3 SATA hard drives on P4C800-E?

M34speed

Junior Member
Jun 8, 2004
6
0
0
Hey guys, I posted a while ago about a P4C800-E that wouldn't post with video with a 3.2E processor. Well it turns out the procs were bad. But I'm here with a new question. I have 2 SATA 250 gig drives, and one 74 gig raptor drive.

I want to use the raptor as the primary hard drive, while using the 2 250 drives for storage. Its easy to set them up as a Raid 0, but with that..if one fails..you lose everything. Is it possible to connect them to the raid controller and just use them as individual drives?Example: so windows would see a drive C (raptor 74 gig), a drive d (first 250 gig), and a drive e (second 250 gig). Thanks for the help!
 

Megadth

Member
Jun 11, 2004
43
0
0
I don't see why you couldn't do that. Do you have the deluxe version with Promise and Intel SATA controllers. If so you can set bios up to use them as ATA and not raid drives. If not, you should be able to connect the 2 SATA as regular SATA drives and set your bios to boot from the Raptor, wherever it is hooked up to. Bios would recognize them as all different drives.

I have the deluxe version and it let's me pick what drive to boot from, so I could theoretically use both Intel and Promise controllers simultaneously, for 4 SATA drives, plus whatever I have hooked up on my PATA controllers and boot from any one of them. :)

Let me know how it works out.
 

M34speed

Junior Member
Jun 8, 2004
6
0
0
hmm interesting I do have the deluxe Version. I booted up the computer with all the drives attached. I had the Raptor plugged into the SATA1 port and I had the 2 250 GIG drives plugged into Raid 1 & 2. In the bios..it only saw the raptor. BUT..when I started to boot the system..the Promise controller saw the two 250 drives and asked if I wanted to set up an array. Is it possible the bios didn't see the 250 drives because I didn't change the jumpers? So you think this is possible? There is a setting in the bios whether you want them to be raid or just SATA drives?
 

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
7,430
0
71
Yes, you can hook up two 250GB SATA drives to a RAID controller and run them as standard (non-RAID) drives.

If you haven't set up any kind of RAID on the drives yet, they should boot up as normal, separate 250GB drives when hooked up. It's only with RAID that you have to do a bit of extra configuring.
 

M34speed

Junior Member
Jun 8, 2004
6
0
0
Well..from the testing I've done so far I can only see that I have one option and that is this: Hook the raptor up to SATA 1..and one of the 250 gigs up to SATA 2. Then hook the 2nd 250 gig up to SATA raid 1 and set it up as a single striped drive.

When I hooked both of the 250s up to the RAID..I didn't see them in the bios OR in windows setup. maybe i would have if I configured them as a Raid 0, but I want them seperate. Has anybody actually tried this? Or am I missing something?

So to conclude: I don't think there is a way you can have 2 drives plugged into the SATA RAID (not being used as a raid) and have them be detected under windows/the bios.
 

Megadth

Member
Jun 11, 2004
43
0
0
I forgot to add that if you are using the promise controller to select operating mode as IDE. This is under Onboard Device Configuration/Onboard Promise Controller. This will make sure the drives are seen, but will be showing as separate. For the Intel SATA Controller you do not need any additional drivers, the system will automatically see them as 2 separate drives.