Hard drive not listed in my system..?IDE drive limit

[meghaduta]

Hello all,
My saga of trying to install a new hard drive continues. I have the following computer configuration:

Abit KR7A Raid with Athlon XP1700+
1 GB Crucial DDR Ram
Windows XP Pro
Boot drive WD 100GB 2MB buffer partitioned into C: (25GB, system) and Z75GB) with NTFS and Partition Magic 7 (on Highpoint raid controller, primary master)
2nd physical drive Quantum Fireball 30GB (primary slave)
IDE floppy drive
Lite-On 241040 on IDE (master)
ATAPI 44X CDRom on IDE (slave)
Dell USB keyboard
Logitech USB scroll mouse (hooked to the keyboard)

I was planning to install a 2nd WD 100GB 2MB buffer drive as a RAID drive but reading about data loss issues with RAID 0 and reduced disk space with RAID 1 (essentially halved) I decided to give up on RAID. I wanted to install this hard drive as a 3rd physical drive. I hooked this up to the other Highpoint RAID controller IDE slot as a secondary master (initially one drive only and then as cable select on the hard drive jumper pins). However Windows XP does not show it in the My Computer listings. It does appear in the initial boot screen and also under Windows System device listings. However in this listing 'Use this device' option is greyed out and I cannot enable it.

Is there a 4 IDE device limit for my configuration and have I exceeded it? Is there any way around it?

I also have a problem using my keyboard during the initial startup process to access the BIOS. I've never really had to adjust the BIOS but I was wondering if my 2nd IDE controller is disabled in BIOS. However I can't get to the BIOS setup at startup. Do I have to use a PS/2 keyboard at boot up to access the BIOS? I've read somewhere that USB keyboards may not be enabled at startup in some BIOS'. I have the original Abit Award BIOS that came with this board.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I am not familiar with your motherboard, but you need to look in your manual to see how you you can set up an aditional drive and not be in a raid situation. Also updating the bios might fix some old bugs, but only do it if you feel comfortable do it. i have had a flash fail and ended up with a dead motherboard. I had to get a new bios chip to fix it. As far as using a usb keyboard, I'm not sure.

Good luck

Will

 

[kursplat]

However I can't get to the BIOS setup at startup. Do I have to use a PS/2 keyboard at boot up to access the BIOS? I've read somewhere that USB keyboards may not be enabled at startup in some BIOS'. I have the original Abit Award BIOS that came with this board.

you might need to start with a PS2 keyboard and get to the bios to enable "USB Keyboard support" . otherwise it's probably waiting for the OS to load the drivers .
good luck

 

[meghaduta]

Thank you all. I actually managed to get to my BIOS by resetting the CMOS. This somehow enabled my keyboard to work at startup (don't ask how!) and I subsequently enabled my BIOS to read my keyboard through the BIOS rather than the OS. It has worked fine since.
As far as the hard drive I ran Partition Magic 7.0 and it recognized the 3rd physical hard drive and let me 'enable' it. The drive then showed up in My Computer drive listings and I could format and use it without a problem. I'm still running the 3 hard drives through the Highpoint RAID controller pins (without RAIDing them). It seems to be working fine. I think the onboard RAID pins allow 4 additional IDE devices (2 master and 2 slave) on top of the 2 on board IDE controller pins that also allow 4 (2 master and 2 slave devices).
Now I just have to figure out what to put on all these drives (230 GB in all!)