MSI KT4V board + VIA VT6421A -> non bootable?

Question

i'd like to upgrade my old pc - here's my setup:

motherboard: MSI KT4V (only supports IDE hds, no sata) i installed a via vt6421A sata raid controller + attached a sata hd to it. i'd like to install win xp pro on that hd.

the problem: my bios doesn't see the HD at all :/ - i already did a bios update but didnt help. under boot settings, i can only choose from the IDE hd's but no scsi or sata. when switching on the pc, i can't see anything from the controller's bios at all.

when running my "old" xp from the ide-hd, xp detects the raid controller and it would probably work using it if i installed the drivers. so the controller is working fine.

what i've tried so far: run xp setup, choose the sata-drivers - it works, the setup detects the HD and starts installing files to it. but after the first reboot, setup starts from the beginning again, as it's not detecting any hd.

any idea how to get it work? i'm afraid that it won't work at all, as the motherboard can't see the sata-controler/hd.

thx in advance

Answer 1

The motherboard BIOS will not detect the external card - it knows nothing about them. The RAID card has its own BIOS, I'm assuming with the card installed you see a new screen where it shows SATA drives connected. That's the card's BIOS.

You'll need to set the motherboard's BIOS to boot from SCSI. Yes your drives aren't SCSI, that setting is really a short cut to boot from external card. SCSI cards contain their own BIOS and handling booting themselves, just like your SATA card.