PCI IDE adapter and SATA conflict

umheint0

Distinguished
Feb 18, 2003
947
0
18,980
I'm having issues trying to use a PCI IDE adapter in conjunction with my onboard SATA controller.

I have four hard drives: two 160gb Seagate SATA drives and two 80gb Maxtor IDE drives. Because of space restrictions, I can only use the two IDE drives if they're attached to the IDE adapter.

What I wanted to do was have two RAID-0 arrays, with the OS on the SATA array and the IDE array as data backup. However, if an IDE drive is attached to the IDE adapter, the computer will not boot from any operating system. Not into XP, not into the XP bootable cd. It reacts as though there are no bootable devices attached. It works fine with my existing XP install on the SATA array, and the computer will boot with the IDE drives unplugged from the IDE card, but as soon as one is attached, nada. It just gets stuck at "Verifying DMI Pool data...", tries to boot from CD (even if the XP setup cd is in the drive it fails), and then boots from the nvidia boot agent.

It seems like a conflict, where with an IDE adapter my BIOS will not boot from any other devices. I've tried two separate IDE adapters, one with a SiL controller and RAID, and the other with a non-RAID Promise controller. I've contacted Asus but they want me to pay long distance for support, so I came here first. Any ideas or similar problems/resolutions?

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--
 

lunitic

Distinguished
Aug 6, 2003
214
0
18,680
1. Did you purchase a PCI IDE controller or a PCI RAID controller (the first one is not capable of RAID; the second one *depending on type* not of ATAPI devices or single drives).

2. Check the boot-order in the BIOS. SATA, RAID and PCI IDE controllers regularly appear as SCSI devices, however, my BIOS recognises the correct brand and type RAID controller, and changes the list of devices in the bootorder item according to the devices it has detected (ATAPI, HDD, ZIP, CDROM, etc). Now my BIOS has a nasty habit to sometimes change the bootorder to something I don't want when I'm fiddling with my devices.

3. Does it boot from your old drives connected to the mobo IDE controller?

4. I had more or less the same space problem as you have; I solved it by attaching the HDDs to the bottom of the case.
 

umheint0

Distinguished
Feb 18, 2003
947
0
18,980
I'll answer your questions, then give you my resolution.

1. If you check the end of my message, you'll see I tried one of each.

2. My BIOS will not recognize the specific devices. However, the computer will not boot from when selecting any device, be it HDD-0, SCSI, CD (even with a bootable CD in the drive), or none at all (boot from other device enabled).

3. No idea.

4. Well, I have a Thermaltake Xaser II A6000A Plus. It has space for six 3.5" devices, and four 5.25" devices. I have four HDDs, floppy and Zip, which takes up all the 3.5"s, and two CD drives taking up two of the four 5.25" bays. I have all my HDDs mounted at the bottom, so the SATA ones can reach the SATA controller, and the IDE ones can reach the IDE controller.


Now, my resolution.

Turns out that I actually did have to reinstall the OS, and atually because of a slight screw-up I had to do it twice.

What I did was get in touch with SiL and download drivers for both my SATA and IDE RAID controllers. I put them on a floppy. Then with both devices enabled and all boot options disabled save CD, I was able to boot into the XP setup. I hit F6 right at the start, to install 3rd party RAID controllers. When the time came, I hit "S" twice, and enabled both the RAID controllers.

I proceeded with the install then got to the point where you select the drive to install to. I first formatted the IDE array as a single partition, with an 8-meg boot sector, then I deleted my old XP partition on the SATA array and rebuilt it, again leaving an 8-meg boot sector. I proceeded to install XP on the SATA array.

It would appear the key factor was actually having the IDE array formatted, along with the boot sector on it. Now, I boot into Windows with both arrays enabled, and it just flies. It's awesome.

Thanks to all who helped me out and gave me ideas over the past few weeks.

umheint0's phat setup --> <A HREF="http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html" target="_new">http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umheint0/system.html</A><--