Windows 7 How to enable SATA 3.0gb/s ?

Nilsb7

Extraordinary Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
116
hello folks
its me again, this time i'd like to hear how and why did you enable SATA 3.0gb/s mode and did you notice any performance boost?

I have a (as shown in my device manager) "Maxtor 6V250F0 ATA Device"
I connected it via the SATA connectors and it worked without a problem. But now I found out that I have go a pretty awesome SATA II HD in there, I want to fully use it.
 


Solution
With most motherboards as long as you have all the drivers installed (chipset, onboard devices, etc) and your motherboard supports SATA II than the 3GB/s will automatically "kick in" so to speak.. The chipset drivers are most often what controls things like that.. ;) There is no "flip of a switch" or button to push that "enables" 3GB/s.. like I said in most cases it's the motherboard drivers that take care of that kind of stuff, so just make sure you have all of those installed and that your motherboard supports SATA II and you should be good to go.. :)

It's just like the old IDE HDD days.. you could install an IDE HDD that ran @ 133 but if your mobo only supported IDE devices up to 100 than it would automatically clock the drive...
With most motherboards as long as you have all the drivers installed (chipset, onboard devices, etc) and your motherboard supports SATA II than the 3GB/s will automatically "kick in" so to speak.. The chipset drivers are most often what controls things like that.. ;) There is no "flip of a switch" or button to push that "enables" 3GB/s.. like I said in most cases it's the motherboard drivers that take care of that kind of stuff, so just make sure you have all of those installed and that your motherboard supports SATA II and you should be good to go.. :)

It's just like the old IDE HDD days.. you could install an IDE HDD that ran @ 133 but if your mobo only supported IDE devices up to 100 than it would automatically clock the drive down to the maximum supported speed.. ;) Same with RAM in most cases.. (Not all cases though with RAM, it's a bit more picky that way sometimes..)

As for why someone would want 3GB/s.. well why not!? ;) It's twice as fast as SATA I... As for noticing a difference, well that all depends on what your doing.. if your doing something like heavy video editing than yes you probably would notice a difference.. but for just everyday use (web surfing, emails, chat, burning music cd's, etc) than no you won't notice a difference at all.. Plus I don't think we're to the point where the full speed of SATA II is fully utilized yet anyway... so even IF a difference is noticed, it would only be a marginal one at best.... (unless of course your using a Velociraptor HDD, but than your getting into much faster RPM's and more cache to work with so their kind of an exception..)
 


Solution
Mobo: Asrock 939N68PV-GLAN: "4x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID, NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions"
So that'll work

HD: Maxtor 6V250F0: "SATA II" & "SATA 300 - 3.0Gb/s"
Should work right?

In my bios there is the option:
SATA Operation Mode
+ non-RAID
+ RAID
+ AHCI

Its now set to "non-RAID" but when changing it to AHCI (thus enabling SATA) , windows doesnt start and theres no HD acces.

Soooo the only cause I can think of is that I dont have a SATA driver installed, but how to install those?

sorry for the double post but I cant type longer texts than in my previous post because I'm using my PSP to type this =/

I found the drivers on asrock.com but rightclicking and selecting install doesn't work. I know I should put the drivers on a floppy but I don't have a floppy device (diskette thing whatever) installed. I think my dad does have some old ones but is there no way installing the drivers without a floppy? (or CD, I don't have that installed either hehe)
 


Last edited:
Mobo: Asrock 939N68PV-GLAN: "4x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID, NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions"
So that'll work

HD: Maxtor 6V250F0: "SATA II" & "SATA 300 - 3.0Gb/s"
Should work right?

In my bios there is the option:
SATA Operation Mode
+ non-RAID
+ RAID
+ AHCI

Its now set to "non-RAID" but when changing it to AHCI (thus enabling SATA) , windows doesnt start and theres no HD acces.

Soooo the only cause I can think of is that I dont have a SATA driver installed, but how to install those?

sorry for the double post but I cant type longer texts than in my previous post because I'm using my PSP to type this =/

I found the drivers on asrock.com but rightclicking and selecting install doesn't work. I know I should put the drivers on a floppy but I don't have a floppy device (diskette thing whatever) installed. I think my dad does have some old ones but is there no way installing the drivers without a floppy? (or CD, I don't have that installed either hehe)

These are some of the things you need to consider to get your SATA II Hard disk ( Maxtor) to be seen by the BIOS and later by the OS.

  1. Setting up the SATA controller on the BIOS ...> you have done it already :-)
  2. Reading the Hard disk's setup manual to see if you need any Jumper changes to make it it SATA II [unlikely in your case with the SATA II Maxtor, but to be certain read the manual before inserting and fixing the hard disk drive inside the drive cage and connecting its cables.]
  3. You may copy the Driver file to a USB flash drive as Windows 7 unlike WinXP can get the driver during install from a Flash drive and won't need a FDD.
  4. If Windows 7 Setup cannot access the Drive , during the Drive detection stage, click on Load Drivers button I guess on the bottom left of the setup window, and then point Windows Setup to the USB Flash drive's drive letter.
Hope this is what you are looking for .
Good luck
 


Last edited:
Is there any way to tell if my HD is in the 3.0gbps? It just dosent seem like it
Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm
 


Is there any way to tell if my HD is in the 3.0gbps? It just dosent seem like it
Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm
All currently available TByte drives are SATA and WD Black and WD Green 1TB drives are both 3.0 GB/S have a higher cache of 32 MB vs 16MB for WD Blue 1TB SATA HDD
In fact all WD SATA drives above 160GB size are SATA II or 3.0GB/S

For details of all WD SATA drives check Link Removed due to 404 Error
 


All the SATA II HD's I've installed have a jumper on the back of them, the default is with the jumper on for 1.5 speed, remove the jumper for 3.0 speed.
 


All the SATA II HD's I've installed have a jumper on the back of them, the default is with the jumper on for 1.5 speed, remove the jumper for 3.0 speed.
...and doing the other 4 things cmn listed

I have tried copying the drivers onto my psp and then going to the recovery console and pressing some F button to install SATA drivers, but it didnt find a FDD and I could not choose other directories where the drivers should be.
cmn, what setup menu do you mean?

thanks again cmn!
 


...and doing the other 4 things cmn listed

I have tried copying the drivers onto my psp and then going to the recovery console and pressing some F button to install SATA drivers, but it didnt find a FDD and I could not choose other directories where the drivers should be.
cmn, what setup menu do you mean?

thanks again cmn!

I was giving the steps I use in my new Custom Installation of Win 7 Beta on a SATA II drive and NOT Repair of Win 7 that is already installed on PATA drive because of some failure to access SATA II drive during original installation.

  1. Make Win 7 Bootable ISO on DVD with the downloaded ISO File using Burning Software of your Choice.[EX: ImgBurn - a Freeware which on Install creates a Right click Context menu to RT-click on the downloaded ISO > Burn ]
  2. Select the DVD Drive in which you insert the Win 7 DVD the Boot Device before Hard disk drive using Boot Sequence or Boot Order in BIOS setup that is accessed during Reboot by pressing the designated key [ Ex: Del or F2 or whatever for your system] and save the settings and Exit [F10 >Yes]
  3. Watch the screen carefully for the very transient message "Press any Key to boot from the CD"
  4. Press any of the keys on the Keyboard to boot from the DVD drive when the screen displays " Boot any key ....."
  5. Select your Language for Win 7 Install and Click to proceed.
  6. Copying Files.....
  7. In the "Pease read the license Terms" screen, Click to leave a checkmark in the Check box [ ] I accept the license terms >Next
  8. In the Install Windows under Which type of Installation you want > Custom (Advanced)
  9. In the next screen Where Do you want to Install Windows? look at bottom left and find Load Driver button to click
  10. In the next popup " To install the device driver needed to access your hard drive, insert the installation media containing the driver files, and then click OK. Note: The Installation Media can be floppy disk, CD or USB flash drive
  11. Click Browse: path to the Flash Drive containing the downloaded and saved file [I'd given this step in my earlier post above]
  12. Proceed with Partition and/or format if needed [by Clicking New button and choosing appropriately]
Hope this is clearer:-)
 


well damnit =/
so theres no way to install the SATA drivers after installing Windows 7? =[
well that is dissapointing

thanks anyway cmn
 


well damnit =/
so theres no way to install the SATA drivers after installing Windows 7? =[
well that is dissapointing

thanks anyway cmn
I am sorry I could not help you fix your specific problem :(
what does your Device Manager [ Right -click Computer>Properties> Device Manager] list when you click the > [Rightward arrowhead ]of Disk drives to expand and display. This is to see if you can update the driver of your SATA II HDD (which could be listed in DM as a SCSI device instead of SATA drive) through DM.
Do you want to try the above step?.
 


I'd love to but my parents kinda want my to study...
I'll try it as soon as possible and I'll tell you what happened
 


I'd love to but my parents kinda want my to study...
I'll try it as soon as possible and I'll tell you what happened
That is quite OK.:-) I hope you will find the solution for the problem when you do. Good luck
 


Tried updating the HD driver. No driver updates available. =[

To clear any confusion between your posts and our answers so far, let us begin by a few questions the answers to which might be helpful to understand the problem and solve the issue.

  1. Your system has ASRock 939N68PV-GLAN Motherboard , AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor, 2GB HyperX RAM, NIvidia GeForce 9500 GT PCIEx Video card and you have already got Windows 7 Beta 64-Bit on it, Right?
  2. If you have problem using the DiamondMax 10 6V250F0 Serial ATA hard disk you have installed, in what type ( PATA vs SATA) of HDD you have the Windows 7 on?
  3. When you eneter BIOS setup, what are the devices you see listed in the IDE Channels and SATA channels there?
 


1. That is correct!
2. I don't have a problem with it and I installed on the maxtor SATA HDD. (What's PATA?)
3. I have no IDE device connected. No floppy drive, no CD/DVD drive and no IDE HDD.

Hope this helps ^^
 


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