# *HELP* Installing a Seagate SATA Harddrive on a MSI K9AGM2



## atech

Hello Everyone,

I ran into a problem, I have a MSI K9AGM2 MS-7327 (v1.X) motherboard and I decided to go out and buy a Seagate SATA/300 harddrive to replace my old IDE Maxtor 60GB harddrive and I am having a very hard time installing it. I want to do a clean install of windows xp pro on the new drive and I hit "F6" to install RAID drivers for the harddrive and I set the BIOS to RAID but the drivers I downloaded off of MSI's website is no good it acts like its going to work off of the floppy but then it says that achix64.sys is corrupted and from there I cant do nothing. Can any one please help me install my new harddrive please...

Thank you!


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## PC eye

First you need a Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html and the brief reminder to review the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html

 You came in at the right time for a possible answer! I ran into this when installing XP Pro on a sata drive on an Asus model. When booting with the board's software disk for Asus anyways there's usually an option to format a floppy and create a driver disk. The format option worked well while one driver refused to load? I booted back into Windows after formatting a blank floppy again and created the disk while having the XP Home version running. From there all went smooth as silk for loading the drivers off of the floppy. See if the board disk has the option there and give it a try.


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## atech

Yeah, I made the floppy off of the MSI CD and on the floppy I have the files 

*Disk1* 
*TXTSETUP.OEM* 

and there is one folder on the floppy named WIN_XP and in that folder it has the files 

*m5287*
*ulisata* in lower case letters
*ULISATA* in cap letters

Now I used the floppy after it told me to put it in the A: drive and everything came up just fine and then it started to format windows on the drive and when it was done it started back up to where you push "F8" to agree with the terms and start the whole format process over again, so I must be doing something wrong and i just cant figure it out.


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## PC eye

If you reached the setup that far where the drive is seen by the installer then you know the sata drivers were loaded well. What type of keyboard are you running? usb or standard? If usb you'll want to keep a cheapo stand model around just to get through the F8 license agreement. With an MS model that even has the PS2 adapter it still won't work. I bought a cheapie for $10- just to get Windows installed!


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## atech

I have a USB with a PS2 adapter but I can get through the F8 license agreement just fine.


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## StrangleHold

atech said:


> Now I used the floppy after it told me to put it in the A: drive and everything came up just fine and then it started to format windows on the drive and when it was done it started back up to where you push "F8" to agree with the terms and start the whole format process over again, so I must be doing something wrong and i just cant figure it out.


 
Whats happen is the when it reboots your booting back to the CD, your getting the boot loop. After it installs the files then formats and reboots the first time, boot to the harddrive not to the CD and it will continue the install.


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## PC eye

It won't work here on the MS model. But what do you expect from MS? hhmmm.... Maybe Logitech the next time around.   Inspect the disk for scratches, finger prints, etc. there as well as running a lens cleaner on the drive. A blurred lens or smudged up disk will hamper an installation. Is this with a new Windows disk or one you've had for awhile? I just grabbed a disk repair gimic for repairing disks with small scratches to see if that works.


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## StrangleHold

atech said:


> I have a USB with a PS2 adapter but I can get through the F8 license agreement just fine.


 
Its not your key board! After you got your Sata drivers installed and it formated, you just booted back to the CD instead of the harddrive.


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## atech

PC eye said:


> It won't work here on the MS model. But what do you expect from MS? hhmmm.... Maybe Logitech the next time around.   Inspect the disk for scratches, finger prints, etc. there as well as running a lens cleaner on the drive. A blurred lens or smudged up disk will hamper an installation. Is this with a new Windows disk or one you've had for awhile? I just grabbed a disk repair gimic for repairing disks with small scratches to see if that works.



Its one I had for a while.



> Whats happen is the when it reboots your booting back to the CD, your getting the boot loop. After it installs the files then formats and reboots the first time, boot to the harddrive not to the CD and it will continue the install.



Yes, thats basically what i am getting is the boot loop but it just wants to keep installing windows I go through the whole setup again. I cant get to the part where it wants you to put in your serial number, name, company etc.


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## StrangleHold

Like I say when it reboots the first time you need to boot to the harddrive from then on. Not back to the cd, your just booting to the cd over and over.


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## atech

StrangleHold said:


> Like I say when it reboots the first time you need to boot to the harddrive from then on. Not back to the cd



Okay, I will give that a try and I will come back to let you know what happen.

Thanks everyone for your help.


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## StrangleHold

Boot to the cd the first time, install your Sata drivers, format, install setup files then it reboots. Then boot to the harddrive from then on.


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## atech

Okay, when I get to the part where it wants me to put in the floppy, it then loads the floppy and then askes me what to load:

*ULi SATA Controller (M1573, Windows XP/Server 2003)*

*ULi SATA Controller (M1573, Win2000)*

*ULi SATA Controller (M1573, Windows XP/Server 2003 x64)*

So I loaded ULi SATA Controller (M1573, Windows XP/Server 2003) and then it said "setup will load support for the following mass storage device(s):

It starts loading the files. Then it gets to the welcome to setup screen with the options of:

*To setup windows now, press enter.*

*To repair a window XP installation using recovery console, press R.*

*To quit setup without installing windows XP, press F3*

So I press enter to setup windows now and the next screen that comes up is:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer and the only option it gives me after that is press F3 to quit.

Then I just hook back my other harddrive that has windows already on it, so i can get back on the computer.

Now I dont know why it didnt find my SATA harddrive because in my BIOS I have it setup as:

PCI IDE BusMaster - Enabled

OnChip SATA Channel - Enabled

OnChip SATA Type - RAID

and the other options on the OnChip SATA Type are:

*Native IDE*

*RAID*

*Legacy IDE*

*AHCI*

If I set the OnChip SATA type to: NATIVE IDE with my old hardrive connected and the SATA drive connected the SATA drive shows up under "My Computer" as Local Disk (E) which is a 300GB drive but its only showing up as 127GB but I'm not worried about the capicity right now I just want to get my new drive to boot windows and not my old drive.

any other ideas or what I could be doing wrong?


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## StrangleHold

You sure the floppy has the right Sata Drivers (ULi) That board has a AMD 690 northbridge an ATI SB600 southbridge chipset. It should have ATI Sata drivers. 

It should use these
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=driverfile&dno=2475&i=0


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## atech

I downloaded that file and put it on a floppy and tried it but it said that the file:

\x64\ahcix64.sys is corrupted and it wouldnt go on from there. Do you know where I could download the driver besides the MSI's website? I googled for 2 days looking for the driver and couldnt find it.

also

what setting should I have in the BIOs for:

*PCI IDE BusMaster* - should I have it enabled or not?

*OnChip SATA Channel* - should I have it enabled or not? I am sure I need that enabled

*OnChip SATA Type* - and what option should I have it set to?

1.) Native IDE
2.) RAID
3.) Legacy IDE
4.) AHCI

Thank you again for your help and time.


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## atech

StrangleHold said:


> You sure the floppy has the right Sata Drivers (ULi) That board has a AMD 690 northbridge an ATI SB600 southbridge chipset. It should have ATI Sata drivers.
> 
> It should use these
> http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=driverfile&dno=2475&i=0



Well, I thought I would give that link a shot and the same thing came up. It gave me two options to choose from when I loaded the floppy and the options are:

option 1.) *ATI ACHI Compatible RAID controller - x86 platform*

option 2.) *ATI ACHI Compatible RAID controller - x64 platform*

So, I selected option 2 "ATI ACHI Compatible RAID controller - x64 platform" and it started loading the files from the floppy and then it got to the file "\x64\achix64.sys" and it said:

The file \x64\achix64.sys is corrupted. press any key to continue.

and I hit enter and it just restarted. Now seeing that option 1 & 2 both had the ACHI in the title I thought I would go into the BIOS and change the OnChip SATA type from RAID to AHCI, so I did that and restarted the computer and it just showed the motherboard logo and then just went to a black screen and it was just sitting at the black screen.

I guess the problem I'm have is of course the \x64\achix64.sys file being corrupted if it wasn't then it should work right?

If anyone knows where I can download the driver other then MSI's website that would be great.


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## PabloTeK

You'll probably want to set the BIOS to *IDE* as with RAID it'll look for a RAID array.


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## atech

GCR said:


> You'll probably want to set the BIOS to *IDE* as with RAID it'll look for a RAID array.



Okay, I will give that a try and I'll let you know how it turns out, but do you know where I can download the driver? since the driver on MSI's website says the file \x64\achix64.sys is corrupted.

Thank you for the reply


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## atech

I set the OnChip SATA type in the BIOS to Native IDE and saved the changes and it just loaded the motherboard logo and then it just went to a black screen and it was just sitting at the black screen.

Anymore ideas? If I could just get the ATI SB600 SATA Floppy to load with out the \x64\achix64 being corrupted that would be great.


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## StrangleHold

atech said:


> Yeah, I made the floppy off of the MSI CD and on the floppy I have the files
> 
> *Disk1*
> *TXTSETUP.OEM*
> 
> and there is one folder on the floppy named WIN_XP and in that folder it has the files
> 
> *m5287*
> *ulisata* in lower case letters
> *ULISATA* in cap letters
> 
> Now I used the floppy after it told me to put it in the A: drive and everything came up just fine and then it started to format windows on the drive and when it was done it started back up to where you push "F8" to agree with the terms and start the whole format process over again, so I must be doing something wrong and i just cant figure it out.


 
When you did this it loaded the Sata drivers and formated the drive, it cant format the drive without seeing it. Just when it rebooting you booted back to the cd instead of the harddrive. Try this again but boot to the harddrive when it reboots the first time. I still dont know why a SB600 chip would use a ULi Sata driver but it seemed to work that time.


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## PC eye

StrangleHold said:


> Like I say when it reboots the first time you need to boot to the harddrive from then on. Not back to the cd, your just booting to the cd over and over.


 
 Booting from the hard drive before the setup files are even copied to it?  

Something is stalling during the installation process forcing the system to reboot before the setup is completed there. If the disk is free of any scratches or smudge marks and you have run a lens cleaner you may be seeing the drive itself or a flaky cable being the cause.


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## StrangleHold

PC eye said:


> Booting from the hard drive before the setup files are even copied to it?


 
Nobody said that! I dont know where you come up with this stuff? I said after it rebooted the first time. It copies the set up files before it reboots.


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## PC eye

Apparently the system is rebooting there before the files are fully copied for some reason. The sata drive itself may be the problem or some other problem is now being seen to cause the sudden restarts during the initial installation phase. When you can't get to the spot to enter name, business, etc. you have to look at other things other then changing the boot order.


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## StrangleHold

He wasn't having sudden restarts, he just keeps booting back to the cd after the restart.


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## atech

StrangleHold said:


> When you did this it loaded the Sata drivers and formated the drive, it cant format the drive without seeing it. Just when it rebooting you booted back to the cd instead of the harddrive. Try this again but boot to the harddrive when it reboots the first time. I still dont know why a SB600 chip would use a ULi Sata driver but it seemed to work that time.



If I have my old hard drive and have the  BIOS setting as:

PCI IDE BusMaster - enabled

OnChip SATA Channel - enabled

OnChip SATA Type - native IDE

Then the new drive will show up as Local Disk (E) under " My Cpmputer " but as only a 127GB drive and not a 300 GB drive which thats what it is but when I disconnect my old hard drive and put in windows XP pro to format the new hard drive so I can do a clean install of windows it goes just fine until  I hit "F6" so I can install the drive then it asks me to insert the floppy which on the floppy is has these files:

in the root of the floppy it has:

ahcix64
ahcix86
txtsetup.oem

and it has two folders named x64 & x86

x64 folder has these files:

ahcix64
ahcix64
ahcix64

and x86 folder has these files:

ahcix86
ahcix86
ahcix86

and when I press "S" when asked to if gives me these two options:

option 1.) ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x64

option 2.) ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x86

so I select the x64 controller and then it starts checking the floppy for the drivers and the problem I am having is that it keeps saying that \x64\achix64.sys is corrupted.

*BUT*
for the heck of it, instead of selecting *ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x64*

I desided to select the *ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x86* option to see if it would load the \x86\achix86.sys file and it did load the file and the next screen came up saying *" IT CAN NOT FIND A HARD DISK "*


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## StrangleHold

Well the reason your only seeing 128gbs is its a older XP cd, after SP2 is installed it will see the whole drive and you can partition the rest. To not go through that, you can Slipstream SP2 to your XP cd and it will see the whole drive when you install.
  Did this board come with a floppy with the Sata drivers or did you have to make one from the boards CD?


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## atech

StrangleHold said:


> Well the reason your only seeing 128gbs is its a older XP cd, after SP2 is installed it will see the whole drive and you can partition the rest. To not go through that, you can Slipstream SP2 to your XP cd and it will see the whole drive when you install.
> Did this board come with a floppy with the Sata drivers or did you have to make one from the boards CD?



I have SP2 installed, but the board didnt come with a floppy I made three floppys to try and get this harddrive setup, on the first two floppy I made from the CD that came with the board on the CD it has a folder called IDE and within that folder it had two folders one was called RAID and the other folder was called SATA. The folder locations on the CD for both folders are as followed:

folder 1.) *D:\IDE\Silicon_Image\Sil3132\RAID*

folder 2.) *D:\IDE\Silicon_Image\Sil3132\SATA*

The third floppy I downloaded the drivers off of MSI's website and tried it and after I selected the ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x64 option the next screen would say:

*\x64\achix64.sys is corrupted.*

and like in my last post for the heck of it instead of selecting ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x64

I desided to select the ATI AHCI Compatible RAID controller - x86 option to see if it would load the \x86\achix86.sys file and it did load the file and the next screen came up saying " IT CAN NOT FIND A HARD DISK "


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## StrangleHold

Between those I would give this one a try

folder 2.) *D:\IDE\Silicon_Image\Sil3132\SATA*


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## atech

I tried both options and if I remember that one did go through an after it went thorugh it would load the windows XP files again and the next screen would give me three options and I would select press enter to install winodws and the next screen would come up and then say:

*Setup did not find any hard disks drives installed in your computer*

I have been talking to a MSI tech about my problem and this is what they said:



> Dear Customer, One last suggestion please update the bios to the latest version that will be attached in this response. Just be sure to clear the CMOS right after the bios update then again enter bios load the Optimized Defaults set up bios for raid then save and exit create raid array again delete any array that maybe created then save it and try another installation using the latest drivers you got from our web site. If issue persists then go out to the link below and request an RMA number or if you just got the board contact the reseller for a replacment. Thank you, http://www.msicomputer.com/support/CustomerS.asp



Well, last night I did decide to update the BIOS with no luck but I didnt clear the CMOS right after I updated the BIOS. I will try that right now..


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