Need RAID expert-----NOW!!!!!

[Brian Frank 0]

Okay, I have an MSI 694D Pro-A motherboard with the Promise PCD20265 ATA100 controller plus a limited FastTrak BIOS with RAID function.

I install Win2k on my hard drive this time and it will boot up fine on the regular IDE channels, but it is seen as a "Free" drive in the Promise RAID BIOS. This is a clean install with Win2k.

I've used Maxtor's MaxBlast utility to partition and format it in FAT32. I don't know if that's causing the problem or not.

I don't know what to do here.

The RAID BIOS is the FastTrak "Lite" BIOS--and is limited. I cannot rebuild the array within the BIOS, nor can I delete it.

I have the drive split up into 2 partitions: C: is the swap drive, and D: is the Windows drive.

I've tried changing the jumpers around, but no success in the RAID BIOS.

[Brian Frank 0]

Okay, NOW I learn that all I had to do to define the array is hit Ctrl-Y in the RAID BIOS. That reinstall was for nothing!!!!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[Cynan 0]

Hey...

 

...old topic, but its the closest I could find to what I'm looking for...

 

I have a Promise FastTrack100 RAID controller on-board the SuperMicro P3TDDE board and I was wonder if you can run it as a standard IDE controller.

 

Like you mentioned, the drives are just appearing as "free". If I define them, sa say, stripe (or something else?) can I define them as just one-drive arrays? Would that erase the data currently on them?

 

I'm gonna be so annoyed if I can't do this... I'm starting to miss the Highpoint.

 

Thanks.

[Brian Frank 0]

Ya, that's the one thing I really don't like about the on-board promise controllers: they're largely castrated of their old functions. I got some old 4.3GB drive lying around I can try (I got the P3TDDE to replace the VP6) on it tomorrow.

 

You could try to define two separate arrays, each drive being an array. This a big guess, and I don't think it'll work, but I do remember running a single drive on that MSI as it's own array. I don't think I was able to add a second drive by making it it's own array. Go ahead and try it.

[Cynan 0]

You know, sounds like you did the same as me - I'm using the P3TDDE as a replacement for the VP6 aswell.. why'd you replace yours?

 

Mine started to lock-up occasionly and then started not POSTing all the time. Located it down to some blown capacitors that when I replaced them, it worked fine! Still. Gonna sell that now.

 

Anyway. I just put in a old HD that I didnt' mind losing data on and defined it as a 'spanned' arrary (I didn't want to do stripped as that wants to allocate block sizes and thought that might mess up the existing data).

 

and... it worked! Its now just like the Highpoint was! I'm just running some checks on the drive to make sure, but it seems a'ok.

 

btw have you got your P3TDDE yet? If not I did run into some problems so this might help...

 

As soon as my system was up and running I ran MemTestx86 on it and test5 was just throwing up random errors. I noticed in the BIOS that ECC Parity was enabled (I don't have ECC RAM), so I disabled that but still got the same in MemTestx86.

 

Eventually tracked it down to the Auto Detect DIMM/PCI CLK. Disabling that got rid of my error totally.

 

Just a thought.

 

--Cynan.

[Brian Frank 0]

Oh, yes, I have my SuperMicro, replacing the VP6 as it tended to lockup during boot with the default settings. I wasn't using the overclocking features to boot, so when that nice Fed tax return came, I hit one of the shops and came home with it. I'm Big B over @ 2CPU, BTW. The only RAM issue I ran into was trying to run it at CAS2. My generic sticks would, but the PNY stick didn't and would not come up in the memory count during POST and obviously Windows.