar I will be buying will be for storage & backup. I do not want a RAID setup.

The Caviar Black hard drive now shows up as Native IDE.
Everything works although perhaps not as efficient as it should since SATA or AHCI is not showing up as the drive type. No idea what AHCI is but have come across the term in relation to SATA.

Questions:
1) What do I have to do to in the BIOS to have the WD Caviar Black SATA 3 drives appear as SATA drive. Can you be as specific as possible as much of this may be beyond me and I will just follow directions. Hopefully something can be done without having to reload all the software.

I should add that I did try to change Native IDE to AHCI as well as changing OnChip Sata Port 4/5 Type to "As Sata Type" but all that ended up doing was removing the WD Caviar drive as a listed drive and the system not booting due to the absence of a Bootmgr program.

I do not really know what info to include in this type of request, so if you need more, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

**Simond** · 22-01-2011

I was also facing similar problems and I found a link to WDC drive jumper settings (link here), and jumpered pins 5 and 6 to limit transfer speeds to 150 MB/s. On restart, the OS prompted me to initialize, which I did, and voila, the drive is mounted. Also, it appears the jumper setting is to convert a SATA2 dirve to SATA1. I was wondering if there is any reason to try (or jumper setting that would enable) converting my SATA 3 drive to a SATA2 configuration?

**tullamore** · 22-01-2011

Thanks.

BTW, I recently came across this issued by Microsoft and it also appears on several other tech sites as well. Changing the registry value allows the sytem to recognize SATA or ACHI references in the BIOS

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976