SATA ports are standard on a new motherboard.
Install an SATA driver on an MSI K8N motherboard to enable the four SATA ports and built in RAID controller. MSI makes it easy to locate and install the drivers for their motherboards by using their new Live Update utility or by downloading the driver and installing it in the more traditional manner. SATA makes drive installation and configuration easy and allows higher speed than older PATA drives, and SATA drives come in higher capacities as well.
Instructions
Live Update Utility
1. Download and install the MSI Live Update Utility (see Resources).
2. Launch the utility and allow it to perform a scan of the existing hardware.
3. Install the updated drivers and then restart the computer to begin using the SATA features.
Manual Download
4. Search the MSI website for the particular model of motherboard (see Resources).
5. Locate the drivers for the SATA controller that match the installed operating system.
6. Download the driver file to a folder on the hard drive.
7. Right-click on the downloaded file and click "Extract All Files" and then click "Next" to extract the files.
8. Double-click on "Setup" to launch the installation program for the SATA controller. Use the default settings and click "Next" to continue with the installation. Restart the computer when the installation is complete.
Windows Update
9. Click "Start" and "All Programs" and then click "Windows Update" to launch the operating system update utility.
10. Install any prerequisite software required to allow Windows Update to run. Click "Yes" on any prompts to trust the content and install the required controls.
11. Click "Check for Updates" to begin the search for updated drivers, software updates and operating system security patches.
12. Click on the "Hardware" updates and click on the check box for any MSI hardware listed. Click "OK" to return to the installation prompt.
13. Click "Install" to download and install the updated drivers.
Tags: Live Update, operating system, updated drivers, Windows Update, click Next, Live Update Utility, SATA controller