Can I Run 5 IDE Devices on a Raid board?

[bbrener]

Most mobo's support 4 IDE devices. However Raid boards support 8 IDE devices (e.g. ABIT KT7A-RAID). I need some advice as to whether I can support 5 IDE devices (3 IDE HD and 2 IDE CDRW/CDROM) on these without running in any kind of Raid configuration. I don't need or want Raid, only the support of 5 IDE devices without installing a Promise card. I would use either Win2K or WinXP
Thanks in advance

 

[Sabbathian]

You can do it without any problems

 

[gaidin123]

The answer is yes or no depending on your motherboard's RAID implementation.

On my KT7-RAID for example, it lets me use the 2 IDE RAID ports as normal IDE ports for hard drives. They never recommend using optical or other IDE devices other than hard drives for the RAID controller ports. But for some motherboards, I believe that as a cost cutting measure, they disable certain features like RAID 0+1 and being able to use the IDE RAID ports as standard ports.

So in your case you would probably want to put your boot drive as your primary master on the onboard IDE controller, your 2 optical drives as secondary master and slave, and your other 2 hard drives onto the RAID controller providing that your motherboard lets you do this. Check your manual or the manufacturer's support site.

Gaidin

 

[tazdevl]

gaidin123 is correct. For example, if you have a Soyo Dragon, Dragon+, or Abit KR7A... you can use up to 8 IDE devices. However if you have the MSI Pro2 RU or the Asus A7V266E you cannot. The RAID channels cannot be configured for IDE.

Have to check the manual or motherboard manufacturer specs online.

 

[SHOfear]

the raid only thing may not be true, please see promise section of the lost circuits review

i guess we have to wait until a few more people actually get their boards to see if this is true or not.
(my a7v133 has the promise chip onboard, and there is a jumper to switch it between raid and uata100 mode, so i dont see why asus would change, but who knows)

 

[bluesky]

<< The on-board Promise PDC20265R controller can be used in either UATA 100 or RAID 0,1 mode.
The default is set via jumper to ATA 100, if the additional channels are used for RAID, the jumper needs to be switched to short pins 2-3.
Unfortunately, there is no possibility to completely disable the controller which causes search for devices on every boot-up and is kind of a nuisance. >>


-From SHOfear's link.

I'm using A7V133 and using 2 cd roms and 3 hds.
There is no indication that Asus has changed anything on Promise controller for A7V266-E.

 

[IntelConvert]

<< I don't need or want Raid, only the support of 5 IDE devices without installing a Promise card. I would use either Win2K or WinXP >>

bbrener: If that's what you want to do, why get a RAID mobo when you can get a less expensive non-RAID mobo and add a cheap and no compromise ATA100 PCI controller card?

 

[bbrener]

I have a standalone Promise card now, but I find it to be a problem occasionally. First, it takes a PCI slot and while most mobos have 5 or 6 PCI slots, some of them have problems at the high end and LAN and sound cards should take up slots 2 and 3. So they are not all usable. Secondly, and more importantly, there are some DOS based utility programs that I use that simply won't recognize hard drives attached to the Promise. One example is BootMagic. So I can do what you suggest, butI figured if I was buying a new board I might as well get it incorporated and seemless.
My experience is also that Promise does not like UDMA 66 IDE and CDR's attached together. Also, Promise card as i recall costs around $50 or so, so price saving is marginal at best.
Thanks for the suggestion. I may in the end go with that solution.

 

[bluesky]

I can't say other Dos programs, but Bootmagic works fine w/promise controller on A7v133, probably with all Asus boards.

I'm going to upgrade to Asus A7V266-E in 2 weeks. I checked the manual and yes, it supports ATA100 or Raid 0,1 on Promise controller.