Halp! Syba ultra 133 card doesn't work

[Skypix7]

Hi: Hope someone can help me out here...this should have been straightforward, but something's not working.

I installed a Syba SD-SIL680-RAID card but I can't get it to work.


My system:
Windows 2000 pro, service pack 4
Pentium 2.4 Gig cpu
Wonderfully stable Asus P4PE motherboard
SCSI slide scanner card, NetGear DSL modem card, one PCI slot still open
1 gig memory
2 hard drives, 2 DVDs installed on 4 IDE connectors on mainboard

I installed the Ultra 133 Raid card in my PCI slot, connected the new hard drive (jumpered to "slave"), and booted up. The following messages showed:


Press F3 to enter RAID utility
then it searched for drives, and showed my new drive (which is still unformatted) as Set 1: (3)

it went through the usual system BIOS actions, but when it came time for Windows to load, it rebooted to the motherboard POST beep and went through the same steps again. If I let it run, it just kept going through the same loop and never loaded Windows.

But when I disconnect the drive from the card, the system boots normal. I went through the driver installation again because the first time it didn't go through with Windows 2000 wizard. This time Windows installed the card. The current driver it's using is:


provider: Silicon Image
date: 05/31/2002
version: 1.0.1.7
digital signer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher


In Device Manager, it shows the card is installed properly (no yellow exclamation points; properties says: "This device is working properly." and "no conflicts")


But as soon as I plug in the drive, on either connector, it goes back into the boot loop without loading Windows.

I have jumpered the drive to slave correctly. And connected the gray "slave" connector on the cable to the drive, and the blue connector to the card.


Thanks, I'm stumped, hope someone can tell me what bonehead thing I'm overlooking.


Jim Lawrence
skypix@taconic.net

 

[Mday]

when you want to move to raid, from a regular install, you have to either reinstall your operating system, or restore it from a backup using some utility such as ghost. this is especially true if you want raid 0.

when you implement raid, you must follow a step prior to fdisk and format, which is the creation of a raid array. if you dont do this, your system is pretty much stupid since it doesnt know what to do. in the creation of the array, data may be destroyed.

the controller has 2 channels, why are you using slave on it if you have only 2 HDDs? put each in it's own channel, and jumper them as master.

 

[Skypix7]

maybe that's the ticket...I should just set it as master (I think I'm confusing master with boot drive).

sounds like you're saying the card or system think I want to set up RAID, when all I want to do is add another drive, yes?

So I'll rejumper and reconnect for a master and see if that does the trick. That seems logical, since otherwise system works fine.

Someone also suggested my bios may not be able to handle anything over 137 Gigs, but the box the card came in says it will, so I'm hoping it's the master/slave thing.

thanks!

 

[Skypix7]

tried the master jumper thing: the system wouldn't even reboot, just hung with a black screen...I double checked the connections, rebooted...this time it booted up...but Windows and MaxBlast3 didn't find the drive...though Device Manager says the card is installed and working properly.

Dang, I was hoping that was it. NOw I'm really stumped, and I've had no reply from SYBA tech support email in two days.

Anybody else?

 

[StraightPipe]

Let me make sure I understand. you have 2 HD in sytem and 2 optical drives. (all work by them selves) when you add the card your ok, but the 3rd drive (which isnt actually in an array) keeps the system fro posting.

the raid card should be master (or CS) and needs to be at the end of it's IDE cable. youwill only have to format the new HD, unless you want to add an older HD to the array. once you get that straight you should be able to get back to windows.

you might have to reenter the RAID bios and set the drive to boot. (this really means that it will be the 1st booted drive on the card, not the whole system).

another thing once you get back to windows, you'll definately see the controller card once it's setup, but once the drive is there you'll need to check for it under hard disks in the device manager.

my last setup required me to use the disk manager to assign a drive letter the the RAID0 array.

if this doesnt fix ask again.

 

[jswjimmy]

i had the same prob with my ata133raid. put the harddrive and cdrom on the mobo install windows install drivers then put the harddrive back on the Syba SD-SIL680-RAID card

 

[jswjimmy]

see if that works

 

[jswjimmy]

o ya on the maxtor cd not the disk are the drivers. thats why you cant do it while installing windows("Press F3 to enter RAID utility
then it searched for drives, and showed my new drive (which is still unformatted) as Set 1: (3)"). so jest try what i sayed

 

[Skypix7]

thanks, I'm not sure what you meant by on the "Maxtor CD not the disk..." but thanks all for your suggestions and insights: here's where I'm at now:

I connected my E: drive (40 GB) to the card and it saw it immediately: booted up normally and E: is recognized. I had to go into Disk Management first, it wasn't immediately showing up on My Computer, but anyway there it is.

So now i know the card is fine. Now I'll follow your advice and format the drive while connected to the motherboard...that seems easy enough. Then we'll see if it can find it. My guess is it will. Hope so, because when I went to the Syba website to download the latest driver, they one they had for the card is five months older than the one that came with the card...so I'm out of luck if this doesn't work...although I only spent $20 for the card, so it's not the end o' the world...just a big pain in the tush.

thank you!

 

[jswjimmy]

no prob

 

[Mday]

i thought you were trying to boot from the card =\

 

[Skypix7]

thanks all, finally got the sucker working.

Anyone else who has this problem, the solution seems to be a simple one, though there's absolutely nothing in the documentation (which seems to be thorough but is one of those tiny-print 3-page jobs from Asia perhaps that requires a magnifying glass to read):

It was weird: with my old E. drive connected it worked fine...until I connected the new drive to the motherboard as a slave...then same problem. I tried booting from the Maxtor CD but it too wouldn't find the drive. I began to wonder if the drive was a dud, new out of the box. Stranger things have happened, etc.

Finally, the only option left was to plug the new drive in as a slave on the same cable as the E: drive. Presto! Maybe the stupid card needed to see two drives, can't say.

Anyway, from there it was a piece of cake: partitioned the drive into two 82 gig segments and I'm off and running. And it's fast: about twice as fast, based on opening an 80 mb file in Photoshop from the motherboard-connected drive and the PCI card drive.

Thanks all for your help. CASE CLOSED!