VIA VT6421 RAID controller and Toshiba MK8052GSX

[xanthor]

Hi,

I recently upgraded the hard drive in my PS3. Since my desktop is about 8 years old and didn't support SATA drives, I installed a VIA VT6421 RAID controller in my desktop computer thinking I could use the original PS3 hard drive in my computer. My computer appears to have recognized the card with no problems, but I am having problems with the hard drive. It is a Toshiba MK8052GSX and should have a 80GB capacity. When I installed the drive it did not show up on the computer. I was able to find the drive and format it using SwissKnife, but the drive will only format to a 10GB drive. I purchased a power adapter that was labelled "Serial ATA cable with LP4 adapter" that I plugged into the molex power connector, the VIA card and the SATA hard drive. Have I done something obviously wrong? Any ideas on what might fix the problem?

 

[fzabkar]

Can you see the drive's actual capacity with either of the following utilities?

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows / Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

Does it show up with 70GB of unallocated space in Disk Management ???

 

[xanthor]

I hadn't even bothered trying Disk Management with the previous problems I'd had with it. To my surprise, the disk did show up with 70GB of unallocated space. However, when I tried formatting it, it comes up with an error "The format did not complete successfully". I tried running the two utilities you suggested. I didn't get very much information out of HDDScan, but HD Sentinel came up with this message

"Problems occurred between the communication of the disk and the host 1746 times. In case of a sudden crash or reboot it is recommended to try a different, short data cable (avoid round cables, use 80 wire standard cables instead).
The hard disk is operating in PIO mode which reduces performance. It is recommended to check and replace data cable or modify the configuration.

No actions needed."

I suppose that means there could be a problem with the cable or the adapter card. I'll try replacing the cable first. Any chance I'm using the wrong cable? I have a three way cable with a molex LP4 connector, and two SATA connectors (one small, ~7 pin, one large ~7 pin attached to a ~15 pin side by side). It looks right to me based on the way everything fits, but I've never used a SATA drive before.

 

[fzabkar]

I doubt very much that the SMART UDMA CRC Error Count has any bearing on your inability to format your drive.

FWIW, your SATA controller appears to be configured in BIOS for legacy or IDE compatibility mode. This is the reason that HD Sentinel is erroneously recommending an 80-pin IDE cable.

As for PIO mode, Windows XP will downgrade a drive's performance from DMA mode to PIO mode if it detects more than 6 CRC errors.

DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx

DMA reverts to PIO:
http://winhlp.com/node/10

I suggest you run your HDD manufacturer's diagnostic (eg SeaTools, Data LifeGuard) against your drive.

 

[xanthor]

I have to admit, there was a time when I felt really comfortable with hardware issues, but I'm totally lost, so I'm sorry if I'm way off base, but here goes...

I don't know if it matters or should be this way, but the SATA controller is showing up in device manager under "SCSI and RAID controllers". I'm not sure if I'm reading the articles you referred to right or not, but it looks to me like these are solutions to ATA controller problems. Is that right?

 

[fzabkar]

The articles assume that the affected drive is a PATA model. I believe that SATA drives could be similarly affected if the controller is configured for legacy IDE mode.

Could we see HD Sentinel's report?

Have you tried accessing your RAID card's BIOS during the POST? There may be some configuration options that you could experiment with.

 

[xanthor]

I don't know if I can access the card's BIOS with my computer (or if it's accessible at all). I don't see anything in the BIOS menu that makes me think I can get into the controller card. My motherboard is a Biostar M7NCD fwiw.

Here's the report from HD Sentinel:


-- Physical Disk Information - Disk: #2: TOSHIBA MK8052GSX --

Hard Disk Summary
-------------------
Hard Disk Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : S-ATA
Disk Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA VT6421 RAID Controller (RAID)
Disk Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Bus Number 0, Target ID 0, LUN 0
Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : TOSHIBA MK8052GSX
Firmware Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : LV010A
Hard Disk Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . : 8855PDZ5T
Total Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 76316 MB
Power State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Active
Current Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 29 °C
Power On Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 101 days, 13 hours
Estimated Remaining Lifetime . . . . . . . . . . : more than 1000 days
Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : #################### 100 % (Excellent)
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : #################### 100 % (Excellent)

Problems occurred between the communication of the disk and the host 2624 times.
No actions needed.

ATA Information
-----------------
Hard Disk Cylinders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 17684
Hard Disk Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16
Hard Disk Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 63
ATA Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ATA8-ACS.16656
Total Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 17825795
Bytes Per Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 512
Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 8192 KB
Multiple Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16
Error Correction Bytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0
Unformatted Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 8704 MB
Maximum PIO Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 3
Maximum Multiword DMA Mode . . . . . . . . . . . : 2
Maximum UDMA Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 150 MB/s (3)
Active UDMA Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 150 MB/s (7)
Minimum Multiword DMA Transfer Time . . . . . . : 24931 ns
Recommended Multiword DMA Transfer Time . . . . : 63664 ns
Minimum PIO Transfer Time Without IORDY . . . . : 2384 ns
Minimum PIO Transfer Time With IORDY . . . . . . : 0 ns
ATA Control Byte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Invalid
ATA Checksum Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Invalid

Acoustic Management Configuration
-----------------------------------
Acoustic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Acoustic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Disabled
Current Acoustic Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ? (41h)
Recommended Acoustic Level . . . . . . . . . . . : Balanced performance and volume (F2h)

ATA Features
--------------
Read Ahead Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
DMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Ultra DMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
S.M.A.R.T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Write Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Host Protected Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Advanced Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Extended Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Power Up In Standby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
48-Bit LBA Addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Device Configuration Overlay . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
IORDY Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Read/Write DMA Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
NOP Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Trusted Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
64-Bit World Wide ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0F5AC6B200110F10
Streaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Media Card Pass Through . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
General Purpose Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Error Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
CFA Feature Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
CFast Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Long Physical Sectors (2) . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Long Logical Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Write-Read-Verify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
NV Cache Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Enabled (v8)
NV Cache Power Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported, Enabled
NV Cache Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 432359 KB
Free-fall Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Free-fall Control Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Nominal Media Rotation Rate . . . . . . . . . . : 64578 RPM

SSD Features
--------------
Data Set Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
TRIM Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Deterministic Read After TRIM . . . . . . . . . : Not supported

S.M.A.R.T. Details
--------------------
Off-line Data Collection Status . . . . . . . . : Never Started
Self Test Execution Status . . . . . . . . . . . : Successfully Completed
Total Time To Complete Off-line Data Collection : 120 seconds
Execute Off-line Immediate . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Abort/restart Off-line By Host . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Off-line Read Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Short Self-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Extended Self-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Conveyance Self-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Selective Self-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Save Data Before/After Power Saving Mode . . . . : Supported
Enable/Disable Attribute Autosave . . . . . . . : Supported
Error Logging Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Short Self-test Estimated Time . . . . . . . . . : 2 minutes
Extended Self-test Estimated Time . . . . . . . : 33 minutes
Last Short Self-test Result . . . . . . . . . . : Successfully Completed
Last Short Self-test Date . . . . . . . . . . . : 10/09/11 4:04:29 PM
Last Short Self-test Duration . . . . . . . . . : 2 minutes
Last Extended Self-test Result . . . . . . . . . : Never Started
Last Extended Self-test Date . . . . . . . . . . : Never Started

Security Mode
---------------
Security Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Security Erase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported
Security Erase Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 16640 minutes
Security Enhanced Erase Feature . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Security Enhanced Erase Time . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Security Enabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : No
Security Locked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : No
Security Frozen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : No
Security Counter Expired . . . . . . . . . . . . : No
Security Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : High

Serial ATA Features
---------------------
S-ATA Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : No
S-ATA I Signaling Speed (1.5 Gps) . . . . . . . : Not supported
S-ATA II Signaling Speed (3 Gps) . . . . . . . . : Not supported
S-ATA Gen3 Signaling Speed (6 Gps) . . . . . . . : Not supported
Receipt Of Power Management Requests From Host . : Not supported
PHY Event Counters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Non-Zero Buffer Offsets In DMA Setup FIS . . . . : Supported, Disabled
DMA Setup Auto-Activate Optimization . . . . . . : Supported, Enabled
Device Initiating Interface Power Management . . : Supported, Enabled
In-Order Data Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Asynchronous Notification . . . . . . . . . . . : Supported, Enabled
Software Settings Preservation . . . . . . . . . : Supported, Enabled
Native Command Queuing (NCQ) . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported
Queue Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Not supported

Disk Information
------------------
Disk Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : MK-8052GSX
Form Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.5"
Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 80 GB (80 x 1,000,000,000 bytes)
Number Of Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1
Number Of Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1
Rotational Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 5400 RPM
Rotation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 11.11 ms
Average Rotational Latency . . . . . . . . . . . : 5.56 ms
Disk Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Serial-ATA/300
Buffer-Host Max. Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 300 MB/seconds
Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 8192 KB
Drive Ready Time (Typical) . . . . . . . . . . . : ? seconds
Average Seek Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 12.0 ms
Track To Track Seek Time . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.0 ms
Full Stroke Seek Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 22.0 ms
Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 70.0 mm (2.8 inch)
Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 100.0 mm (3.9 inch)
Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 9.5 mm (0.4 inch)
Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 98 grams (0.2 pounds)
Required Power For Spinup . . . . . . . . . . . : 940 mA
Power Required (Seek) . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2.7 W
Power Required (Idle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1.0 W
Power Required (Standby) . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.3 W
Manufacturer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Toshiba Corp., Storage Device Division
Manufacturer Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : http://www.toshiba.com/taecdpd/products/hdd.shtml

S.M.A.R.T.
------------
No. Attribute Thre.. Value Worst Data Status Flags
1 Raw Read Error Rate 50 100 100 000000000000 OK Error-Rate, Statistical, Critical
2 Throughput Performance 50 100 100 000000000000 OK Performance, Critical
3 Spin Up Time 1 100 100 000000000405 OK Self Preserving, Performance, Statistical, Critical
4 Start/Stop Count 0 100 100 000000000616 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
5 Reallocated Sectors Co.. 50 100 100 000000000000 OK Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical, Critical
7 Seek Error Rate 50 100 100 000000000000 OK Error-Rate, Statistical, Critical
8 Seek Time Performance 50 100 100 000000000000 OK Performance, Critical
9 Power On Time Count 0 94 94 000000000985 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
10 Spin Retry Count 30 131 100 000000000000 OK Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical, Critical
12 Drive Power Cycle Count 0 100 100 0000000005F9 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
192 Power off Retract Cycl.. 0 100 100 00000000000D OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
193 Load/Unload Cycle Count 0 95 95 00000000CF63 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
194 Disk Temperature 0 100 100 00300012001D OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Statistical
196 Reallocation Event Count 0 100 100 000000000000 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
197 Current Pending Sector.. 0 100 100 000000000000 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
198 Off-Line Uncorrectable.. 0 100 100 000000000000 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count
199 Ultra ATA CRC Error Co.. 0 200 253 000000000A40 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
220 Disk Shift 0 100 100 000000000043 OK (Always passing) Statistical
222 Loaded Hours 0 99 99 0000000001EB OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
223 Load/Unload Retry Count 0 100 100 000000000000 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical
224 Load Friction 0 100 100 000000000000 OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Statistical
226 Load-in Time 0 100 100 00000000014E OK (Always passing) Self Preserving, Performance, Statistical
240 Head Flying Hours 1 100 100 000000000000 OK Critical

Transfer Rate Information
---------------------------
Total Data Read . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 MB, 21,585 MB since installation (8/27/11)
Total Data Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 MB, 1 MB since installation
Average Reads Per Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 501.98 MB
Average Writes Per Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.02 MB
Current Transfer Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 KB/s
Maximum Transfer Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 KB/s
Current Read Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 KB/s
Current Write Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 KB/s
Current Disk Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0 %