# Promise IDE/SATA RAID Driver Issue



## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

I have 5 hard drives in my system. Two 200GB IDE and two 200GB SATA and my operation system is running on a 74GB Raptor.

I struggled a while back to get all the drives to show up and the issue was due to the wrong promise driver loaded. Once I got the correct driver loaded, all drives worked.

I decided to put the two IDE drives in a RAID 0 (mirror). I went into my BIOS and under Onboard Devices Configuration and changed the Onboard Promise Controller Operating Mode to RAID. I then entered FastBuild Utility and built the RAID. 

When I boot into Windows none if the 200GB drives show up. I checked under Device Manager and I have two driver issues. Under SCSI and RAID Controller is has a issue with “SCSI/RAID Host Controller” and “WinXp Promise SATA™ IDE Controller”.

If I go back into BIOS and change the setting back to IDE, no issues and all drivers reappear.

Please help...


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

Nightwatch said:


> I struggled a while back to get all the drives to show up and the issue was due to the wrong promise driver loaded. Once I got the correct driver loaded, all drives worked.
> 
> I decided to put the two IDE drives in a RAID 0 (mirror). I went into my BIOS and under Onboard Devices Configuration and changed the Onboard Promise Controller Operating Mode to RAID. I then entered FastBuild Utility and built the RAID.
> 
> ...


I could be wrong but this one should be pretty easy to fix.

There are 2 Promise drivers. Your driver must match the mode of the BIOS. You must have loaded the SATA378 driver last time. Now you need the other driver, the FastTrak 378 driver.

First shut down and switch the Promise back to RAID mode. Boot and do CTRL+F and make sure the array is OK; delete and rebuild if necessary. Then bring up XP and download and unzip the FastTrak 378 driver.

You say you have 2 bad devices when in RAID mode. That makes sense. RAID will have a "console" device too; I don't know why.

Go into Control Panel- System- Device Manager. Right-click the problem RAID controller device and choose Update Driver. Go through the dialog until you can point it to the driver you downloaded, you want the \378RAID\WinXP subfolder. From here, choose "WinXP Promise FastTrak 378 (tm) Controller". You might have to do the same thing with the Console device and choose "WinXP Promise RAID Console SCSI Processor Device", I'm not sure. Then reboot and it should be OK.

I'm sort of surprised Windows XP didn't find and load this RAID driver for you already... when I tried it it seemed to be the default, and I had to go to a lot of extra work to force the SATA378 driver on. Maybe I had previously installed the FastTrak and that was why.

-clintfan


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

I followed your directions and this is what the Device Managers shows now:









...but looking at my drives, neither the IDE RAID shows up nor do my two SATA 200GB drives....









Why is this so hard?


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

Your drivers look good, and they are happy. You have installed the right stuff.

Now try Start- Settings- Control Panel- Administrative Tools.
Double-click Computer Management.
Now click Disk Management.

Scroll the window at the lower right. You should see your raw drives there. Right-click, there should be a "New partition" option. Choose that. (now I'm going by the Help text here). Click Next, then checkbox "Primary partition". Go from there. After that, you should find that a drive letter gets assigned. 

Note that it might assign D:, which will bump your existing D: & E: out by one letter. You can also change the drive letters for any of your drives (leave A: & C: alone though) using another right-click dialog.

Once your drives are partitioned they should become visible in MyComputer.

Also since your HDD's are >137GB, don't forget to also install the Maxtor Big Drive Enabler patch, even if your drives aren't Maxtor. Then reboot.

-clintfan


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Ok, one of them showed up








I will have to wait until the format is complete. I think this is the RAID. 

Now I have to figure out where my SATA drive is...


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Still can't find my SATA drives...

Any suggestions?


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

> Still can't find my SATA drives...


Sorry, with all the Promise detail I guess I misunderstood what your goals are. I missed that all 4 drives are having trouble.

I assume you have your 2 IDE 200GB drives attached to the PRI_RAID port as master and slave, and that you have now successfully got RAID working on that port. To help you with the SATA drives I will need to know:

1. what mobo model you have, 
2. which ports you have attached your SATA drives to, and
3. whether you want the SATA drives to be RAID or not.

Then I may have some idea of what to tell you about those other devices. I checked the thread and the images but can't find quite enough info.

-clintfan


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Thanks for your patience clintfan

I'm running the P4C800-E Deluxe. The RAID seems to be working great. I assume it's the RAID drive I'm seeing because of this:










Now I also have 2 SATA 200GB drives (I've disconnected one just to make sure I don't accidently format it). There are both connected to the SATA RAID Connection. On the Standard SATA connection I have my 74GB Raptor. Here is the way my devices drivers are setup:










Now only one drive besides my OS drive showed up under the Disk Management utility which, because of the first picture, I assumed was the RAID. I can not see the SATA drive.

Thanks again for your help clintfan.


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

*I give up!*

Ok, I give up. 

I have pulled the ATA drives and they are installed in another system and they will stay there. I'm really kind of regreting buying this board.

Now I have the two SATA drives. I'd like to run those in a SATA RAID. Can you tell me which driver I need and what settings I need to change in my BIOS for this? I have tried a few different combos with no luck.

Thanks


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

*ALSO - Please read above post as well*

Also, I backed up everything that is critical on one of the SATA drives before I started all this. I have had it unplugged while I experiment trying to fix the problems. I decided tonight I would try to back up the data off this drive so I plugged it into the standard SATA slot. The drive was detected but showed as foreign. Windows recommends I "Import Foreign Drive" but I'm afraid to lose the data on this drive. THAT IS NOT AN OPTION. It contains pictures of my daughter that aren't otherwise back uped. What do I do about this one?

Thanks again,
[email protected]


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

> I'm afraid to lose the data on this drive. THAT IS NOT AN OPTION. It contains pictures of my daughter that aren't otherwise back uped.


Let's cover this part first. Sorry, the "foreign drive" comments you make later are unknown to me. 

If those photos are as precious as you say, I would not even mess with it. *I would pay the money, wrap the drive in antistatic bag and huge amount of padding, and take it straight to a data recovery company.* Since the drive hardware itself is functional, the mechanism requires no surgery. It should not therefore be difficult (or too expen$ive) for them to extract the data files and give it to you on a CD... and a duplicate CD. Chalk that cost up as 'lessons learned'.

Some possible data recovery outfits, first 3 are from local phone book. I have never used such services myself:

http://www.actionfront.com
http://www.datarecoverygroup.com
http://www.lazarus.com
http://www.datadoctors.com/



Moving on...



> I have pulled the ATA drives and they are installed in another system and they will stay there.


So now your P4C800-E is ATA-less, right?



> I'm really kind of regreting buying this board.


I think the board is probably fine. You had some trouble figuring out the correct drivers and such. I should have asked you straight away to give us everything about your setup and your plans. That wasted some time and allowed you to take some additional wrong turns, I'm afraid. It's hard to so this stuff over a forum and PM's, when at the same time we're anxious to get stuff going.



> Now I have the two SATA drives. I'd like to run those in a SATA RAID. Can you tell me which driver I need and what settings I need to change in my BIOS for this? I have tried a few different combos with no luck.


If you really want RAID and your only drives on your P4C800-E are these SATA's, then you should attach them to the SATA1 & SATA2 ports, and install the Intel RAID. Your best bet may be to try and follow my steps outlined in my first reply in this thread, PC4800-E Deluxe SATA RAID Setup Question, since I haven't yet written a full RAID thread.

But deal with the photos first, by all means.



> Also, I backed up everything that is critical on one of the SATA drives before I started all this. I have had it unplugged while I experiment trying to fix the problems. I decided tonight I would try to back up the data off this drive...


Sorry, I didn't get this part. First you said you backed it up, then you said you decided later to back it up. You mean, make a second backup? I just didn't understand, I guess.



> so I plugged it into the standard SATA slot.


Which slot was that? How was it labelled on the mobo? The topmost one is SATA2, next one down is SATA1, 3rd one down is SATA_RAID2, lowest one is SATA_RAID1.



> The drive was detected but showed as foreign. Windows recommends I "Import Foreign Drive...What do I do about this one?


You got me there. This is where I say, STOP and have a company read the daa off. It could be perfectly safe to import it, but I have no clue. Or it might usually work, but fail this time. These are, after all, PC's. With Windows. So IMO stay on the safe side and don't try it. See my initial response at the top.

I have no idea what this is saying. Was this drive part of a RAID set before? If so what type... RAID1 or RAID0?

See, RAID is proprietary. There's no standard across manufacturers. That's why you can't move a RAID set from one brand of controller to another, and have it automatically recognized.

It sounds like the controller you've hooked it to, is trying to use some sort of recovery feature to allow you to import the drive into a new array. But I can't really tell since I don't know which controller "standard SATA slot" is yet, or what mode that controller is in: RAID or non-RAID.

Let us know how it goes,

-clintfan


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Thanks for the quick reply clintfan...



> So now your P4C800-E is ATA-less, right?


Yes, I'm ATA-less. My goal is to have the 74GB SATA drive on the standard SATA port and the other 200GB drives in a RAID 0.



> Sorry, I didn't get this part. First you said you backed it up, then you said you decided later to back it up. You mean, make a second backup? I just didn't understand, I guess.


 Sorry to confuse the situation. What I meant was I backed up everything from all my drives on this SATA 200GB. I plugged it in yesterday to move it off the SATA drive to one of the ATA drives on my other system. I was going to transfer over the network.



> Which slot was that? How was it labeled on the mobo?


 Right now I have the 74GB Raptor on SATA2. I moved the "important" drive to SATA1 yesterday to try to move the data and that's when I got the foreign drive thing. My goal is to have the two 200GB drives on SATA_RAID1 and SATA_RAID2.



> Was this drive part of a RAID set before?


 Nope, it was just a standard drive on my board. That's why I think if I can get the SATA_RAID ports working with the right drivers, the drive should show up and this foreign issue should be solved. Until then I will start looking at data recovery stuff.

Can you set the SATA1 and SATA2 ports in RAID? Because if you can I need to verify that is not on. 

This is what I want to do. Since I have no PATA drives installed, I'd like to know what driver I need to load and does this driver change when you go from RAID to Non-RAID? What is the BIOS settings I need to verify? 
Are both sets of SATA ports capable of RAID? …both meaning the SATA ports and the SATA_RAID ports. 
Just so I know I'm not making a stupid error, does master/slave pin settings mean anything when there is only one drive per cable?

This is what I'd like to accomplish. Set the SATA_RAID ports to non-RAID and pull my data off my backup drive. Then set the SATA_RAID ports to RAID and create a RAID 0 and format the drives. Then move the important data from the IDE networked computer to the RAID. Now I will have a fast and secure (meaning I shouldn't lose data) storage system.

Thanks again clintfan, 
Nigh****ch


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

> Can you set the SATA1 and SATA2 ports in RAID? Because if you can I need to verify that is not on...What is the BIOS settings I need to verify?


Yes you can. And I am guessing that it is probably "on", which as you say it shouldn't be. 

SATA1 & SATA2 are driven by the ICH5R Southbridge chip. Being the main chipset, those settings are in BIOS under Main- IDE Configuration. I suspect you have it set to RAID, otherwise I doubt non-RAID would report any "foreign" messages when you hook it up... though it might, I guess, since if it _was_ RAID --but you say it wasn't-- the formatting would be weird. 

For non-RAID on the Intel, the settings must be as follows,

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




> This is what I want to do. Since I have no PATA drives installed, I'd like to know what driver I need to load and does this driver change when you go from RAID to Non-RAID?


In non-RAID on the Intel, no drivers are required. If RAID drivers were loaded previously, I do not know if you can simply switch the BIOS back to non-RAID then reboot and run non-RAID instead. I never tried this, usually these sorts of intutive "why wouldn't it work?" ideas, don't work for one reason or another. For example it is possible Windows will BSOD in IAAR on the way up if it doesn't see the RAID controller IAAR is expecting to see. But then again, maybe it won't.




> Are both sets of SATA ports capable of RAID? …both meaning the SATA ports and the SATA_RAID ports.


Yes, and that is both the good thing about this mobo's flexibility, and also is one reason why you have become so confused. Some people think "Oh, I want RAID, so I'd better plug into the "SATA_RAID" ports", when in fact you can plug into either. Or they think "Oh, I don't want RAID, but I want to use these SATA_RAID ports, can I do that?" and then we have to explain that there are 2 possible drivers for those ports: ATA or RAID.




> Just so I know I'm not making a stupid error, does master/slave pin settings mean anything when there is only one drive per cable?


I think you were ONLY talking about SATA drives here, right? When you talk SATA, jumper settings are irrelvant, there are no jumpers and there is only one drive per SATA cable. IN fact, if a drive has any individual jumpers (not talking a wide jumper-cover here) they are usually supposed to be removed.

But IF you are talking about ATA drives --and we're _not_, since you already moved those over to your other system, right?-- then master/slave settings are _always_ meaningful. And with only a single drive on the cable, it has to be (1)on the far connector on the short end of the cable (the end where the 2 connectors are close together) and it has to be (2)strapped as Master. There are other requirements on type and length of cable, but you asked about pins.




> This is what I'd like to accomplish. Set the SATA_RAID ports to non-RAID and pull my data off my backup drive. Then set the SATA_RAID ports to RAID and create a RAID 0 and format the drives. Then move the important data from the IDE networked computer to the RAID.


Again, which port was the "backup drive" attached to when you originally put the data onto it?




> Now I will have a fast and secure (meaning I shouldn't lose data) storage system.


That's fast _or_ secure, not fast _and_ secure. It will only become "secure" if you set up RAID1 (or RAID0+1 if you use 4 drives). Otherwise there will be no security at all. Failures of RAID0, the "fast" RAID, are not generally recoverable.


- - - - 


I see you are still trying to achieve a setup. I don't know if you have enough drives to do this, but the best split is OS on the Intel, data on the promise.

Therefore my first recommendation _--AFTER you have recovered your data, of course--_ would be to attach a PATA drive (I think you also had 2 of those which you moved) to PRI_IDE Master and have that be your OS drive. Then put your 2 SATA's on SATA_RAID1 & SATA_RAID2, configure the Onboard Promise Controller for RAID, build a RAID1 array using your two SATA drives via the CTRL+F utility, then boot and install the Promise FastTrak RAID driver. That will give you the security RAID you want for your data storage, plus fast data movement within the machine. You would have a 3-disk system here. It won't give you any security for your PATA OS drive, but that can be ghoste'ed to the other, or you can always reinstall it from CD.

My alternate recommendation would be to put the Intel into non-RAID mode as shown above, get a 3rd SATA drive and attach it to SATA1, and put the OS there instead of on a PATA drive. Then do the other steps to set up a two-SATA RAID1 array as in the first recommendation. Again you would have a 3-disk system, it would just be all-SATA.

If you absolutely have to stick with just 2 SATA drives for this PC, then I would split them, and delay the RAID plan for now. This won't give you any security for your data, but it will be all-SATA. Set the Onboard Promise Controller to IDE mode in the BIOS, then set up the OS on SATA1 as in the alternate recommendation above. Then shut down and attach the second SATA drive to SATA_RAID1, and reboot. Be ready with the Promise SATA378 ATA driver when the Hardware Wizard finds the Promise controller, otherwise it will try to put on the FastTrak RAID driver, whcih is the wrong one.

Hope this helps,

-clintfan


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

These drivers are still my issue I think.

This is my plan:

The OS is on the Intel SATA ports on the 73GB Raptor. It's working and I'm not messing with it.

I also have two 200GB SATA drives I want to run in RAID 1 (Sorry I said RAID 0 earlier by mistake.)

First though, I want to set up the IMPORTANT drive on the Promise SATA port (where it was originally in a non-RAID setup.) I want to set it up again on this as a non-RAID and try to recovery the data.

Once all the data is back upped I want to set up the two SATA drives in RAID 1.

What drivers do I need for each setup? The only setting I should have to change in BIOS is the "Onboard Promise Controller" to "[Enabled]" and the first setup should be [IDE] and the second setup should be [RAID] correct? Then I need to build the RAID and all that. I understand that part.

The settings under IDE configuration with the Enhanced Mode is for the Intel SATA ports correct?

I think this is a driver issue and I just don't know which one goes with what.

Thanks again for all your help clintfan.


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Just to make sure I am clear...

I have 3 SATA drives:

73GB Raptor on SATA Port 1 (Intel) [OS Drive]

200GB on SATA_RAID port 1 (Promise)
200GB on SATA_RAID port 2 (Promise)

First setup: No RAID to try to recovery data
BIOS:
Onboard Promise Controller set to [Enabled]
Operation Mode set to [IDE]
What driver needs loading?

Final setup: RAID 1 for the 2 200GB 
BIOS:
Onboard Promise Controller set to [Enabled]
Operation Mode set to [RAID]
What driver needs loading?


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Ok, I've made a little head way but still confused about drivers...

but I *DID* manage to get the 200GB drives to show up in Windows while connected to the SATA_RAID ports (Promise).

I think I may be hosed still though because the IMPORTANT drive is showing up as Dynamic and everything else is basic. The Dynamic drive is unaccessable. I don't want to convert because of the chance of data loss.

Any ideas with this one?


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

OK I see you do have 3 SATA drives, fine. To attach a SATA drive to the Promise in non-RAID mode is the Promise FastTrak 378 ATA Driver V1.00.1.30, and the device you would select for this is called "WinXP Promise SATA378 (tm) IDE Controller". Before installing this driver, you had to set the BIOS Advanced- Onboard Devices Configuration- "Onboard Promise Controller Operating Mode" to "IDE".

That's where my knowledge of this stops. I don't know what to do about a dynamic drive vs. a basic drive. OK I see now where you can tell, it's under Disk Management in the column labelled "Type"; here all mine are labelled "Basic".

I'd read about dynamic drives before I started with XP, and it didn't sound pleasant. I know this doesn't help, sorry. I did check Microsoft 309044, "How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk". Basic disks are the traditional ones with "partitions", whereas dynamic disks are somethign new and they use "volumes" instead. *In summary it looks like you're right: converting from basic to dynamic can be done while preserving the data, but going from dynamic to basic requires deletion of all the data first.* How helpful is _that_? So don't accept the conversion when prompted.

The article also says dynamic disks are not supported on XP Home; you have to have XP Profressional. Which is yours?

I still think your safest bet is to send it to a recovery outfit. Tell them everything you know about it: non-RAID, dynamic, created on XP, attached to Promise PDC20378, and so forth.

-clintfan


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## Nightwatch (Jul 7, 2004)

Great news... I installed EasyRecovery Pro and was able to grab all my data. Every last bit of it. 

I am pumped!

I was nervous about importing the Foreign drive and I wanted to get my data backed up before continuing. For some reason I had to boot into Safe mode because the recovery program kept crashing.

After I backed up I imported and all the data was still there. So now I have two copies of the info. My plan now is to get this data backed up again off the SATA drives and try getting the RAID 1 installed. I'm afraid if I try this now I will lose my data.

Now, the drivers...










This is my current working non-RAID setup. I'm still getting an error so which device do I not need? What do I need to uninstall to get this to work?



> Promise FastTrak 378 ATA Driver V1.00.1.30, and the device you would select for this is called "WinXP Promise SATA378 (tm) IDE Controller"


Ok, if this is what I use for non-RAID, what is the file I need for RAID?

AGAIN, thanks clintfan. Hey, want a Gmail invite? Gmail is Google's new email system and it offers a 1 GB of storage. The only way to get one right now is through an invite. Want one?


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## clintfan (Sep 4, 2003)

> ...installed EasyRecovery Pro and was able to grab all my data. Every last bit of it... For some reason I had to boot into Safe mode because the recovery program kept crashing.


Good move. And pretty resourceful to try it in Safe Mode. Guess I didn't think of those programs.



> This is my current working non-RAID setup. I'm still getting an error so which device do I not need? What do I need to uninstall to get this to work?


Thanks for the image. FYI it is more useful to View devices "by connection" when troubleshooting setup problems.

I don't understand why the yellow (!) is on the SATA378; if you installed the driver as I said, this should not be there. Did you disconnect its disks? Did you remember to switch it to IDE mode in the BIOS? 

No matter... if you're ready to switch to RAID, this won't matter and we can start again from scratch.



> _Promise FastTrak 378 ATA Driver V1.00.1.30, and the device you would select for this is called "WinXP Promise SATA378 (tm) IDE Controller"_
> Ok, if this is what I use for non-RAID, what is the file I need for RAID?


1. Download the Promise FastTrak 378 RAID Driver for XP. Unzip.

2. Attach the two SATA 200GB's as you said before, i.e.:
200GB on SATA_RAID port 1 (Promise) (lower right corner of the mobo)
200GB on SATA_RAID port 2 (Promise) (just above " " port 1)

(Make sure you don't want to preserve any of the data on either of these drives.)

3. Powerup and enter the BIOS setup.
4. Visit Advanced- Onboard Devices Configuration screen.
5. Set "Onboard Promise Controller" =Enabled.
6. Set "Operating Mode" =RAID.
7. Hit F10 to save, confirm, and exit.
8. Reboot.

9. The POST should stall momentarily after the Promise scan and ask for CTRL+F.
10. Hit CTRL+F.
11. Hit 1 to choose Auto Setup.
12. Arrow up to the "Optimize Array for" field at the top, and hit spacebar until it says "Security".
13. Choose "Create Only".
14. The operation should complete in just a couple of seconds, with the message,
"Array has been created."
15. Press ESC to reboot the PC.

16. As XP reboots it may discover the Promise controller and run the New Hardware wizard. 
If so, tell it you will choose the driver. 
Navigate to the FastTrak driver you downloaded and unzipped. 
Browse down the 378RAID\WinXP tree and choose the fasttx2k.INF file. This should give you the choice of "WinXP Promise FastTrak 378 (tm) Controller"; choose that device. 
Complete the dialog and you're done.

17. Your RAID1 array should be ready to use after you create a partition(s) and format it; after that it will appear in MyComputer as a single drive.

18. Install the Maxtor Big Drive Enabler patch. Yes I know your drives are WD; it doesn't matter, you still need this since some of your physical drives are over 137GB.



> want a Gmail invite?


No, thanks.

-clintfan


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