a question about Longhorn or SP2 support for NATIVE Serial ATA DRIVERS!

webe3 · 11-13-2003, 10:11 AM

OK, I know that Microsoft is still two years away from making Longhorn or whatever it will be called, but mabye you can tell me any info you know, about what I am going to ask... OK? I am wanting to know if the new Longhorn operating system will include NATIVE DRIVERS for Serial ATA hard drives like the western digital raptor?

The reason I ask, is because I just bought this drive a few months ago,(40 gig version) but had to pull it from my system, because I got tired of the way it was acting! I kept getting repeated blue screens and finally was not even able to REFORMAT it anymore! Yes, I could just use fdisk and repartition it and then format it, but it was acting so badly I just pulled it and that was that! Not to mention the fact that I bought an OEM version of the drive AS WELL as being talked into using the NTFS file system, which In had never used...I just use FAT 32....slower, but stable enough for me!! I wish a THOUSAND TIMES OVER I had of gotten the RETAIL VERSION, because all that came with the drive WAS the drive itself! NO DRIVERS!!( The retail version comes with the hard drive a 3.5 driver disk and a serial ATA card, at least that was what their tech support told me!) So, the guy that put in my Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard MADE a homemade 3.5 driver disk from the files on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe CD that came with the motherboard! I finally just pullled it out and went with something I know and trust and has never failed me. A 40 gig WD 7,200 RPM drive! One that I DON'T have to load drivers into windows whenever I have to reformat! That just drove me CRAZY! (I DID NOT KNOW you had to loade the stupid drivers in to windows when you reformatted when I bought the thing!) I don't mind drivers for a sound card, video card, etc. But a HARD DRIVE? No Thanks! So....will the NEW Longhorn have native support for this drive and others like it? If it will I may wait and keep this raptor drive I have and use it with longhorn. If it does not, I would rather sell it and be done with it!

To be fair though, the drive was not the only thing causing the bluescreens! For one, I just had installed by a professional an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard and the RAM eventually turned out to be bad! BUT I had replaced the hard drive with my 7200, hoping it would stop the bluescreens, BEFORE I eventually replaced the RAM and finally stopped the bluescreens for good! (what happened was the BIOS on the A7N8X Deluxe WAS showing the two micron 512 2700 sticks as functioning properly, but that board is so picky about memory I had to take those two sticks back to the store I bought them from and replace them with two oither 512 sticks of 2700 SAMSUNG memory! I not only changed the sticks but the brands!) So It IS POSSIBLE that what was causing the bluescreens the whole time was the incompatible RAM I had on the motherboard, but that old saying applies "if it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!" So I am not about to put that 10,000 RPM raptor back in my system unless I have an operating system that supports it natively! I don't like putting on drivers for a hard drive anyway! I would just rather use what I have, even if it is a little slower and try to make do until Longhorn comes out or a patch to XP is added (SP2 mabye?) That adds native support for Serial ATA hard drives! My question is....willl SP2 or longhorn have this native support for Serial ATA????

Cirga · 11-13-2003, 02:57 PM

Well.. the path Microsoft has taken in win2k and XP has been to incorporate every driver possible at release in the driver databases in Windows.

I am "guessing" they will continue to do the same thing with every future OS.

In this case.. since this drive came out before Longhorn is released.. I am pretty sure it will have drivers for your HDD.

Cant you get the real drivers from the manufacturers website? I cant imagine Western Digital not having them around?

Kungfucious · 11-13-2003, 05:01 PM

just what i was going to say... im sure even with OEM stuff, you can just pop on over to the manufacturer websites and pick up latest drivers and even extra utilities to diagnose and repair your hardware.. As for partitioning to NTFS, i really dont think it would be the cause of your problems, more likely that windows was using generic drivers to run your hard drive and therefore having problems with it.

Its always best to update your drivers to the latest before you decide to pull the plug on any hardware, you never know, it may just work.

berks · 11-13-2003, 05:09 PM

Here is the link to the WD drivers page try this out if not e-mail them and ask them to send you the drivers.

webe3 · 11-14-2003, 01:04 PM

Thanks for all of the suggestions! Yes I have called WD about the drivers and they sent me to some other web site, but after I put the drivers on a 3.5 disk I could not get the stupid drivers to load when I reinstalled windows! So I guess I will just wait for the day windows has native support for all of this! It will be a LOT easier if all I have to worry about is the drive itself, not some driver issue!

11-13-2003, 10:11 AM	#1 (permalink)
webe3 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 106	a question about Longhorn or SP2 support for NATIVE Serial ATA DRIVERS! OK, I know that Microsoft is still two years away from making Longhorn or whatever it will be called, but mabye you can tell me any info you know, about what I am going to ask... OK? I am wanting to know if the new Longhorn operating system will include NATIVE DRIVERS for Serial ATA hard drives like the western digital raptor? The reason I ask, is because I just bought this drive a few months ago,(40 gig version) but had to pull it from my system, because I got tired of the way it was acting! I kept getting repeated blue screens and finally was not even able to REFORMAT it anymore! Yes, I could just use fdisk and repartition it and then format it, but it was acting so badly I just pulled it and that was that! Not to mention the fact that I bought an OEM version of the drive AS WELL as being talked into using the NTFS file system, which In had never used...I just use FAT 32....slower, but stable enough for me!! I wish a THOUSAND TIMES OVER I had of gotten the RETAIL VERSION, because all that came with the drive WAS the drive itself! NO DRIVERS!!( The retail version comes with the hard drive a 3.5 driver disk and a serial ATA card, at least that was what their tech support told me!) So, the guy that put in my Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard MADE a homemade 3.5 driver disk from the files on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe CD that came with the motherboard! I finally just pullled it out and went with something I know and trust and has never failed me. A 40 gig WD 7,200 RPM drive! One that I DON'T have to load drivers into windows whenever I have to reformat! That just drove me CRAZY! (I DID NOT KNOW you had to loade the stupid drivers in to windows when you reformatted when I bought the thing!) I don't mind drivers for a sound card, video card, etc. But a HARD DRIVE? No Thanks! So....will the NEW Longhorn have native support for this drive and others like it? If it will I may wait and keep this raptor drive I have and use it with longhorn. If it does not, I would rather sell it and be done with it! To be fair though, the drive was not the only thing causing the bluescreens! For one, I just had installed by a professional an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard and the RAM eventually turned out to be bad! BUT I had replaced the hard drive with my 7200, hoping it would stop the bluescreens, BEFORE I eventually replaced the RAM and finally stopped the bluescreens for good! (what happened was the BIOS on the A7N8X Deluxe WAS showing the two micron 512 2700 sticks as functioning properly, but that board is so picky about memory I had to take those two sticks back to the store I bought them from and replace them with two oither 512 sticks of 2700 SAMSUNG memory! I not only changed the sticks but the brands!) So It IS POSSIBLE that what was causing the bluescreens the whole time was the incompatible RAM I had on the motherboard, but that old saying applies "if it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!" So I am not about to put that 10,000 RPM raptor back in my system unless I have an operating system that supports it natively! I don't like putting on drivers for a hard drive anyway! I would just rather use what I have, even if it is a little slower and try to make do until Longhorn comes out or a patch to XP is added (SP2 mabye?) That adds native support for Serial ATA hard drives! My question is....willl SP2 or longhorn have this native support for Serial ATA???? __________________ System Specs: ATX generic case with Antec 550 watt power supply. ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard. Western Digital 7,200 RPM 40 gig IDE Hard Drive.(FAT 32- file system) AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor.(standard fan and heatsink-Thoroughbred Core-standard speed-NO OVERCLOCK) 1 gig of Samsung DDRAM(PC 2700- 333 mhz....2-512mb sticks running in dual channel mode).Ati Radeon 8x 9600 XT (8x is enabled on motherboard). Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card. Motorola sb 5100 cable modem (Insight Communications-Cable Connection) Sony DRU 500 AX DVD- RECORDER.(records -R/-RW or +R/+RW and CD-R formats-4x-24x-4x) LG 52x32x52 CD Burner. Zip 100 internal drive and a generic 3.5 floppy drive. Windows XP Professional Operating System. I also have a bearpaw scanner, HP Deskjet 3520 inkjet printer and a KDS X Flat 17 inch CRT monitor.

11-13-2003, 02:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
Cirga Lurking AdMiN Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: In my own little world. Buts its ok. They know me here. Posts: 3,245	Well.. the path Microsoft has taken in win2k and XP has been to incorporate every driver possible at release in the driver databases in Windows. I am "guessing" they will continue to do the same thing with every future OS. In this case.. since this drive came out before Longhorn is released.. I am pretty sure it will have drivers for your HDD. Cant you get the real drivers from the manufacturers website? I cant imagine Western Digital not having them around? __________________ Vote For Us! -- It will get you hot chicks. No really It will! ---- www.myTego.com - Give your devices a face! Dont be a conformist!

11-13-2003, 05:01 PM	#3 (permalink)
Kungfucious mediatechie.com Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 809	just what i was going to say... im sure even with OEM stuff, you can just pop on over to the manufacturer websites and pick up latest drivers and even extra utilities to diagnose and repair your hardware.. As for partitioning to NTFS, i really dont think it would be the cause of your problems, more likely that windows was using generic drivers to run your hard drive and therefore having problems with it. Its always best to update your drivers to the latest before you decide to pull the plug on any hardware, you never know, it may just work. __________________ http://mediatechie.com Leave me a message in my shoutbox! ... would appreciate the feedback! thanks people!

11-13-2003, 05:09 PM	#4 (permalink)
berks PCTT Administrator Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 3,735	Here is the link to the WD drivers page try this out if not e-mail them and ask them to send you the drivers. __________________ Vote For Us!!!

11-14-2003, 01:04 PM	#5 (permalink)
webe3 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 106	Thanks for all of the suggestions! Yes I have called WD about the drivers and they sent me to some other web site, but after I put the drivers on a 3.5 disk I could not get the stupid drivers to load when I reinstalled windows! So I guess I will just wait for the day windows has native support for all of this! It will be a LOT easier if all I have to worry about is the drive itself, not some driver issue! __________________ System Specs: ATX generic case with Antec 550 watt power supply. ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard. Western Digital 7,200 RPM 40 gig IDE Hard Drive.(FAT 32- file system) AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor.(standard fan and heatsink-Thoroughbred Core-standard speed-NO OVERCLOCK) 1 gig of Samsung DDRAM(PC 2700- 333 mhz....2-512mb sticks running in dual channel mode).Ati Radeon 8x 9600 XT (8x is enabled on motherboard). Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card. Motorola sb 5100 cable modem (Insight Communications-Cable Connection) Sony DRU 500 AX DVD- RECORDER.(records -R/-RW or +R/+RW and CD-R formats-4x-24x-4x) LG 52x32x52 CD Burner. Zip 100 internal drive and a generic 3.5 floppy drive. Windows XP Professional Operating System. I also have a bearpaw scanner, HP Deskjet 3520 inkjet printer and a KDS X Flat 17 inch CRT monitor.

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