• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

KT7A-RAID + 2X IBM 45 GB GXP - Anyone getting this to work?

G

grendelkhan

Member
I have tried in vain to get this working with 2 drives both as primary masters on the HPT-370 controllers, all with zero success.

While the system may appear stable in a non-RAID config, if I try to copy ANYTHING between the two drives (with both as masters) it's instant lockup. Run them in a master/slave config on the same channel: no problems whatsoever.

Is there anyone who has gotten this to work, and if so, what cards do you have, what slots are they in, and what BIOS setttings and version are you using?

My system:

PCI6: Intel Ether ExpressPro
PCI5: Empty
PCI4: SB Live Value
PCI3: Non-bootable Adaptec SCSI -External connector only (scanner card)
PCI2: Empty
PCI1: Empty
AGP: AOpen Geforce 2 GTS

Memory: 512MB Infineon CAS2
BIOS: wz110b (just flashed!)
Memory is set to Turbo/force 4 Way Interleave
AGP is at 2X
 
I'm running 2 20GB IBM's , in RAID though, and am not having any problems with copying any size files. Do you have the 103b1 drivers installed for your highpoint controller?
 
I am runnign 2 30 gig MAxtor ATA 100s and its working perfectly. SO much for IBMs being better for raid huh? well atleast in my case. ehhe. I think the new Maxtor drives are excellent and they get a bad rap.
 
What Bios are you using...there is a new WZ bios that has the following listed as a fix...

"Fixes the booting issue with AHA 29160N/2940U2W/2940U SCSI cards with
BIOS version 2.57.2"

Not sure what card you have, but maybe you should give it a try.. You can get it here.
 
No desire to sell, just to get this working the way it should.

I've upgraded to the latest BIOS from Abit (WZ110b) and I'm running the latest Highpoint drivers as well.

I've seen some threads here as well as on athlonmb.com about 45gb desktstars having issues...

And you know I was *THIS* close to getting the 30gb drives instead, but the price was too schweet.

Ugh.
 
Oh yeah, something else, EVERYTHING in my system is on IRQ 11. Every stinking card sits there!!! When I'm looking at it in the POST, things look to be evenly distributed. Any way this could be contributing?
 
grendelkhan,
I have 2 of those as master on HPT IDE3 & IDE4 configured in RAID0, and everything is running perfectly now, although I had to resolve some performance issues under W2K.

First thing, my system:

PCI6: Empty
PCI5: Empty
PCI4: SB Live!
PCI3: Empty
PCI2: Riva 128 ZX PCI (definitely upgrade needed...)
PCI1: NIC based on Realtek chip
AGP: Empty

ABIT KT7A-RAID wz final w/103b1 drivers
T-Bird: 650@770 (5.5x140) vcore 1.8 i/o 3.7
2x128MB Kingmax Tiny BGA PC-150
all BIOS settings maxed out (CAS2, Turbo, Force 4 Way Interleave etc)
OS: dual boot - WinME/W2K

From what you say I assume that you have installed W2K. It's common for a number of devices to share a single IRQ under W2K when ACPI is enabled (and it's enabled by default unless you disable it). I have 4 devices sharing IRQ11 under W2K.

Before I tell you how to disable ACPI, try to install VIA 4-in-1 drivers just after you run W2K for the first time but WITHOUT! Ultra ATA IDE Busmaster drivers (uncheck the first box during installation). THIS PROCEDURE SHOULD BE FOLLOWED ONLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY HARD DRIVES CONNECTED TO IDE1 OR IDE2 CHANNELS. I used the latest 4.28 final version and it boosted my read/write performance under W2K.

If this does not help try do disable ACPI. I know of 3 ways you can do this:

-> on already installed system
1. Go to Device Manager and select Computer -> Properties of ACPI PC
2. Click the driver Tab and choose Update Driver
3. When the wizard gets to the "What do you want the wizard to do?" page select "Display a list of the known drivers..."
4. Then "Show all hardware of this device class"
5. Then select "Standard PC"
6. Reboot the machine
7. When Windows 2000 restarts it'll redetect most of the hardware in your machine again and reassign IRQ's to them, turning off ACPI.

-> during installation
After the first reboot when it say smth like "press F6 to set SCSI devices" at the bottom the screen press F5 or F7 (don't recall which one) and choose "Standerd PC"

-> before installation
You can download from the net a modified BIOS with an option to disable ACPI.


Hope this helps, GOOD LUCK!
 
Thanks cornholio, I'm going to give that a shot after I finish a Visual Basic assignment due today (an aside: college sucks, don't let anyone tell you how great it is!)

I do have a quick question on using the "Standard PC" option during the Win2k install, how can I set that up AND feed it the drivers for the HPT370?

I think that will be the kicker for me as I even get lockups during the install phase, usually right at the end during the Registering Components / Saving Settings part.

Okay, definately going to spend some time doing this after I get things backed up tonight!

Thanks for the help!
 
grendelkhan,
a very good question there. I used this way to disable ACPI for a short time when I had only one hdd on my IDE1. After I bought my second IBM drive and switched to HPT370 I found that Windows setup would not allow me to use both F7 for choosing "Standard PC" and then F6 to install HPT370 drivers (it had to be either F6 or F7) so as an obvious consequence I had to disable ACPI after the installation of W2K.

Unfortunately, looks like this tip is of no use to you and all other people running their drives on HPT370 unless there is some way to do both that I don't know about. Maybe someone else reading this board could help us out here.

Bad luck that you can't get through the complete install process, however if everything else fails try to check out the Microsoft site. There are a number of switches that can be typed after the 'winnt' command to install windows. It's very likely that one of them would allow you to switch off ACPI (just like the 'setup /p i' for Windows 98). If not the switches than maybe a file named UNATTEND.TXT (a sample of which you can probably find in your w2k\i386 directory on a CD) which can be customised and is used by system admins to install W2K on many different machines without a single prompt for a user action (it works like the switches, you type 'winnt' followed by the name of your customised file i.e. 'winnt unattend.txt'.

Sorry, that I can't give you any more details here, but I'm trying to point you in the right direction. Maybe something of this will work for you.

Once again, good luck!
 
HAIL CORNHOLIO!!!

1. Set up RAID-0 with HD's as master/master
2. Yank out every damn PCI card except my NIC
3. Install as normal
4. Throw in graphics drivers
5. Test RAID config for stability
6. Rejoice to the high heavens
7. Yank out ACPI for Standard PC in device mangler
8. Reboot a couple times and feed in needed drivers
9. Slap in other PCI cards one by one
10. Continue to check for stability on HD's
11. Swap out cards into other slots as needed to get f%#king computer to boot
12. Rejoice at stable system with RAID-0 running at high speed!

Good lord but that was a long two hours!!
Finally this damn thing works the way I want it to!! Mind you, I'm pissed that I had to go this far, but hey, it's finally (a month later) working right and firing on all cylinders!

Thanks mucho to all that steered me in the right direction. My wife says to me "What would you do with those BBS's to help you figure this stuff out?"

God bless the internet and God bless Anandtech Forums!

Now I'm going to finish installing all my goodies!
 
Wohaaaa!!! grendelkhan, you did it!
Congrats man. That's the spirit I like. NEVER GIVE UP!

I spent myself like 3 weeks before everything worked the way I wanted. But now it's pure joy and it f#%king rocks, although i need to upgrade my graphics card.

Anyway, I'm glad that I could be of any assistance.
Take care my friend...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top