RAID and ASUS A7V8X

[samim]

I have the following setup in my newly installed PC:

 

ASUS AV78X KT400 motherboard with on board SATA.

Two WD 80 SE hard disks (jumpers are set to Cable select) an connected to the RAID ATA/133 connector.

256 MB PC2700 memory, 3.5 FDD & DVD drive.

 

I have two problems with my RAID hard disk set up which I hope you can help me with.

 

1. When I start the PC and pass the POST test Fastbuild Utility 2.00 (Promise Teck.) BIOS starts for setting up the RAID hard disk. This utility sees only one hard disk and not the two.

I changed the hard disks jumpers to Mater and salve. The utility does not see any.

I changed it to both master, it sees only one (same as in cable select).

I changed the cable, nothing changed.

 

I thought there is a problem with the hard disks. I connected them to the primary IDE. The BIOS recognised them both (cable select) as master and slave with 80 GB. So I think there is nothing wrong with the hard disks.

 

So please can you help and solve this problem.

 

2. My second problem is that I have only start up disk for windows 98 (from my old system) and when I connected the hard disk to the primary IDE as I explained before, the startup disk doesn’t see these hard disks. May be it’s very old so can you tell me how I can get good start -up disk that can see my hard disks.

 

Finally I know this is a Norwegian Forum. I can read very good by my writing is not that good and may be you will not understand the problem as it is. It’s my love and respect to HW.No and to this Forum which brought me here so please help.

[cjordan61]

Make sure the drives are connected on two separate cables , both setup as masters.Then try again.

[samim]

Hei..

Thank you for4 your reply.

 

There is only one RAID connector on the motherboard. How I connect the second one. Is it to the Primery IDE?

About setting the hard disk both to master. Is it done by setting Jumpers to cable select or to Single Master.

 

Please help.

[cjordan61]

I see , that makes it more tricky. Most motherboards with raid controllers have two connectors. But I see this only have one. Then you have to use the master / slave setup. Make sure the blue connector goes into the motherboard. Master on the connector at the end of cable ( black plug) and slave onto the grey plug , then try again.

[Ac-Cobra]

Hello there Sammi.

 

Sorry mate.

You can only connect one disk to pri_raid connector.

This must be set to master.

To connect the other disk you must use the SATA connector, and to make this work you must have a parallel -> seriall converter. It is on the marked, but dont know where.

 

So here is the possibilities (øhh) of the Raid controller:

 

1. Two SATA disk ( can someone get them?)

2. One SATA and one IDE

3. One SATA and one SATA on the IDE connector (with a coverter)

4. One IDE and one IDE on the SATA connector (with a coverter)

It seems like you can put your Raid plans in the basement.

 

Hilsen @c-Cobr@

[samim]

Thank you all for your help and comments. I really appricaite them.

 

May be I selected the wrong motherboard or I should have waited for the new SATA ready hard disks.

I searched the web there is a Highpoint hard disk converoter which transfer the hd to SATA but i can't find it here in norway and I dont know if there is a simple cable convertor from SATA to parallel ATA.

If some one knows where i can find those please let me know.

 

I have another question if I install another RAID controller, can this co-exist with the onboard controller and what modle or type you can suggest and whjere I can find them.

 

Thanks again for your great help.

[John Abrahamsen]

By the way, du kan prate norsk her :smile:

[Lord Hassan]

leser du litt lenger opp, ser du at han skrev at han var flink til å lese/skjønne norsk, men ikke skrive. Så folk kunne gjerne svare på norsk. Tror han er klar over det :wink:

[Ac-Cobra]

Hello again Samim.

Sorry for wrong spelling of your name in my post.

 

Can't anwser yor last question, but here's a link to the one of the converters on the marked.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/02q3/...rialata-05.html

I know Abit is producing one to, but I havent seen them in eny price list on the web.

 

Du er ikke den eneste som har hat problemer med dette. Det kommer jo ikke tydelig frem i Web-shoppene at 2 IDE disker ikke er mulig ennå.

 

Håper det løser seg for deg, og by the way:

Post your progress on the "prosject" :smile:

 

Hilsen @c-Cobr@

[cjordan61]

Maybe you could go and by a separate raid controller.

This is plugged into your pci port. The cheapest one's don't cost to much either.

[samim]

Hello to all of you that help in understanding the problem.

There are some updates for some one who may have this problem.

1. There is an adapter to make IDE hardisk accept SATA. I made contact with wave.com in Trondheim and they offers one for 390 NOK ex.MVA.

 

2. For me I think I will go for another RAID controller and here I need some advice.

I checked with hw.no prise guid and I found the following:

Sunsway Ultra-ATA133 2 kanalers RAID which was the cheapest (331 NOK).

a. Is this good enough.

b. Will it have conflict with the existing on board RAID controller.

c. Can I in the future use the on-board RAID controller to add for example 2 HD with avialble SATA.

 

Please give me you advice.

 

I thank you all for your great help and offer (Tusen takk)