4PCA3+ and SATA RAID

[seanus]

Hi all,
I'm new to this, and have no idea what sort of response i will recieve, but thanks in advance for anyone taking the time.

I have the above mobo with:

1 * IDE 80Gb Disk
1 * IDE 20gb Disk
1 * DVD
1 * SB Live!
1 * P4 2.8Ghz 800FSB
2 * 256Mb PC3200 Samsung
All stock speed - no overclocking
MS XP Pro with SP1.

Just bought 2 * Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 80Gb SATA Drives. Not IDE with convertors.

Plugged drives into mobo. Enabled SATA in BIOS.
Intel SATA RAID BIOS sits for about 5-6 mins on copyright banner before seeing drives. Then I get blank screen for about 4 mins. Then XP Pro takes a further 5 mins to load (Usually takes about 30 secs), then the drives aren't recognised anywhere.

I've DL Intel SATA RAID s/w v3.5.0.2568 for XP. The BIOS on POST show as 3.5.0.2459.

I've tried doing a fresh XP install from original CDROM with both the ICHR5 drivers that came with the board, and the new ones from the Intel site. All give same results: XP Installer can't see the drives.

I've looked through the other threads on this Forum. Although 1 is similar, none are the same.

I've written to Intel and Epox, and they are yet to give me anything back. Not sure how helpful they will be.

Incidentally, if i enable 1 drive as IDE, this works fine. So i think drives are OK.

Anyone. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Sean.

[seanus]

OK. Intel helped out. It was the BIOS version. Updated and all went swimmingly.

Thanks for looking people.

Originally Posted by seanus

Hi all,
I'm new to this, and have no idea what sort of response i will recieve, but thanks in advance for anyone taking the time.

I have the above mobo with:

1 * IDE 80Gb Disk
1 * IDE 20gb Disk
1 * DVD
1 * SB Live!
1 * P4 2.8Ghz 800FSB
2 * 256Mb PC3200 Samsung
All stock speed - no overclocking
MS XP Pro with SP1.

Just bought 2 * Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 80Gb SATA Drives. Not IDE with convertors.

Plugged drives into mobo. Enabled SATA in BIOS.
Intel SATA RAID BIOS sits for about 5-6 mins on copyright banner before seeing drives. Then I get blank screen for about 4 mins. Then XP Pro takes a further 5 mins to load (Usually takes about 30 secs), then the drives aren't recognised anywhere.

I've DL Intel SATA RAID s/w v3.5.0.2568 for XP. The BIOS on POST show as 3.5.0.2459.

I've tried doing a fresh XP install from original CDROM with both the ICHR5 drivers that came with the board, and the new ones from the Intel site. All give same results: XP Installer can't see the drives.

I've looked through the other threads on this Forum. Although 1 is similar, none are the same.

I've written to Intel and Epox, and they are yet to give me anything back. Not sure how helpful they will be.

Incidentally, if i enable 1 drive as IDE, this works fine. So i think drives are OK.

Anyone. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Sean.

[Proxie]

Originally Posted by seanus

OK. Intel helped out. It was the BIOS version. Updated and all went swimmingly.

Thanks for looking people.

What version of BIOS solved your problem? I have a 'hang' problem similar to yours with 2x120g maXtor sata in raid setup ( it hangs in raid mode with bios from 25.12.2003)

best regards Proxie

[Roady]

Yea can you plz tell us wich bios version you used.
A client of mine is havind similiar problems and tomorrow i was planning to rma the mainboard cause i couldnt find a solution for it.

Wierd part is that it doesnt hang when u use a older bios version but with the older bios version you cant make a raid setup.

[seanus]

OK chaps. I haven't checked bios version yet, and i'm about to turn pute off and go to bed, so will update tomorrow.

Since i last posted this. there have been a number of changes.
1. I'm using Intel RAID accelerator 3.5.0.2568 to create the 2 raid0 stripes. so i guess i'm using software RAID. This works ish with 2 exceptions.
a) it is no quicker than my 80 gig drive listed earlier. In fact it might even be a tad slower.
b) once every 20-30 boots it still refuses to pick up the raid, or reports one of the volumes as missing. either by restablishing the RAID or rebootting it fixes it and this takes a few seconds..

2. So as yet, i still don't have a satisfactory RAID. I've been hoping, meaning to rebuild it with a hardware RAID, but haven't found the time since. (Need to get all my stuff back onto a single drive from a striped system!!! Ghost??).

I eventualy got answers frm intel and Epox who were right helpfull. It was the epox bios that fixed it. I will post the bios ASAP.

[seanus]

Oops i've just contradicted myself. Sorry i'm tired. I'll just get you the bioses. You have the Intel accelerator version there.

[Roady]

Lol sleep wel m8

Hope your bios wil fix this wierd problem!