Correct SATA Setup Help Please

[Johnny Bravo]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and also to setting up a PC, so I am going to need quite a lot of help to help me setup a PC that I have purchased for my brothers 60th birthday present.

I purchased a second hand PC to set up to suit my brothers needs with the following spec:-

- CPU I7 3820 3Gen - Core Size: 32nm
- Socket: LGA2011
- Quad Core
- Frequency: 3.60GHz (3.90GHz TURBO)
- Multiplier: 36x (Upto 43x available)
- L2 Cache: 4x 256KB
- L3 Cache: 10MB
- TDP: 130W + CPU COOLER INTEL LGA 2011


- MOTHERBOARD ASRock X79 Extreme4 Motherboard Core i7 LGA 2011 Intel X79 ATX RAID Gigabit LAN X79 EXTREME4


- RAM GSkill Ripjaws Z Series 1600 CL 9.0 16GB Memory Kit - Red (4x 4GB, DDR3, Quad Channel, Intel XMP Certified)


- SSD OCZ AGT3-25SAT3 Agility 3 60GB SATA III 2.5 inch


- HDD WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR GREEN 1TB


- PSU OCZ FATALITY 750W


- GRAPHIC CARD ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II, GDDR5 1GB


- CASE ZALMAN Z9 PLUS
However, the setup is not how I want it I need help to correct it and get it running as I want it.

At the moment the PC boots up from the Western Digital 1TB drive but does not boot up correctly because a trial version of Windows 7 has been installed.
So when it boots a message appears on screen saying' No Device Found' then it ASROCK software screen and then a screen asking me if I want to boot from Windows 7, I select yes then it boots up into Windows.

I want to change the setup so that it boots up from the OCZ 60GB SSD drive which I have now installed Windows 7 onto but here is where my problems are starting because I do not know which SATA connectors on the motherboard I should use for the best and correct boot up sequence.
I have tried a few different combinations using the SATA connectors but they don't seem to be right as I still get the 'No Device Found' message and the PC does not boot up normally into Windows from the SSD drive.
I have also formatted the 1TB drive.

Here is how I would like the PC to be setup:-

OCZ 60GB SSD Drive - as the main boot up drive with Windows 7 installed.

Western Digital 1TB Drive - for storage purposes.

DVD-RW Drive - for general CD/DVD Burning processes.

Please could you tell me the correct setup so that the PC boots up correctly and also how to get rid of the 'No Device Found' message.

Thank you in advance!

Johnny Bravo :)

[parsec]

Re: Correct SATA Setup Help Please

Your board has two SATA controllers, the main Intel ports provided by the X79 chipset, and the add on ASMedia 1061 chipset. The Intel chipset provides two SATA 6Gb/s ports, and four SATA 3Gb/s ports. The ASMedia chipset provides three SATA 6Gb/s ports on that board, but they are not as good as the Intel SATA ports. You are much better off using only the Intel SATA ports until they are all used up, if ever.

You should check the boards manual to locate which SATA ports are which, but the usual configuration is (with the board mounted in a PC case), the top two gray SATA ports are ASMedia, and the two gray ports below them, right next to the lower black ports, are the Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports. Connect the SSD to an Intel gray SATA Gb/s port, and any HDDs to the black Intel SATA 3Gb/s ports.

The no device found message may be caused by not having a SATA driver installed for the ASMedia chipset. Or if you have a DVD/CD drive in the PC, and it is set to first in the boot order but without a disk. You can disable the ASMedia SATA controller in the BIOS.

You'll need to check and possibly fix the boot order in the BIOS once everything is connected correctly. The Boot menu item in the BIOS is where that is done. Just set the SSD to first in the boot order.

Let us know how it goes.

[Johnny Bravo]

Re: Correct SATA Setup Help Please

Thanks for your quick reply Parsec!

I have read the board manual but because I am totally new to this stuff it just isn't clear which is which SATA port :(

I have also read your reply about 6 times to try and make it clear as to which ports I should use but again it just isn't sinking in :(

I take it that I should connect the SSD drive to the 6gb/s SATA connector and the standard Western Digital drive to the next available port if possible to get the best speeds from them both?

I have attached a picture from the manual which names the SATA ports 0, 1, 2 etc... but there are also SATA 2 ports to consider as well.



Can you tell me off the picture which I should connect the SSD drive, the Western Digital drive and the DVD-RW Optical drive to in order to get the best speed and order?
I have also seen that there is a 'CMOS' button, does this reset the bios boot up order if it is pressed, and if so will this get rid of the 'No Device Found' message?

Thanks for your patience!

Johnny Bravo :)

[therube]

Re: Correct SATA Setup Help Please

The ports labeled with "_A#" (SATA#_A#) are the Asmedia ports, so use one of the other 6.0 Gb/s ports for your SSD.

[Johnny Bravo]

Re: Correct SATA Setup Help Please

Thanks for your comments 'therube',

I have connected as you said and its seems to be booting into windows correctly now apart from the 'Windows Boot Menu' screen asking me to choose which operating system I want to use, But i Googled the issue and found out that I can reduce the amount of time in seconds that the screen is seen before it automatically boots into Windows 7 on the first drive which in my case is the SSD Drive. The screen flashes for a split second but I can cope with that I suppose lol.

Thanks for your help!

Johnny Bravo :)

[parsec]

Re: Correct SATA Setup Help Please

If you have two OS's, then that is why you are asked to choose which one to use. So either keep it that way, remove the drive with the trial version, or format that drive to remove the OS.