# Drive 1 not found: Serial ATA, SATA-2



## Woodenhead

The title of my thread says some of it: when I turn on my computer I get the following message- "Drive 1 not found: Serial ATA, SATA-2" I hit F1 and continue, and everything seems OK otherwise. I also have a few other things that are questionable...

~For whatever reason, a day ago when I restarted, me CD-ROM drive (E wasn't recognized - I couldn't even open it. I checked Device Manager, and there was a yellow exclamation beside "SCSI and RAID controllers". I tried updating drivers, etc but nothing worked. Restarted, and the "Found New Hardware" wizards pops up for SCSI RAID. It wouldn't install, and gave me an error. (can't remember it) Did a spyware sweep, found around 80 objects which were mostly cookies and all very minor, restarted, and now E: works, and the yellow exclamation point is gone. ????

~When I was in device manager, I also noticed the same yellow mark beside 3 items: Parport, Prtmgr, and Serial. Prtmgr has since disappeared, but the other two (with yellow flags) are still there.

Any ideas what's going on? I still have to hit F1 every time I turn this thing on...


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## OldGrayGary

Hi Woodenhead

Seems like your Bios settings are out-of-whack, and/or the SATA-controller drivers for your computer aren't installed & configured correctly. RAID on a Windows computer is best handled by the hardware controller & setup in the Bios before Windows is installed. So, one of my questions is = do you have a RAID array setup on your system?

Did you build this system yourself, or is it a recent purchase from a major brand-name?

And ... do you have backups of your data?
. . . Gary


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## Woodenhead

Hey, Gary, thanx for the response 

I'm on a Dell Dimension 5100. Got it 1 year ago. 160GB, 2GB RAM, pentium 4, windows XP Home.
Other than the glitch at startup, everything seems more or less normal now. RAID array? I'm afraid I don't really know what that means, exactly. Everest Home Edition says:
Device Properties>Driver Description>SCSI/RAID Host Controller Device Resources>IRQ- 09, Port- FFE0-FFEF
...whatever that means. Everything seems to be functioning properly otherwise, besides the odd request from Windows asking me how to connect to the net, when using other programs such as MusicMatch. ---> choose a connection, the only option is MSN which I don't use, and I just have to cancel it out- but I think that's another issue.. or not.

Is that enuf info for you?


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again

If your system is still under warranty ---
Give Dell support a call & tell them that you are having to press F1 every time that the computer powers on. You need to get the settings in the Bios exactly right, and from the messages that you are seeing, I don't believe that they are OK. They will likely walk you through the process of verifying each setting - or perhaps simply have you reset them all to their Defaults.

It's possible that they will want you to restore a few device drivers, too.
_________________

If you are out-of-warranty ---
A quick-fix try might be:
1) Restart your computer, and when the blue Dell logo is displayed, watch for the prompt to "Press F2 to Enter Setup" & press F2 immediately upon seeing that prompt. This will let you enter the Bios Setup for your system.
2) From the list on the left-hand side of the opening Bios screen (under "Maintenance Options") choose the selection "Load Defaults". If asked, choose to "Save Changes and Exit".
3) Boot into Safe Mode, by tapping the F8 key while your computer is powering on, & Logon as Administrator.
4) Use System Restore to go back to a restore point from before your CD-drive trouble & all the subsequent errors. If your system requires a special driver for your SATA controller (assuming your drive is a SATA drive), the System Restore has a good chance to restore the right driver for that as well. 

I'd guess that these scenarios below are likely candidates for why you've suddenly had this sort of trouble:
--- Did you by any chance have a blackout, power surge, or electrical storm in your area about the same time this trouble started? Such events can cause the settings in your motherboard's Bios to change. 
--- Did you have any virus infections that you had to clean up recently (not just the recent tracking cookies or adware)? These, too, can disrupt a Bios (it can get infected, too) and of course Windows system files.

[an unlikely, but possible, scenario would be that the CMOS battery is weak - but this isn't normally seen in the first year - these batteries are normally good for five or six years. Once and a great while one is defective (easy way to check = the system data & time won't stay put)]

Here's the link for the manual for your system --- 
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5100/en/om/T8144bk2.pdf
--- If for any reason you need to manually change the setting for your hard drive in the Bios, Dell has a fairly good guide to the Bios settings for your system in the 2nd Appendix section in the manual, titled "System Setup". The settings for the Hard drive(s) to check on are right there in the "Drives" section, which you can select from the list in the left-hand side of the screen.

If your system isn't an XPS Dimension, I wouldn't think you'd have a RAID setup. You likely have a single Maxtor 160gb drive. [A RAID array is a way to use several drives linked together to either mirror one another (a "mirror" RAID) or to behave as one drive (a "striped" RAID) - these can be setup and managed by a hardware RAID controller - generally right there on the motherboard for a home system. RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks].

Once setup OK, you shouldn't see the F1 prompt any longer, nor have any flagged devices in Device Manager.

Best of luck
. . . Gary


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## Woodenhead

Thanks so much for the info. I'm up to my neck in work the next day or two, but when I get to this stuff I'll post the results.


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## Woodenhead

Beauty! Everything's OK. The BIOS settings were messed up a bit. I had set them to default, but apparently those are the wrong settings. I imagine it was because of a power outage a while back. Thank-you for your time and input.


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## tjsalis

OldGrayGary said:


> Hi again
> 
> If your system is still under warranty ---
> Give Dell support a call & tell them that you are having to press F1 every time that the computer powers on. You need to get the settings in the Bios exactly right, and from the messages that you are seeing, I don't believe that they are OK. They will likely walk you through the process of verifying each setting - or perhaps simply have you reset them all to their Defaults.
> 
> It's possible that they will want you to restore a few device drivers, too.
> _________________
> 
> If you are out-of-warranty ---
> A quick-fix try might be:
> 1) Restart your computer, and when the blue Dell logo is displayed, watch for the prompt to "Press F2 to Enter Setup" & press F2 immediately upon seeing that prompt. This will let you enter the Bios Setup for your system.
> 2) From the list on the left-hand side of the opening Bios screen (under "Maintenance Options") choose the selection "Load Defaults". If asked, choose to "Save Changes and Exit".
> 3) Boot into Safe Mode, by tapping the F8 key while your computer is powering on, & Logon as Administrator.
> 4) Use System Restore to go back to a restore point from before your CD-drive trouble & all the subsequent errors. If your system requires a special driver for your SATA controller (assuming your drive is a SATA drive), the System Restore has a good chance to restore the right driver for that as well.
> 
> I'd guess that these scenarios below are likely candidates for why you've suddenly had this sort of trouble:
> --- Did you by any chance have a blackout, power surge, or electrical storm in your area about the same time this trouble started? Such events can cause the settings in your motherboard's Bios to change.
> --- Did you have any virus infections that you had to clean up recently (not just the recent tracking cookies or adware)? These, too, can disrupt a Bios (it can get infected, too) and of course Windows system files.
> 
> [an unlikely, but possible, scenario would be that the CMOS battery is weak - but this isn't normally seen in the first year - these batteries are normally good for five or six years. Once and a great while one is defective (easy way to check = the system data & time won't stay put)]
> 
> Here's the link for the manual for your system ---
> http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5100/en/om/T8144bk2.pdf
> --- If for any reason you need to manually change the setting for your hard drive in the Bios, Dell has a fairly good guide to the Bios settings for your system in the 2nd Appendix section in the manual, titled "System Setup". The settings for the Hard drive(s) to check on are right there in the "Drives" section, which you can select from the list in the left-hand side of the screen.
> 
> If your system isn't an XPS Dimension, I wouldn't think you'd have a RAID setup. You likely have a single Maxtor 160gb drive. [A RAID array is a way to use several drives linked together to either mirror one another (a "mirror" RAID) or to behave as one drive (a "striped" RAID) - these can be setup and managed by a hardware RAID controller - generally right there on the motherboard for a home system. RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks].
> 
> Once setup OK, you shouldn't see the F1 prompt any longer, nor have any flagged devices in Device Manager.
> 
> Best of luck
> . . . Gary


Hey, thanks! This quick-fix above worked for me to keep me from having to hit F1 to continue. I've been trying to figure out all this RAID stuff, but I really don't see the benefits for myself as of right now. Maybe you can give me some advice. 

On my machine I have the 250GB SATA hard drive that came with my computer (Dell XPS 700) and then later, for media storage purposes mainly, I put in a 500GB SATA hard drive. However, now I am DUAL booting Windows XP and Windows 7. I have the Windows XP on the 250GB hard drive and the Windows 7 on a partitioned space on the 500GB hard drive. 

That being said, if I set up a RAID array what would that mean for my existing configuration. I understand also that I either have to purchase an identical hard drive or else I am only going to be able to see 250GB of my 500GB hard drive if I set up any sort of RAID array, is that correct? 

The reason I have to keep Windows XP is because I'm an audio engineer and Windows 7 wont run the Pro Tools software/hardware I use just yet, so I see the benefits of large file transfers between drives (as they will be working as one drive essentially?) with some array set ups, but I don't see any other benefits for myself at this point. I just want to make sure I'm even sort of understanding what RAID array is. And also that I am not risking losing data (any more so than usual, that is) if I don't set one up.

I hope I am not making you repeat yourself about anything. 

Thanks again for taking the time to post everything you have. It's always nice to see those who know helping others who don't, and so willingly!


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## raptor_pa

There is little to no benefit to a raid for home use. Video editing can have some benefits, and some games perform a slight bit better. Audio probably has some gains if the raid is configured properly, but most on board controllers don't offer any real advantage. They still use the procesor to manage the raid, which takes clock ticks away from the rest of the system - higher end controllers have their own MCU to handle all the raid work.


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## EMC

Thanks, OGG. That worked for me, too.


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## dockboy549

My Dell Desk top from 2006/ Win XP had the same problem when removed 2 drives I no longer wanted. (Was running 3 drives on board). Bios has a listing in the called "Drives". Expanding on that heading I was able to in effect "turn off" the three drives. Save the changes and no more annoying problem.


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