Have you updated the BIOS before ? Even my asus m2n-pv-vm which features the same chipset works flawlessly with a 250gb sata hdd . Think you are doing something wrong. And you are going to get that 160gb IDE hdd in lieu of 500gb sata ??. Gone crazy or what ?. Be patient mate. We are here to help you. First post a snap of your bios . Show the page where you get options related to sata.... Do you have any option called ENABLE SATA NATIVE MODE in your bios ??