SATA Drivers,

Thanks for using the Dell Community Forum.

I would recommend going to http://support.dell.com and following the prompts for going to the 4600 section.  Once there, do a search on SATA and you can see several Knowledge Base articles and also downloads.  See if that helps at all.

Thanks Michael, but that may not work for me.

My 4600 came with an Ultra ATA drive, not SATA, so it did not include the FASTRK floppy required for installing the SATA drivers.

Also, is the Promise controller for the add-in card or for the motherboard SATA connectors?

And finally, I don't have a floppy drive. If you could send me the appropriate drivers, will it work if I write them to CD or the USB memory key?

Thanks again.

SATA,

I'm sorry but if it is just the standard ATA, we're not going to have much information on it or the drivers.  You should be able to get those from Promise.  Also, there's no guarantee that it's going to perform at the level you desire.

Have similar problems with my newly purchased Maxtor 120GB SATA drive. 

Sometimes I can get it to be recognized in the bios and other times it won't until I warm boot.  When it is recognized in the bios then Windows does not recognize it.  Needs a driver. 

Tech support is not of much help at this point.  They sent me a file supposedly with drivers in it but it appears to be moreso an app for array management than the actual drivers.

Any help and direction would be appreciated.  I hate to take this drive back and get old technology when my PC should support the new.

Thanks,

Mark.

Here are my specs:

Service Tag G2C9W21
Computer Model Dimension 4600
BIOS Vendor Dell Computer Corporation
BIOS Version A02
BIOS Date 05-07-03
Windows Version Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Manufacturer Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
DVD/CD-ROM Drives SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616T
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8481B
Disk Drives WDC WD600JB-00CRA1 55.89Gb
IOMEGA ZIP 750 USB Device 
Display Adapters RADEON 9800 PRO 256Mb
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Monitors Dell 2000FP(Analog) - Dell Computer Corp.
Sound Devices Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)
USB Controllers Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2

Just a quick note to update and say I've got the drive working.  It's plugged into the motherboard, no drivers required.  Finally Windows saw it, probably the cold boot problem that everyone else has reported.

Don't know if it's running at SATA speed but it appears to be faster.

 

My 4600 recognizes the Maxtor SATA drive in the BIOS, and XP also recognizes it, but as an Ultra ATA drive not a SATA drive.

You can check in Device Manager -- select the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, Primary IDE Channel, Advanced Settings, and if the Current Transfer Mode is Ultra DMA Mode 5, then it's not SATA, which uses Mode 6.

I've now spoken to 8 Dell Support reps with no luck. Still trying . . .

I downloaded a free copy of Sandra Sisoft and learned last night that it wasn't running at it's best level.

The guy at Dell tech that helped me get it up and running tried to configure a new PC with an SATA driver and the config always came back with a PCI card to run the drive.

Doesn't look like Dell has a driver for their mobo to run real SATA.

Intel has one but it's password protected.  The only one I could download was for ICHER (this chip includes raid support) and the 4600 has a plain ICHE chip.

 

if you have a serial drive connected to the computer, but device manage recognizes it as ata, believe me, it,s running serial.  i would not buy a computer without a floppy drive. it,s not used as much anymore, but just in case you need it, it,s there. my gig-ga7n400 pro board i have , i am running serial raid with 2 ata drives, got me a couple of serial ata galaxy adpaters. it would be impossible for me to get windows running without a floppy.

Do you know what chipset you have?  I have the same question about my system which has the 875p chipset.  The sub-chip (?) that handles the ide control is the 82801EB which has built-in support for SATA, but lists as Ultra ATA Storage Controller in device manager.  I spoke with Dell Tech unSupport and was told that "this is the proper listing" .  I must say I have been very disappointed in the tech support from Dell.... ( alllmost useless).  I am still trying to find out for certain if it is indeed SATA-150 or ultra ATA, just for my own peace of mind.  If anyone knows, please reply.  Thank you.

Tahv100,

See the white paper published by Tom Pratt (Dell storage Technology Strategist), 'Serial ATA Interface on Client Systems.'  I don't have the link but rather a hardcopy in front of me.  It was published June/2003.  You should be able to do a search for it.

I think you will find it answers your question about why Device Manger is reporting the SATA drive as PATA.  Specifically it states...

"Because the industry has just begun its conversion to SATA, most initital hard drives are bridge solutions.  They are ATA hard drives with a SATA conversion chip'.

I take that to mean we essentially have PATA drives with a SATA interface.

MLM2

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you MLM2.

BTW  does 100 Mbytes = 1 Gigabyte?

 

My Dimension came from the factory with an SATA drive. The following screen shot shows the device manager for the hard drive:

http://home.socal.rr.com/grandcanyon/sata.png

I did a clean install of the OS after receiving the computer. However, the device manager looked the same when it first came from the factory. You will note that there is no mention of an SATA drive (although there is in the Bios).