3rd SATA not seen

[dansleeth]

I have recently bought a 250GB SATA from you to go in a machine that already has 2 SATAs and 2 IDE disks. I have tried various ways to get the disk recognised but XP just doesn't seem to want to know... so I was wondering if you could tell me what I'm missing?

I have tried the drive using the SATA port on my mobo (Asus P4C800E delux) with no avail (not in My Computer, Disk Manager or during boot). So I tried using it on my PCI sata controller (both with the jumper and without) and nothing. I have powered it using the SATA cables from my PSU and a molex>SATA adapter.

I have also tried the disk in another PC via the PCI controller (as the mobo in that does not support SATA) but again, no luck. I've also tried it with a couple of different cables.

What might I be doing wrong...?? Could the disk be faulty? Should I be using the legacy molex instead (I've not used that yet as I don't think I need to)

[PeteA]

Do you mean the disk management in Administrative Tools - > Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management

If so does it come up with any disk that's not recognised or initialised?

Check that the disk is spinning as well. Could be a bad drive

[dansleeth]

Hello, thanks for answering.

No there is not an unrecognised drive in disk management, just my 4 current drives and the DVD-ROM. The drive is vibrating when the machine goes on, so I would assume it is working, but there is no real way to test that is there?

Thanks

[PeteA]

Yeah sounds like its spinning. Best way to know if its spinning is pluging it it (not in a drive bay) and holding it flat. Try turning it to one side and if you can feel its wanting to flat again then the disk is spinning. centrifugal force :)

Any jumpers on the drive?

Also try looking in the bios to see if its appearing there (when connected to the onboard sata)

[dansleeth]

Thanks again for replying.

I have tried it with and without the jumper setting it to 150. It is definately spinning, it doesn't show up in BIOS or anywhere else. All of the cables work, but it just doesn't show up. In bios there is an option (I knew I should have written it down) that asks me to choose between RAID and IDE. It has been set to RAID, what does the IDE option change? Also, I can choose natie disks as PATA, SATA or PATA & SATA, I dont think these options matter much as my other SATAs are fine, but i changed it from SATA to both... no luck though.

Hmm any other things I could try?

[system7]

I don't suppose there's much wrong with that drive... :wink:

That's a very complicated Intel 875 chipset motherboard. And 5 drives is just asking for it! :lol:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=30&model=175&modelmenu=1

You have 2 SATA 150 connections and two IDEs through the ICH5R SouthBridge. Another two and an IDE through the Promise RAID controller, which may need a driver added with F6 at Windows Install. The bios is consequently deeply confusing, and is probably best set to defaults, but I don't know if you are actually running RAID drives here.

See if the drive is recognised in the bios if you run it on it's own at 150 with bios defaults on different SATA sockets. Now, having skimmed the manual, I'm going to look for the Paracetomol... :roll:

[dansleeth]

Thanks for the reply.

I used a CD that came with the card for the drivers, but the CD was pretty dodgy... it had several folders with drivers for different hardware, but no instructions on what one to use. I tried each folder and all of them gave me an error that the driver contained no information about my hardware! So I am assuming that the card is not installed correctly

However, I have just become more baffled by something I just done... Yesterday I booted up and went to open one of the current SATA drives in My Computer and it told me that I needed to Initialize it. I thought this might be due to me playing with the drivers and accidently messing the data up - no biggy, I had the data backed up on an external drive. BUT, I just took that drive out, which was connected to my Mobo SATA port and replaced it with the new SATA (leaving the old one out of the machine completely). The new SATA that I am having trouble with has just shown up and has all the data the drive I needed to initialize had!

I am guessing that the PCI controller is mirroring the drives on the mobo's SATA ports. Would this be why the drive does not show up in BIOS?? Because it is in effect a clone of another and not technically an accessible drive? Am I talking out of my bum?

So my new questions are:
1. Why did the drive not show up before when I plugged it into the mobo and now it does?
2. Do drives show up in BIOS if they are connected via a controller in RAID?
3. How can I disable RAID on the controller card
4. Is there a way to see if the card is working ok? (I assume it is as it seems to have copied data from another drive to the attach one) what will it show up as in device manager?

Thanks LOADS for all this, I am baffled.

[system7]

Let's run through it again... :D

You have an Intel ICH5R controller on the South bridge, with it's own 2 ATA100 EIDE connectors and 2 SATA 150 connections capable of RAID0 operation or individual operation, which is what most of us simple souls run.

Below it is the Promise RAID0/1 controller with an independant ATA133 RAID EIDE connection and another two independant SATA sockets.

Think of them as separate systems. The Intel South Bridge is doubtless integrated into the system drivers, the PROMISE chip may need separate install, through pointing problem yellow Bang devices in "Device Manager" at the Asus CD for a driver.

What you've now done is plugged the new hard drive into a different socket. You'd be better looking in "Disk Management", available with a right click on "My Computer" and going manage to see what is going on.

To get all this working, you really need to read the manual.
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P4C800-E%20Deluxe
Without knowing the history of your computer, I don't know how it has been set up, or whether RAID operation has been set up on various drives, so Bios details depend on circumstances. Someone with more experience of RAID can then probably help you more than me here.

[dansleeth]

Sorry that has thrown me off a little. Can I try and clarify with what I thought was the case... Tell me if any of these are wrong please!

The southbridge controls the 4 SATA ports on the mobo
The 4 SATA ports can only be used to run two different drives and then a clone of each one

To get my new third SATA drive working, I needed the PCI card with another SATA port
The PCI card needs seperate drivers to the mobo SATA ports

Because device manager does not show any conflicts or problems, the drivers installed from the CD should be working ok

I have never plugged anything into the second pair of SATA ports on the motherboard because they will just make clones of the first two. However, with the new drive being connected to the PCI card, it seems to have cloned one of the SATA drives connected on the mobo, yet has never shown up in device manager, disk manager or BIOS. This is why I am baffled as to how it could have made a clone when I didn't even think it was connected!

Sorry for my stupidity in this matter, I really appreciate your help!

[system7]

I'm confused too. :D

Are you telling me you've bought and installed a separate PCI to SATA controller card?

That takes us up to 3 SATA controller chips and 5 hard drives now... :shock:

The top two SATA outputs on the motherboard are controlled by the Intel SouthBridge, being ICH5R it is chipset limited to two. The bottom two are quite separate, and controlled by the Promise chip on the motherboard. I can't see the need for an add-on card here, and dread to think what interrupt (IRQ) conflicts it could produce. RAID should only be enabled in the bios if you are actually using it, but I'm not experienced with RAID, so am not the best person to help you with that aspect.

[dansleeth]

Well I have just plugged in the new 5th drive into one of the unused ports on the mobo and now one of my existing drives has gone bye byes... From reading the manual, I am almost certain that I can only use the third and fourth port for mirroring rather than as a third and fourth SATA drive... That is why I bought the PCI controller (which is what the dodgy CD I was talking about came with).

[system7]

I think a bios upgrade may help.
Version 1021 dated 25/3/2005 upwards seems to address this SATA detection issue:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P4C800-E%20Deluxe

Bit of a long shot... :D

[dansleeth]

Cheers I'll give the bios upgrade a go...

on a driver note, the Promise is using a Fasttrak 378 RAID driver (from the Asus mobo disc) and from a google it seems there is an IDE version for the fasttrak 378. Would that solve my problem do you think?

[dansleeth]

... and if so, would that be listed as a Promise Fasttrak ATA driver?

I am confused with the terminology... I always associated IDE with the ribbon cable type drives and thought they had nothing to do with the SATAs, but it seems SATAs run in either RAID or IDE mode?? :oops: :shock: :? :cry:

Yes, all those face sumarise my current mental state regarding this matter

[dansleeth]

AMAZING

I now have my drive working!!! YAY!!! Thank you all so so much for your help and patience - massive happiness now that this works! Sorry for my technical numbness, I know it can be akward and so much easier to just ignore these sort of posts, but I really appreciate you coming back for more :D

:::FOR ANYONE HAVING ISSUES:::
Installing a third SATA on the Asus P4C800-E Delux motherboard, you need to download the Promise Fasttrak 378 IDE (ATA) driver, not the Fasttrak 378 RAID version. This is something I just randomly realised after playing with the settings and going on the advice given by the guys above (thanks again). The driver is available on the Asus website, under support / downloads and selecting the motherboard.

Happiness

[system7]

Well, who'd have guessed it would be that!

Good work. :D