# How to set up two non-RAID SATA drives?



## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Can a newbie to building a PC get a little help? Here is what I have so far:

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe
CPU: Intel P4 3.0E
Memory: 1GB Kingston DDR PC-3200
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480
Video: Powercolor ATI Radeon 9250 AGP
CD/DVD: Plextor IDE PX-716A
HDD: Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM SATA

Everything is working fine with the above. The single hard drive is connected to the ICH5R SATA-1 Controller.

I now want to add a second SATA hard drive, but not in a RAID configuration.

I've found lots of instructions here of how to do this in a RAID set-up, but not as a SATA non-RAID set up -- i.e., I just want two 'independent' SATA drives.

(a) Can I do this? Can I put this second drive on the ICH5R SATE-2 controller in a non-RAID setup?
(b) Are there instructions somewhere on how to go about this?


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## Millsy (Feb 4, 2005)

Generally, if you've got it working with just one already, you should be able to plug the other one in, do nothing, and it will work.


You might have to go into the bios and change the SATA controller from "raid" to "IDE" or something along the like, but that should be it.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

I did plug the second HD in to the SATA-1 controller, but when I booted up, it didn't recognize the second OR the first drive. I didn't change anything in the BIOS because I wasn't sure what to do.


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## Mirage_Man (Nov 27, 2004)

On my P4C800-E deluxe all I had to do was plug in the new drive to the SATA-2 port. Since it was a new drive I had to go into "Disk Management" in Windows and format the drive before it could be seen.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Mirage Man: If this is the way it's supposed to work, then I guess I have a problem. I plug the second HD into the ICHR5 SATA-2 connector, power up, and I never get to Windows. When I look at the BIOS, neither the SATA-1 or SATA-2 drives are there.

If I remove the second drive, power on, then everything goes well -- I get to Windoes.


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## messedup (Feb 13, 2005)

PD,

I have almost the same problem - only with an A8V-E mobo. Socket 939 with 2 WD 160 SATA's

2 SATA drives and only one recognized (bios set to IDE). Never had to load raid drivers on set up it just recognized one.

Loaded all drivers from mobo disk and pc freezes on boot up - fatal exception 

so I try to reload xp and now NO drives recognized. Get device error.

If anyone can help out .. that would be good. Two birds with one stone so to speak. Maybe anyways


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

I've fiddled around with this quite a bit, with no luck. I checked the BIOS, and both SATA's are set for IDE. Plugged and unplugged the new HD, no success. Tried a different power cable, no luck. FWIW, I'm trying to install a Maxtor Diamond 10 SATA 250 GB as the second SATA drive. No matter what I do, when that drive is on board, I can't get past the boot screen, and can't even get into my BIOS Setup. If I remove it, when I reboot I have to reset the BIOS settings; for some reason they get messed up -- Promise is enabled, the boot order is changed, and I get an overclocking failed message.

I think I'm over my head on this one -- hope one of you experts can help out here!


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## feddup (Oct 16, 2004)

*boot order*

On my P4c800-e deluxe when a new hard drive was introduced it, for some reason rearranged the boot order in the bios. For some reason it wanted to boot from the empty drive. In the bios check boot priority making the one with the OS first. This might be totally wrong but it's worth a look.


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## messedup (Feb 13, 2005)

PD,

Figured my issue out. cable issue. 

Yes you can do non raid set up with 2 sata's. That's what I am probably going to do. And I can actually do that now that me drives are existant.

I forgot the link - it was an asus pdf file - 15 pages long - on the very last page all it says is: 

Drives connected to the VIA® RAID connectors do not have to be set up in a RAID array in order for them to work. By simply not assigning them to an array, they can be used like any other drive connected to the board’s main IDE connectors. 

what that means is you just need to set the SATA mode to IDE (not Raid) first. Do you have an option for SMART detection? I turned mine off.

Oh yeah make sure you didn't change the jumper configurations on any of the drives. There is no master/slave config required in SATA set up

add on: 

Here I took another look and this is the link to that information for you:

http://www.asus.com/support/english/techref/raid/VT6420.pdf


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Here's where I've gotten to with this problem. When I hook up the second hard drive and boot up, I hit DEL on the first screen to get to BIOS setup. It goes to the next screen where it says "Entering BIOS", and then it freezes. I turn he PC off, disconnect the second HD, and re-boot. Now I can get into the BIOS setup, where things have changed. In particular, the boot order changes to 1: Floppy; 2: First HD; 3: CD/DVD. I change the order back to 1: CD/DVD; 2: First HD; 3: Floppy. Save the settings and continue. Windows then comes up like it's supposed to.

So, it seems like the second HD is changing the Boot order -- but I can't get to BIOS Setup to fix it!

Any suggestions about how to proceed?


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

Non-RAID SATA on 2 HDD's is totally supported on the ICH5R ports, and without the use of any special drivers. We just need to figure out why yours doesn't work.



> I turn he PC off, disconnect the second HD, and re-boot. Now I can get into the BIOS setup, where things have changed. In particular, the boot order changes to 1: Floppy; 2: First HD; 3: CD/DVD. I change the order back to 1: CD/DVD; 2: First HD; 3: Floppy. Save the settings and continue. Windows then comes up like it's supposed to.


Yes, as you observed, your BIOS order may indeed change whenever you connect or disconnect hard disk drives.

The BIOS will change the order to the base scan sequence: Pri IDE Master,slave, Sec IDE master,slave, SATA1, SATA2, SATA RAID1, SATA RAID2, PRI_RAID. So for best results you always want your O/S drive to come up as the first HDD encountered in this order. 

Are you sure you are attaching the new drive to the SATA2 port? Note that SATA2 is the uppermost port, not the second one!... SATA1 is the second one down. Thus if you want to be able to attach a second HDD without having the new one be shifted by BIOS to become first in the boot order, you should make sure your old SATA HDD is plugged to the second port down, and the new one goes on the top port.

You are using ICH5R, for non-RAID operation your BIOS Main- IDE Configuration screen must be set as follows,

*Onboard IDE Operate Mode= Enhanced
Enhanced Mode Support On= S-ATA
Configure S-ATA as RAID= No
IDE Detect Time Out= 35*

First attach the second SATA HDD again. Then set your Boot- Hard Disk Drives menu like this:

1st Drive=3M (old SATA HDD)
2nd Drive= disabled[/b]

then afterward set your Boot- Boot Device Priority menu like this:

*1st Device= CDROM
2nd Device= Floppy
3rd Device=3M (old SATA HDD)*

hit F10 to save, confirm, exit, and reboot.
Now hit DEL again, go back into the BIOS and verify the Boot Device Priority is still set as above (sometimes when you add a new HDD, it changes; it's a bug). If not, fix it and save again.




> When I hook up the second hard drive and boot up, I hit DEL on the first screen to get to BIOS setup. It goes to the next screen where it says "Entering BIOS", and then it freezes.


If it still hangs the POST, some other IDE settings may be messed up. You should next try going into BIOS and choose Exit- Load Setup Defaults. Confirm. Restore the same settings as above plus any other custom settings you made. F10 to save. Check the settings again.

If it _still_ hangs in POST, did you previously use one of those "hard drive installation programs" on it? If so it may have an "Extended BIOS" installed on it which is confusing your mobo BIOS. Or did you use this SATA drive to put on an O/S in another system? If so it may have incompatible boot information on it. Either way you need to find a way to zero-fill the entire drive to wipe out the old stuff.

If neither of those cases is true, then I think your new SATA HDD is probably bad; get it exchanged. Because this should totally work.

Hope this helps,

-clintfan


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Clintfan,

Thank you so much for taking the time to post such a thorough and detailed response to my problem. I followed your suggestions, and here is the summary:

1. Yes, the new drive is attaced to the SATA2 port; I double-checked this.
2. Th BIOS Main-IDE Config was set as you said:

Onboard IDE Operate Mode= Enhanced
Enhanced Mode Support On= S-ATA
Configure S-ATA as RAID= No
IDE Detect Time Out= 35

3. Unfortunately, here is where the problem starts:

"First attach the second SATA HDD again. Then set your Boot- Hard Disk Drives menu like this:

1st Drive=3M (old SATA HDD)
2nd Drive= disabled[/b]"

I couldn't do this exactly like you said, because when I attach the second SATA HDD and try to boot, it freezes up, and I can't get into the Bios setup.
[Note: this newbie here assumes "Boot-Hard Disk Drives menu" = "Boot Device Priority"]

So, before I attached the second SATA HDD, I set the Boot Device Priority like you said above, verified the changes, then powered off the PC, attached the second SATA HDD, then tried to reboot. Same thing, it freezes at the first screen and won't let me get to the Bios Setup.

4. I did the Exit-Load Setup Defaults ...., and it still hangs.

5. The second SATA HDD is a brand-new Maxtor, right out of the box, never did one of those 'hard drive installation programs' on it, never formatted it, much less ever put an O/S on it. ... a brand new virgin hard drive!

So, before we reach your conclusion that the new HDD is bad, what would you think if I disconnected the SATA1 HDD, and tried this new disk in that port? Or swapping the two drives? Or should I just go ahead and exchange this new Maxtor?

Thanks again!

Pete


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

> So, before we reach your conclusion that the new HDD is bad, what would you think if I disconnected the SATA1 HDD, and tried this new disk in that port? Or swapping the two drives? Or should I just go ahead and exchange this new Maxtor?


Any drive should work in either port. So just to verify the SATA2 port isn't broken, go ahead and try swapping your working drive to SATA2 and see if it works without the other HDD plugged.

What should happen is your O/S should come up, discover "new hardware" which is the SATA2 port, install some software and ask to reboot... go ahead and do that just so stuff doesn't get fouled up. But the point is, if that works, your SATA2 port is good.

Plugging the other HDD on SATA1 should then yield the same freezeup as before.

My only other thought then concerns jumpers. SATA drives son't need them. With the Maxtor's they come with a large jumper "cap" that covers the jumper area, and this _should_ be in place... but not individual jumpers.

If your drive has the cap, then I think this confirms the drive is DOA; go ahead and exchange it, I'll bet a second drive will work fine.

-clintfan


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## messedup (Feb 13, 2005)

PD,

Well the Guru seems very well versed so it's good you are getting decent help. I can't say that I know stuff in that much depth.

I have never been a big fan of Asus as 2 out of the 4 boards I have worked with in the past have been a nightmare. One of those was the p4p800 deluxe. The raid function on that thing just wouldn't work. I spent forever on that thing. I ended up exchanging the board and playing it safe with an intel cause I didn't have time to f**t around. Obviously, I didnt learn my lesson and went and got another asus. I have never had the same difficulty with other branded boards.

Anyways
1. did you make sure you updated your bios to the most recent one?
2. Which IDE slot is your plextor plugged into? (make sure you are using the primary slot and not the secondary if you are not planning on having any IDE drives on board).


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

messedup,

1. The BIOS is the most recent one.
2. The Plextor is plugged into the primary IDE slot.

I hope I don't have the same experience as you -- this is my first PC build, and I sure don't need to have a bad board!


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## messedup (Feb 13, 2005)

PD

How did you make out?

If the jumpers are not an issue (and they shouldn't be) and the bios is new (then again that does not mean much if its buggy) and your cables are all good, then: 

My thoughts are:
1. Try a new SATA cable (you mentioned you only changed your power cable)
2. Make sure you physically test that there is power. (do you have a meter?)
3. May have a problem with the board/bios
4. Or, May have hard drive issue as CF suggested (test it on another machine if you can or have the place you bought it from confirm it is ok)

better yet get the place you bought it from the check the board too i.e. try another drive etc.

test for the easiest stuff first before you get all technical.

I cannot foresee anything else. But, I must say I am not formally trained on anything. Trial and terror for the most part.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

I'm still working on this problem. As I stated in my first post, I have a working Western Digital 200 HDD on SATA-1 of the ICH5R Controller. I've moved it to SATA-2, and it works there as well. The second drive, the one I'm having problems with, is a Maxtor 250 SATA Ultra 16, does not work on either port -- it freezes the BIOS entry (I can't get into the Bios Setup). So, it is clearly not a bad-port problem. I have contacted Maxtor, and they have agreed to replace it. However, they suggested I contact Asus to see if there is any known compatibility problem between this HDD and my P4P800-E Deluxe board. Asus hasn't responded yet, and I can find no mention of this problem in their Knowledge Base. I wonder if anyone else on this forum is aware of such an issue. There is a thread on this forum that kind of gets at this, but that thread ends up suggesting a Bios flash with a beta bios (with mixed results). I'm reluctant to try that! Here is the reference to that thread: http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=25430&highlight=asus+maxtor+incompatibility

BTW, I've made Maxtor aware of that reference.


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## messedup (Feb 13, 2005)

PD,

I think you are going down the right path. Hopefully Asus will also post a BIOS update to corerct the issues in the other thread you provided. 

Good luck.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

PROBLEM SOLVED!

To summarize the problem. I've been trying to install a Maxtor 250GB SATA HDD on my P4P800-SE motherboard on the ICH5R controller, SATA-2 (I have a WD 160 SATA HDD working well on the SATA-1 port). When I try installing the Maxtor on either SATA-1 or SATA-2, the PC freezes up on booting; I can't get into the BIOS Set-Up. I tried all the various settings suggested in this thread, to no avail.

This morning, I tried installing the Maxtor on the Promise Controller. Bingo! The drive is recognized with no problems, and, after loading the appropriate drivers, WinXP SP1a has no problem recognizing it, partitioning it, or formatting it.

My conclusion: the ICH5R controller does not support this Maxtor drive, but the Promise does.

I was wondering if it has to do something with NCQ support. The Maxtor comes with NCQ support, but I don't think the Western Digital has it. Since my understanding is that the ICH5R doesn't support NCQ (but the Promise does), this may be the problem.

For anyone who has a similar problem, here are my drive ID's:

Western Digital 160GB SATA HDD: WD1600JD
Maxtor 250 GB SATA HDD: Maxtor B250S0 (I actually bought the retail kit, B60PBY8H).

Thanks to all of you wonderful folks on this forum who tried to help. Although no one actually came up with the "solution", all of your suggestions were extremely helpful in directing me to track down this problem.


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## jsmith814 (Feb 19, 2005)

*similar SATA problems with P5AD Premium*

Just built new system with board and I can't get past the "American Megatrends" screen where the system autodetects. It detects my old IDE HDD and my CD-Rom but hangs while detecting "third master". I've been on the phone with ASUS tech reps (even got help from a level 2?) but no help so far. They emailed me a new bios version and I flashed it but not much has changed. Their last suggestion was to "breadboard"? the mobo and make sure I don't have any standoffs shorting the mobo. Haven't tried that yet.

System:
mobo- P5AD2 Preium
proc- P4 3.4
memory- 2 sticks of 512MB PC2-4200
vga- Nvidia 6800GT
ps- Antec NeoPower 480
old hdd- WD 20GB ide
new hdd- WD 74GB Raptor and WD 200GB SATA

ANY help greatly aprreciated!


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

First, a correction to my last post: My mobo is an Asus P4P800E-Deluxe, not the SE as I stated (too many model numbers in my head these days).

jsmith: I don't know if your problem is the same as mine (but I'm a "newbie" too). Your mobo has a different controller on it (ICH6R -- mine is ICH5R), and I don't know if it supports the NCQ (Native command queing or not). And I don't know the specs on your drives. You might check all this out, however, to see if it applies. The other controller on my board (Promise) supports NCQ, so I think that is why I got my problem fixed.

Good luck on your build -- I know I've been frustrated at times, but I have learned a heck of a lot in the process!


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## jsmith814 (Feb 19, 2005)

*Thanks PDonahoe*

You're right, my P5AD Premium has the Input/Output Controller Hub 6R (ICH6R) and a quick check on Intel's site for the data sheet reveals that it does feature hardware-assisted Native Command Queing as part of the hardware supported Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI). I don't know what "hardware assisted" means but it does appear to support NCQ.

The data sheet also shows the onboard SATA controller contains two modes of operation: a legacy mode using I/O space and the above mentioned AHCI mode that uses memory space. I would think that the AHCI is not the problem but I wish I knew how to switch between the modes to check.

I could find no information on Western Digital's site about NCQ or AHCI but did find a similar question to mine in its knowledge base and it says Windows XP will not recognize a SATA without drivers loaded at the F6 prompt. I thought I read that SP1 fixed that error. I'd be happy to do this if my computer ever booted past the 'auto-detect' portion of bootup and recognized the drive there.

I wonder if purchasing a third party SATA controller (yours is Promise?) would help.

Thanks again for answering and I'm glad you're up and running with your SATAs.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

You will have to do the F6 procedure and load the SATA drivers for WinXP -- SP1 or even SP2 for that matter does not take care of that for you. Of course, you haven't got that far yet!

Are you sure you have your BIOS settings correct -- make sure the boot order is correct and you have your SATA's set to IDE mode (not RAID) -- unless you really do want a RAID set-up.

Also, there should be no jumper settings to make on SATA drives.


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## AXA6059 (Mar 8, 2005)

*2 Sata No Raid*

Hi All
Read the last load of posts and wondered if you could sort a small problem i have.
I have 2 160Gb Maxtor SATA drives installed all run fine and are where they should be.
Problem......
When i boot it detects the drives and keeps asking me if i want to install a raid array.
Is there a way to stop this .
I have a MSI KT6 mobo latest BIOS updates installed.
Its not a major worry i know just niggling.
Hope you can offer a solution
Cheers Danny :wave:


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

I haven't the same motherboard as you, so your bios may be different than mine. But you should have some way in your bios to set the SATA to be IDE mode, not Raid. As Clintfan said earlier in this thread, this is what I needed to do in my bios setup:

Onboard IDE Operate Mode= Enhanced
Enhanced Mode Support On= S-ATA
Configure S-ATA as RAID= No
IDE Detect Time Out= 35

See if you have something like that.


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## penfolds (Mar 6, 2005)

*Also no Max HD on the SATA1 connectors*

Thanks for this string of messages, as it helped me figure out what was NOT happening. I use all Maxtor HDs and the two I plugged into SATA1 and SATA2 kept coming up the wrong size, no matter what IDE/ATA settings I used in the Bios.
But when I moved the drives to the SATA-RAID1 and SATA-RAID2 connectors, they came up perfectly. The Intel controller does not like Maxtor drives on the P4C800E Deluxe MB. :4-dontkno 
One of these days I will get a non-Maxtor SATA drive and try it on the SATA1 or 2 connectors.

My config:
Antec P160 case & constant 430W PSU
P4C800E Deluxe
P4E 3.2Ghz w/ Zalman cooler
Kingston 2x512MB ultralow CAS
Visiontek Radeon 6700 256MB Video
Primary1 IDE - Maxtor 120GB (boot)
Secondary1 IDE - LiteOn DVD Dual RW
PATA1 - Maxtor 300GB
PATA2 - Maxtor 300GB
SATA1 - <empty>
SATA2 - <empty>
SATA-RAID1 - Maxtor 250GB
SATA-RAID2 - Maxtor 250GB
Audigy 2ZS External


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

> The Intel controller does not like Maxtor drives on the P4C800E Deluxe MB.


That's strange... Maxtor is all I run here, and 2 of them are on the Intel SATA ports. On 2 different P4C800-E's (same mobo and ICH5R chip as yours). Works fine. But my drives are 1 to 1-1/2 years old... maybe that NCQ deal is the thing after all...?

OTOH I had both my Maxtor PATA drives go bad, one in each PC: one with fatal surface errors and one with a slow IDE transmission problem. Go figure.

-clintfan


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Clintfan,

The more I look into this, and read the issues reported in these forums, the more I suspect it's the NCQ problem. These new drives should be backward-compatible, i.e., work with the ICH5R controller, but just not support the NCQ. I'd be curious to know if this is a Maxtor problem, or if drives from other manufacturers that are SATA-NCQ have the same problem.

I can't get an answer back from Maxtor on this issue...


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## penfolds (Mar 6, 2005)

*Hitachi SATA HD doesn't work either on SATA1...*

So because I can't leave a problem alone until I figure it out, and because I want more storage on this system, I ordered a 400GB Hitachi SATA HD and hooked it up to the Intel SATA.
Result: same issue, it comes up as a 128GB drive not matter how I set the IDE in the Bios. Moving the Hitachi to the Promise SATA enables me to see all 400GB of capacity.
Removing all the other HDs (except the boot drive) does not change the situation. Removing the boot drive and booting from the CD, when it asks if I want to install on the Hitachi and brings up the partition create size, it tops out at 131GB (roughly 128).
I'm stumped. :4-dontkno 

penfolds


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

Do you have WinXP SP1? If not, if this is "base-level" WinXP, it doesn't support 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA), so you cannot address disks above 137GB (maybe the formatted capacity is less, perhaps 128). The previous support level apparently had only 28 bits. After you install SP1, you can run the Maxtor Big Drive Enabler Patch to turn the 48-bit support on, then reboot.

If your XP is base level, this could also explain why using the Setup CD to _install_ XP, yields the same result: the same limitation that will be there under Windows, would also be there under Windows _Setup_.

If you are choosing some format other than NTFS, that could be another reason why you are hitting artificial limits.

I can tell you it isn't a BIOS limitation, since P4C800-E Deluxe is new enough to not hit such problems. I have had no problem fully NTFS-formatting my 160GB drives (at 152GB) here on my machines, your same model mobo, but I installed XP+SP1a and also run that BDE patch. I had BIOS 1007 at the time of the install.

These are my only thoughts at this point.

-clintfan


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## penfolds (Mar 6, 2005)

*137GB limit interesting idea, but...*

Ah Clintfan, that rings a bell! I have dealt with this limitation before in W2k when I first moved up to larger HDs and had to install a Maxtor fix to handle the larger size. 
But what is curious about this is, if you look at my system config in an earlier post, I am already running 2x250GB and 2x300GB HDs on the IDE and SATA-RAID controllers without any problem, the full drive size is visible and accessible on those connectors/controllers. So why would only the SATA1 connectors exhibit this limitation? Since the IDE connector runs off the ICH5 controller as well as the SATA1, why would the large drives be visible on one connector but not the serial connectors?
And yes, I am running XP-SP1 Pro.
Any other ideas, thoughts are appreciated.

Penfolds


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

I found the following pdf at Hitachi's web site. If you HDD is a model 7K400, then Hitachi says it is compatible (i.e, they have evaluated it) with your motherboard, and specifically, your ICH5R controller.

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...8C854A71686256F50007D0998/$file/7K400_com.pdf


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

*Something else to try .... maybe a solution???*

After some lengthy internet searching, I came across this idea from another forum:

Someone was trying to install a Maxtor 300GB SATA (on SATA-2) which his P4P800 Deluxe would not recognize. He solved his problem by doing the following:

1. Disconnect all drives, power up and enter the BIOS Setup.

2. On the main screen where it lists all drives detected (of course, all drives will be now be undetected), there is an option for IDE configuration. Select this screen.

3. Then select an option of how hard drives are detected. One option is QUICK -- this is the wrong one. Select the NORMAL option.

4. Power down. (of course, don't forget to save the bios before each power down or restart)

5. Install the problematic HDD.

6. Power up -- this should let you in the BIOS without any freeze-ups, and the problem HDD should be recognized.

7. Power down -- plug in the original HDD on SATA-1, plug in the 'used-to-be-a problem HDD on SATA-2.

8. Power up -- both drives should be recognized!

9. Install Windows, etc., the restart your PC. Go back into the BIOS and reset that option back to QUICK.

At this point, I've already moved my 'problem Maxtor' to the Promise controller, where I really want it anyway, and everything is working the way I want it, so I'm not going to try the above procedure. But if any of you are having problems, you might want to give this a try ... let us know if you have any success.


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## penfolds (Mar 6, 2005)

*Success!*

My thanks to Clintfan and PDonahoe for recent responses. :smile: 

I solved my issue although it still doesn't tell me the basic nature of the problem: I upgraded from SP1 to SP2 on WinXP Pro, and lo and behold the drive became visible in Windows at full size (400GB). Trying to install the Maxtor BDE didn't help at all, it gave me a "reject notice" message that told me this version of Windows didn't need this installed (nice intelligent error message, that).
I can't find any notes on SATA issues fixed in SP2 in Microsoft support notes, but evidently there is something in there which controls what the ICH5R can recognize in HD size on the SATA connectors on the P4C800E-Deluxe (as I said earlier the PATA recognized 250 GB just fine).
I was reluctant to install SP2 since I built this entire system around the Matrox RTx100 video processing card for Premiere Pro 1.5, and there have been issues of conflict between the SP2 and the RT card, but I guess now I am committed to finding out, but that's a different thread... :grin: 

Penfolds


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## Dim (Mar 22, 2005)

Hi PDonahoe , 

My Configuration: ASUS P4P800-E Dx., CPU P4 2.8C prescott, 512 Mb RAM 3200. 2xSATA HD Seagate Baracuda 80Gb as RAID0 (system and data) bootable, 1xATA/133 Seagate Baracuda 80Gb - bup.

I just recently moved on and installed two Seagate Baracuda HDs SATA 80Gb with NCQ (part # ST380817AS) on ICH5R controller (Intel 82801ER SATA RAID Controller to be more precise) and cofigured it as RAID0. I was a bit worried about that NCQ stuff but I can tell now from my experiance that ICH5R perfectly support NCQ with no problems (I installed the whole RAID0 within 10 minutes max, installed WinXP Pro SP1, updated to SP2 and now my System is flying). The secret here is not a Hardware but rather a software. I install the latest RAID drivers downloaded from Intell site that were created for the next chip genereation but if you check out the release note there is mentioned ICH5R chip support too, so I did use this driver vs the one created specially for the 5R. Now when I'm running Intel Storage Utility v.4.7 (4.7.0.6815) I drill down to my RAID Hard Drives, click on any of my drive within RAID and I see the drive properties currently running, they are:

Usage: Aray Member
Status: Normal
Device Port: 0
Current Serial ATA Transfer Mode: Generation 1
Model: ST38081AS
Serial Number: 3MR09891
Firmware: 3.42
Native Command Queuing Support: Yes
Write Cache Enabled: Yes (I can disable it from within the application)
Size 74.5GB
Number of Volumes: 1
Parent Array: Aray 0

So to draw the line here the NCQ feature is in play on ICH5R

Cheers Dim.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Hi Dim,

Thanks for adding your experience to this thread. Although I think your input would be helpful to someone setting up a RAID array on their ICH5R controller, in my situation I was setting up two drives as non-RAID. Therfore, using a new RAID driver would not help me.

It is interesting to see that you are using NCQ hard drives, and you were able to get them to work in your RAID setup. However, the NCQ could still be the problem in a non-RAID setup. So the mystery continues.

One question: does your new driver allow the controller to take advantage of the native command queing, or does it just prevent any conflict?

Also, did you use the Quick detection method or the Normal detection method, as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread (someone had tried this 'solution' with success)?


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## Dim (Mar 22, 2005)

Hi, it's hard to tell whether there is a performance difference of HD with NCQ or without it, but keep in mind that the whole idea of NCQ is not as much as of performance gain but rather make your Hard Drive last longer by making the Disk Head move less back and forth.

I just mentioned my story here cause of even before I configured my drives as a RAID I pluged them in and was able to get into BIOS setup (inspite of your case) without any problems and my mobo detected both HDs right away even they are NCQ enabled, then I just enabled SATA a RAID option, hit F10 and saw Ctrl-I shortcut to get into RAID configuration utility.

Dim


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Hi Dim,

Thanks for the clarification about your setup. Of course, now the mystery has just deepened for me as to why I had troubles (as well as others), but you didn't with installing your Hitachi HDD. Maybe it's something about the Maxtor I'm using ... maybe it's because I didn't use the right detection method ... maybe, maybe, maybe ... lol!

Even though I have my rig set up the way I'd like and it works fine, I always hate not to know why the problem I had was indeed a problem.

Thanks again for you input to this thread!


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## MoonShadow_1AU (Mar 23, 2005)

PDonahoe said:


> PROBLEM SOLVED!
> 
> ...
> 
> ...


Glad you got this fixed. I had a simmilar problem (same mb) but I had 2 drives on SATA-RAID 1 and 2 and was adding a drive on SATA1 or SATA2.

As for NCQ, the mb does not support it anywhere and the drive will not activate it if the BIOS does nt call it (or so segate says).


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## Dim (Mar 22, 2005)

Hey PDonahoe,

that's really weird that some frives do work without any problems but the others just don't want to... and my Seagates just belong to the first group and work fine (so far lol). 

As of your comment MoonShadow_1AU about mobo that doesn't support NCQ in any way, all I can say is after I installed the new drivers from Intell site, the Intel Storage Utility v.4.7 reports that the NCQ feature is "ON" that's all, no more no less. Even if the application is bullshitting me that I can't proove for now. hehehehe, If you have some utility that can sniff around on your PC and tell if NCQ is really in use then give me a shot, btw if you want I can send you a screenshot from the Intel Storage Utility v.4.7 with the Properties of the HDs I'm using.... or actually I will get home tonight and will attach a screenshot to this thread! sounds like a plan,  

Dim


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Earlier in this thread, I raised the possibility that it was the NCQ feature of my Maxtor that the ICH5R controller didn't like. I really meant _possibility_, not _fact_. I don't think the ICH5R controller supports NCQ, but that doesn't mean that it should prevent an NCQ drive from being operational, only that it won't run NCQ. Anyway, NCQ as a culprit remains an open question.

Dim,

Did you use the Quick detection method or the Normal detection method, as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread (someone had tried this 'solution' with success)?


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## Dim (Mar 22, 2005)

PDonahoe said:


> ....
> 
> Did you use the Quick detection method or the Normal detection method, as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread (someone had tried this 'solution' with success)?


Not sure what do you mean by Quick vs Normal, there is no such thing in BIOS for P4P800-E Dx. All I have set up is "Auto" detection for all the Primary/Secondary devices and all the parameters (like Type, LBA/Block/PIO Modes and so on). Sorry not really informative this time..


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Dim,

Sorry. I had searched the internet, found another forum where someone had posted a 'solution' to this problem. (This was described in an earlier post on this thread). He had a P4P800 Deluxe, so I thought it might be useful to us. Because I had found another solution to my particular problem (I moved the Maxtor HDD to the Promise controller), and was happy with my configuration, I didn't bother to go into the BIOS and check out his solution.

Big mistake, and now I'm embarassed. I can't find anywhere on the main screen, under IDE configuration anything referring to "quick" and "normal" detection method.

So, unless anyone can figure out what he might have been referring to, please ignore my post earlier in this thread, my question to you, and accept my apology.

:4-dontkno


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## tyee86 (Mar 28, 2005)

PDonahoe said:


> 1. Disconnect all drives, power up and enter the BIOS Setup.
> 
> 2. On the main screen where it lists all drives detected (of course, all drives will be now be undetected), there is an option for IDE configuration. Select this screen.
> 
> 3. Then select an option of how hard drives are detected. One option is QUICK -- this is the wrong one. Select the NORMAL option.


does that mean disconnecting all drives including the CDROM and DVDs to have that option of quick and normal?


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## Dim (Mar 22, 2005)

Don't worry man, it's all good. We all learn from each other and there is nothing wrong in asking zillion questions about stuff you try to understand and make it work!

Btw, here is the screenshot I promised earlier today. So, now if anybody could help me find another tool that can check my drives settings and options and tell if my current configuration utilizes the NCQ, that would be great!

Dim


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## vk1 (Apr 4, 2005)

I have a smilar issue, I am going to try PDONAHOE's solution, 
I have ASUS P4P800-E deluxe MB, Maxtor 300GB SATA ulta 16.
Now this is the only hard drive I have and when I try to add it to the SATA 1 port, bios doesn't recognize the hard drive.

my ide settings are 
enhanced mode
SATA
NO raid
35

Also I disabled the promise controller.

Everytime I try to boot, it finishes the memory check and sits there. Now, I booted the system using a Maxblast 4 floppy, still it didn't find the sata hard drive on SATA port 1, but aleast the next time I rebooted with XP cd it went further and at F6, I gave the sata drivers for XP in a floppy and it went fine
until XP was beginning to load software, it said "no hard drive detected"

Now, can I just go ahead and connect the SATA cable from the hard drive to the SATA_RAID1, though I have only 1 hard drive as well as my ide settings are going to remain the same. Also, should I give the promise raid drivers, when F6 is pressed from XP install in this case.

Sorry for the long mail

Any ideas please !!!


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

Based on my experience, yours (vk1), and others, in the absence of any other strong evidence, I am convinced there is a compatibility problem between the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 hard drives and the ICH5R controller. Unfortunately, I have been unable to get any assistance either from Maxtor or Asus on this subject.

You could connect your SATA cable to the SATA_RAID1, but it's not recommended, because this is your only hard drive, which means you have to put your OS on it. The Promise controller is on the PCI bus, which is not the best place to put your OS HDD. My solution was to move the Maxtor to he Pomise controller as a data drive, and I put a Western Digital (non-NCQ) on the ICH5R controller, and this arrangement worked great for me.

If you do decide to use SATA_RAID1, then you need to install the 
Promise SATA378 (ATA Mode) driver, not the RAID driver (unless you are going to set up a RAID array). I installed the drivers from the Asus disk, through XP (which asked me for them when it detected the new hardware), and it worked fine. However, others, including the expert Clintfan on this forum, suggest using the F6 method. If I had to do this all over, I would listen to him (even though a different solution worked for me).


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## rdvdeijk (Apr 5, 2005)

*sata problem*

Hi all,

I have a serious problem (well for me) :sad: 
I have an ASUS P4PE motherboard with 1 IDE and 1 SATA.
My problem is that my IDE is almost dead, because its making weird noises.
My SATA Hard disc is an SpinPoint P (160 GB) from Samsung.
What I like to know from you guys is that I only want the sata. because the ide is almost broken.
My problem is that it won't boot if i disconnect my IDE.
So when my IDE is connected to the primary master it will boot (The IDE is empty) (I have windows XP on the SATA HD). But when I disconnect the IDE Hard disc it won't boot up. it gives a error.
My sata hard disc is connected to the raid controller, but i'm not using raid and I can't find how to turn it off.
So I want just the IDE out of my computer and I just want to use the SATA Hard Disc.
I read many posts and I try to find COnfigure sata as IDE instead of configure sata as raid. But i can't find it in the bios.
Then I read somewhere that in the fastrack controller (in the raid bios) you have to say auto define instead of define array then he will say stand alone hard disc, but in my computer he say Stripe (so it's still a raid).
I see my sata hard disc in fasttrack controller and in windows and I installed windows on it with the F6 command.
But I don't see the sata hard disc in my asus bios.
Can anyone please help me, because when my IDE will broke in these days i can't boot up my system.

Bye, Remco


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## vk1 (Apr 4, 2005)

*Maxtor 300 GB SATA ultra 16 identified on P4P800-E*

Guys,

My bios finally identified my 300 GB ard drive. I connected my hard drive
to the SATA RAID 1 and booted using my maxblast floppy. Hard drive was identified, I did the partitioning, etc

Then I loaded XP and F6 and gave the promise 378 SATA controller driver.
Things went fine. I have a working system with 300 GB hard drive

This thread was very useful to me, thanks to all of your comments. Now, going back to what Pdonahoe said, what's the risk factor in having only one hard drive on the promise controller ? Is there a speed issue ? Is it a must for me to get a non maxtor ide or sata hard drive for my windows installation and just use the 300 GB on the SATA RAID 1 as a data drive.

Thanks for all the help, now I have to fix my AIW 9800 Pro card.


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## PDonahoe (Feb 4, 2005)

If you put your OS on the Promise controller, it is on the PCI bus, which has a lot less throughput speed than the ICH5R controller, which is not on the PCI bus. In addition, your OS will be using a good chunk of the PCI bandwith, and your peripheral devices will be competing with your OS, and you may therefore experience performance problems with these peripherals.


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## Riskyone101 (Oct 22, 2008)

Hi Jsmith814, welcome,

Please start a new post, yours does not belong under someone else`s post.

We have no way of knowing that you posted here except that I happen acrooss this here. ty.


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