Windows 7 BSOD with Sata Drives Attached - Works fine without!

[rygetz]

I recently upgraded my machine to Windows 7 Ultimate. I was running XP so I did a fresh install. I decided to upgrade my primary hard drive for this installed. My setup is below:

On a Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 motherboard.
2gb ram (4x 512mb)
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

IDE Primary Master: New Western Digital 500gb HD. - Confirmed this is set to first hard drive in the boot sequence.
IDE Primary Slave: DVDRW Drive
IDE Secondary Master: Seagate 500gb HD
IDE Secondary Slave: Maxtor 300gb HD

--- Now, At this point, I can boot into Windows 7 fine and everything works just as it should. No issues at all. However, when I plug either or both of my SATA drives in, Windows fails to load with a BSOD complaining of a hardware problem.

SATA 1 - WD 400gb SATA HD
SATA 2 - WD 1tb SATA HD

When EITHER or BOTH sata drives are plugged in... Windows 7 fails to load. I get a blue screen of death complaining of hardware issues. These drives have data on them from my previous install but I don't see why that would matter.

It seems as though using the SATA controller would be the cause, since either drive will crash it. I have the chipset drivers from my mother board installed. However, I am not 100% of their compatibility with Windows 7. Does anyone have any recommendations?? My BIOs sees the SATA drives fine and they are the last on the boot list of HDs.

After failing to boot into Windows 7 with the drives attached, I always power down and unplug them. The next time I boot with the sata drives unplugged, Windows needs to repair itself. It restores Windows from a restore point (I lose all data since that restore point) and after the repair, it boots fine.

Some things I'd be happy to try if you think they'd narrow down the cause/solution:

I have a brand new 1.5 TB SATA Drive I could try attaching.
I have a PCI host card with 6 SATA Slots I could install and move all the drives to that as opposed to the SATA slots on the mother board.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated as I am currently stumped.

I have also confirmed that the BIOS is set to IDE (not raid) for the sata controller. Additionally, if I throw in the old HD with windows xp on it, XP will boot flawlessly and see both sata drives when they are attached.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by rygetz

2gb ram (2x 512mb)

A little confusing here. 2 x 512 = 1GB RAM

[rygetz]

Originally Posted by Spider

A little confusing here. 2 x 512 = 1GB RAM

Sorry, typo. 4x 512mb = 2gb


Edit: Progress Made: using the PCI sata card, the hard drives are recognized and windows boots correctly. While everything is working now, I'd really prefer to use the sata controller provided by the mother board and not this pci card. I'm thinking it must be a driver issue with the motherboard's sata controller?

[Spider]

What is your BIOS version?

Gigabyte GA-K8U-939
That board is up to F5 version and the F4 carried a SATA fix. The F3 also carried a SATA problem fix.

It sounds like that board has some known issues with the controller like you suspected.

[killerb255]

Originally Posted by rygetz

These drives have data on them from my previous install but I don't see why that would matter.

Uh...that would matter a lot, I would say.

What's happening is that your computer is trying to boot from one of those SATA drives. Since the previous OS was most likely on a different SATA controller, it would blue-screen with "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE."

Go back in your BIOS and make sure the hard drive you want to boot from is first in the boot order.

Alternatively, you could boot from your Windows 7 disc and run Startup Repair. At that point, the BCD database will be modified to boot from the correct drive first.

[toastysquirrel]

Originally Posted by rygetz

Sorry, typo. 4x 512mb = 2gb


Edit: Progress Made: using the PCI sata card, the hard drives are recognized and windows boots correctly. While everything is working now, I'd really prefer to use the sata controller provided by the mother board and not this pci card. I'm thinking it must be a driver issue with the motherboard's sata controller?

I'm running into the same problem (attach SATA = BSOD) with the exact same motherboard, I just flashed the BIOS to F5 but that didn't do anything for the problem.

Rygetz, so you've been able to get W7 to see/access your SATA drives by using a PCI SATA card expansion? If that's the case that might be the route I go as well.

.... although I'd much rather get W7 to use the onboard slots instead.

[Saber]

with my BSOD windows 7 problem, it wont install or boot up for the first time if i have any other sata hdd's connected.

[rygetz]

The problem seems to be the motherboard. After speaking to gigabyte they stated it does not support windows 7 and they will not be releasing windows 7 drivers. I am able to solve the problem using a PCI Sata controller card. I have 3 sata drives plugged in and everything works work. I didn't want to but I'm just going to stick with this solution.

[toastysquirrel]

Originally Posted by rygetz

The problem seems to be the motherboard. After speaking to gigabyte they stated it does not support windows 7 and they will not be releasing windows 7 drivers. I am able to solve the problem using a PCI Sata controller card. I have 3 sata drives plugged in and everything works work. I didn't want to but I'm just going to stick with this solution.

Thanks for the update. I've been waiting to hear back from Gigabyte on the matter as well. Looks like I'll just pony up the $20 for a PCI expansion and call it good until I get a new MoBo.

[rygetz]

Originally Posted by toastysquirrel

Thanks for the update. I've been waiting to hear back from Gigabyte on the matter as well. Looks like I'll just pony up the $20 for a PCI expansion and call it good until I get a new MoBo.

I was very disappointed that Gigabyte will not be supporting the motherboard, I know it is an older model but I did not think it was so old that they would not support new drivers for it. Below is my communication with Gigabyte.

Additionally, Vantec UGT-ST310R PCI Host Card is the card I purchased. It was $29.36 from Amazon. I opted for the 6 port and went with a slightly more expensive card based on reviews/research. While a $20 card should work fine, I've had a great experience since moving to this card. Worked right away and haven't had an issue since. Sadly, this is the best solution I can offer. I really wanted to resolve the issue so I could continue using my on board sata controller but I decided its not worth the time or effort to keep working towards a solution that may never work properly. I'm sticking with this until I build a new pc. Hope it helps anyone else who experiences the same issue with this motherboard.

Answer : Unfortunately due to chipset support the older chipset cannot support the newer OS type
Question - 852721
From : Ryan [ email removed ]
Sent : 12/17/2009 23:27
Question : Are there plans to add support? I know the mother board is several years old but it should still be supported. I have always purchased Gigabyte mother boards for my PCs but it is unacceptable not to support your products for the future. I guess I'll upgrade the PC and switch to a manufacturer that stands behind the products they create.
Answer - 850826
Answer : unfortunately there are no full driver support available for this board for Windows 7. Please use WinXP with this model
Question - 850826
From : Ryan [ email removed ]
Sent : 12/14/2009 09:21
Question : I recently upgraded my machine to Windows 7 Ultimate. I was running XP so I did a fresh install. I decided to upgrade my primary hard drive for this installed. My setup is below:

On a Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 motherboard.
2gb ram (2x 512mb)
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

IDE Primary Master: New Western Digital 500gb HD. - Confirmed this is set to first hard drive in the boot sequence.
IDE Primary Slave: DVDRW Drive
IDE Secondary Master: Seagate 500gb HD
IDE Secondary Slave: Maxtor 300gb HD

--- Now, At this point, I can boot into Windows 7 fine and everything works just as it should. No issues at all. However, when I plug either or both of my SATA drives in, Windows fails to load with a BSOD complaining of a hardware problem.

SATA 1 - WD 400gb SATA HD
SATA 2 - WD 1tb SATA HD

When EITHER or BOTH sata drives are plugged in... Windows 7 fails to load. I get a blue screen of death complaining of hardware issues. These drives have data on them from my previous install but I don't see why that would matter.

It seems as though using the SATA controller would be the cause, since either drive will crash it. I have the chipset drivers from my mother board installed. However, I am not 100% of their compatibility with Windows 7. Does anyone have any recommendations?? My BIOs sees the SATA drives fine and they are the last on the boot list of HDs.

After failing to boot into Windows 7 with the drives attached, I always power down and unplug them. The next time I boot with the sata drives unplugged, Windows needs to repair itself. It restores Windows from a restore point (I lose all data since that restore point) and after the repair, it boots fine.

Some things I'd be happy to try if you think they'd narrow down the cause/solution:

I have a brand new 1.5 TB SATA Drive I could try attaching.
I have a PCI host card with 6 SATA Slots I could install and move all the drives to that as opposed to the SATA slots on the mother board.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated as I am currently stumped.

I have also confirmed that the BIOS is set to IDE (not raid) for the sata controller. Additionally, if I throw in the old HD with windows xp on it, XP will boot flawlessly and see both sata drives when they are attached.

I am concerned there is a driver issue. I do have one unknown device with no ability to find the driver for it. Do you offer drivers compatible with Windows 7?


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Model Name : GA-K8U-939
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[rygetz]

Originally Posted by killerb255

Uh...that would matter a lot, I would say.

What's happening is that your computer is trying to boot from one of those SATA drives. Since the previous OS was most likely on a different SATA controller, it would blue-screen with "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE."

Go back in your BIOS and make sure the hard drive you want to boot from is first in the boot order.

Alternatively, you could boot from your Windows 7 disc and run Startup Repair. At that point, the BCD database will be modified to boot from the correct drive first.

Also, for the record and to make this thread more detailed for those to end up searching through it... I should have specified. The drives attached had previous data but never contained an OS. I replaced the other drive that was ever used for an OS. This is why I didn't think it would matter. Perhaps its still does but no boot records or anything were ever on another drive.. they were simply there for storage of files. If you do have another drive plugged in that contained another OS please follow the quote's instructions first as it could save you a lot of time.

Also, thanks to everyone who participated in helping me work through the problem. Your help was greatly appreciated.

[QuestionMaster3]

I have the same board that you have. So, I was able to determine that the chipset that we are searching for is M1689 which is listed under integrated 220 on the nvidia web site here.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/uli_drivers.html

The installer that came with this driver did not work as the latest supported OS is Vista beta. But if you install the driver by having windows search in the directory that the installer dumps its contents to (Defaults to Documents folder) then the driver installed fine. I am not getting a BSOD thus far with an optical drive and HD plugged into SATA port 1 and 2 Respectively. Hope this helps someone.

[QuestionMaster3]

Also, if anyone has had problems downloading the driver from the NVIDIA web site due to a javascript error while trying to accept the user agreement you may use the link below to download the drivers.
http://download.nvidia.com/ULi/ULi_Integrated220.zip

[answerman]

I wanted to elaborate on the post by QuestionMaster3 since it was very helpful but didn't go quite far enough. I had a client bring me back a machine with the motherboard listed above that had been running XP and wanted to upgrade to windows 7. I had the BSOD screens with the sata drive that was in there so I started searching just as you have and ended up here. The driver link posted by Answerman got me what I needed but in order to access them I had to download 7zip so that i could extract them to a folder since the "package" wouldn't extract on its own since my OS wasn't supported by their installation. Also I only installed 32bit win 7 as I wasn't sure if that was part of my problem but I don't think those drivers would work on 64 bit anyway.

For BIOS update and other drivers for this board here is the link
http://www.gigabyte.tw/products/prod...1&RWD=0#driver

First I upgraded my BIOS from F3 to F5 then the way I worked around this whole BSOD issue was by using an old IDE drive I had laying around in some scrap computers in my garage. After I loaded win7 I replaced the drivers for the IDE controller with the "new" ones linked to by Answerman that finally gave me a ULi SATA/RAID Controller (M1689/M1567) entry under Storage controllers in my device manager. After a couple of restarts to make sure all the drivers were fully installed (the Realtek Audio drivers on Gigabytes website for XP installed in Win7 no problem, all the other hardware was recognized by Windows 7 without any extra drivers). I used Acronis to clone the working IDE drive to a new Sata Drive and Viola Windows 7 32bit working on this motherboard with a SATA hard drive. Hope this helps the next traveller on this road.