Heeellllllppp!!**** Promise IDE Raid on K7T Turbo-R

[Tired of the Bull]

I do not wish to setup a Raid array but for some reason the computer does not see my drives.

I can go into the Promise setup during boot and it shows both my hard drives just fine but I can't get the system to boot from either or show them as being present if I boot from CD.

What do I have to do to make this work? Never had this type of problem with Highpoint that was on the BX-133. All I had to do was plug them in and turn it on.

Help......

 

[Tired of the Bull]

Help..

 

[bluesky]

Did you use Promise array setup utility?

 

[Zach]

Try setting the system BIOS to boot to SCSI?

Also, maybe you should just use the built in IDE to make sure the drives are fine then troubleshoot...

 

[Tired of the Bull]

Is there a way in the setup utility to just tell it to act as an ordinary IDE controller.

I don't want RAID. I bought this board because I like to run each device on it's own channel. With my old Abit BX-133 with a Highpoint RAID controller I just simply plugged everything and booted it. It never harassed me about setting up an array and all devices were detected automatically.

 

[billyjak]

Just swap it in an IDE port 1 or 2 and load the Promise drivers, shutdown and put your cable back on the IDE 3 or 4 then power up and you should have it.

 

[LXi]

HighPoint drivers can work with Promise controller?

 

[billyjak]

I know this, I corrected it, I use both and a simple typo error.

 

[bluesky]

You don't have to use raid, but you still have to use the utility.
Just follow the instruction(Ctrl+F?), and choose automatic setup, and make sure it is set up as boot drive.
I just put 1 hard drive on IDE 3. It's damn slow to boot, but it works.

 

[Tired of the Bull]

Bluesky,

When I do that it starts asking if I want it setup for performance or security I see scary words on the bottom half of the page like stripping and I don't want to loose any of my data. How would I set it up if I want to have one HD on each of the Promise channels but I don't want RAID, or the data on them to be screwed with.

 

[joeryu]

i have exact rpoblem, any way to do this??

 

[joeryu]

i put the drives back on native ata100 and the cdroms on the promise, but it wont detect in dos. HELP!

 

[blammo22]

I think this is the case, but check the manual to be sure:

If you want to just run one drive from the RAID controller, first connect it to the Via controller. Install the drivers for the Promise RAID controller (it should have come on a floppy with the board), and then shut down Windows. Move the drive to the RAID controller, and press Ctrl-F to enter the Promise setup utility when prompted. Use the automatic setup option, and set it to Performance and AV-Editing (although probably anything is fine). Then press Ctrl-Y to save the array, and reboot.

Hopefully, your data will be fine (like I said, check the manual for specific instructions - it had a section on setting up the drive with a current OS installed - although this was for a mirror setup). The RAID controller needs to write some info to the boot sector of the drive in order for you to use it - that's why you need to setup an array even if you only have one drive.

BTW, I'm running my single 20GB Barracuda ATA (and previously an IBM 45GB drive) off the RAID controller fine (I just set it up using the auto settings as described above). I reformatted anyways to do a clean install, but if I remember correctly my data was still on the drive after setting up the array. I personally think the Promise controllers (Ultra or Fastrak) or way better than the onboard Via one - much more responsive, IMHO. Good luck...

 

[blammo22]

jOjO316:

Make sure the cables are pushed into the motherboard IDE connectors good - sometimes they stick up a bit on one side... it can be hard to tell when the board is in your case with your drives/cables/etc.

Also, if you put CD-ROM drives on the Promise controller you (probably) won't be able to use it - the Turbo-R uses the Fastrak RAID controller, so it doesn't support IDE devices aside from hard drives. Promise Ultra66/100 controllers allow you to use CD-ROM/Zip/etc., but you still can't boot from them (or detect them in DOS, I expect). I recommend that you keep your boot disk on the Promise controller, and put your non-hard-disk devices on the onboard controller. (That's what I'm doing, anyways.)

 

[joeryu]

blammo i love you!! i thought about what you said and i decided to put only one drive in and i did the performance/av editing option and i can now see the drive, thanks again!

 

[Tired of the Bull]

jojo,

Did the drive have data on it? Is it still there?

 

[joeryu]

yes it had data on it, and all of it is still there. only think that annoys me a little is that under system properties it shows up as Promise 1+0 Stripe/RAID0 instead of the hardrive name under disk drives. im picky =). i ran sandra and my hardrives are around where they should be. (ibm 75 gxp ata100)

 

[joeryu]

if you have two hard drives like me, make sure to connect one at a time when setting up the array, cause that is what lets the bios let you setup array with only one disk. do this twice with each of the drives, then you can connect both and all will be fine.

 

[bluesky]

Did you guys measure the time to bootup on promise?
Does it take so long? Mine does, and I hate it.:disgust:

 

[blammo22]

bluesky:

I estimate that my boot time is around 1 min - a little slow (my Gigabyte setup seems to boot up twice as fast), but still bearable. My old A7V had a major delay (over 1 min) when loading the Ultra100 drivers - this was later fixed with new Promise drivers. Maybe the Fastrak is the same, and can be speeded up with new drivers... <fingers crossed>

 

[bluesky]

Man, 1 min. is much faster than mine.
I think my system takes about 1 min. to the Promise initialized.
If change my hdd to scsi on bios, it will help?

 

[blammo22]

Try putting your boot drive on the Promise controller, and set the boot option to SCSI (before IDE-x). You will need to set up an array like I mentioned above to boot off of the Promise controller. Also, make sure you loaded the drivers for the Fastrak that came with the motherboard - there was a single floppy (in an envelope) in my case. I think that on my old A7V, boot times increased a bit when no drives were attached to the Ultra100 controller - this could be what's causing your delay.

BTW, I'm running Win2K Pro right now. I also did a fresh install when I set up the board, so these could be differences in my setup...

 

[Tired of the Bull]

^^^

 

[Tired of the Bull]

Finally took the leap after I rounded a few cables. It worked fine, thanks to all for the assistance. I find this Promise Fasttrak Controller quite a pain compared to my previous Highpoint. I guess that's mainly because of the version MSI decided to use and the fact that I only want it for the extra IDE channels and not its RAID abilities.