New Secondary SATA Not Detected

[Acert93]

I recently layed out an new HDD upgrade and (finally) backed up all my data and formatted my primary drive. Everything went smoothly

But I have hit a hitch: My new HDD (Seagate 320GB SATA) isn't being detected by Windows XP.

After installing the drive and booting I forget that I probably needed to set it up in my Promise RAID Controller as my Motherboard, Asus P4PE, uses it for SATA drives. Since the drive wasn't detected in XP I did a reboot and entered the Promise controller setup.

I already have the primary drive (SATA 74GB WD Raptor) setup as Array 1 (Stripe 0). The Promise controller *does* see my Seagate, so I set it up as Array 2 (also Stripe 0).

But Windows XP still doesn't recognize the drive. I already have the RAID drivers installed (necessary when installing to allow Windows to see my primary drive which is also SATA).

Any suggestions?


Windows XP
Asus P4PE Bios 1.07 (integrated Promise Raid controller for SATA devices)
WD 74GB Raptor, SATA
Seagate 320GB Barricude, SATA

 

[jitpublisher]

You don't need to install the RAID drivers, or even go into the RAID setup to use your SATA drives if you are not running them in RAID. Stripe 0 and such is strictly for setting up RAID arrays. Make sure your SATA drives are setup correctly in your BIOS, which it sounds like that maybe they are not, then once you boot to windows, you will have to go to disk management under adminstrative tools(in your control panel) to format and initialize the new drive.

 

[Acert93]

You don't need to install the RAID drivers, or even go into the RAID setup to use your SATA drives if you are not running them in RAID. Stripe 0 and such is strictly for setting up RAID arrays. Make sure your SATA drives are setup correctly in your BIOS, which it sounds like that maybe they are not, then once you boot to windows, you will have to go to disk management under adminstrative tools(in your control panel) to format and initialize the new drive.

Thanks for the tip. I went to disk management, which was seeing the drive (but unprepared) and I was able to create a volume there and then format it.

As for the RAID/SATA issue, the P4PE is one of the early MBs to offer SATA support. It does this exclusively through the Promise controller. The only contact you have with the drive in the MB Bios is selecting your boot order and selection SCSI which defaults to the Promise RAID controller settings.

There is absolutely no way to access the SATA drives on the P4PE without using the Promise RAID controller as the MB chipset has no direct support for SATA drives. I went through this issue when I first setup my drives (one SATA, one PATA) a couple years ago. While the stripe setup doesn't matter, the drive must be assigned to an array with the RAID controller & you need to install the RAID drivers when installing Windows to access the drive (or you won't ever see the drive!) Frustratingly the manual doesn't clearly outline this and I had a bit of digging to do, as well as support emails / advice here, to get to the bottom of the issue.

Anyhow, thanks for your help. Problem solved.

 

[jitpublisher]

Didn't know about that, glad you got it working though.