Silicon image 3114.

[Tlkki]

Can i use that controller to access data on my HDs and maybe even boot from one? Formatting is not an option.

 

[Steve]

What kind of controller were your drives last on?

 

[Tlkki]

the nforce sata-II controller. Theyre just basic drives, nothing fancy.
I can move them to another computer and theyre detected and all, but the SiI controller just says theyre not RAID and refuses to proceed further. Damn frustrating if you ask me.. sata controller unable to access sata devices.


edit:

Sorry im so pissed ATM its difficult to concentrate. Its the Silicon image 3114 controller integrated to the MSI Neo4 Platinum. There are 8 sata ports, and the SiI is responsible of 4 of those.

The 4 others are native to the nForce4 Ultra chipset, but the mobo is crappy, so they cause my system to BSOD if u use them all. (i wouldnt use more than i have to) Im using one port now.

 

[Steve]

Get into the BIOS of that board and see if the 3114's RAID feature can be turned off.

 

[Tlkki]

Theres only enable/disable switch for the entire chip.

 

[sjandrewbsme]

I have the SiL3114 on an older Gigabyte board - you can toggle it off and on AND switch from RAID to standard mode. They're in different portions of the BIOS. Standard on my board was RAID - it would not work with a regular IDE drive until I changed the BIOS from RAID to standard (or whatever it was called).

 

[Tlkki]

Well, im not that fortunate.

The only option in my BIOS is:

"OnBoard SiI3114 RAID enable/disable"

Disabled disables the whole thing, it wont get detected in windows. Pretty useless HUH?

 

[sjandrewbsme]

Mine had a two tier BIOS in addition to that - when the SiL3114 was on, it booted the main BIOS and then went into the SiL BIOS (like Atl-4 to enter or something like that). I don't think, on mine, that I chose the RAID/Non Raid in that (it was in the main BIOS) BIOS but you might want to check there.

Also, sometimes there are hidden BIOS options (you need to press something like Ctrl-F2 to access them). You might have something like that and it might be buried there.

 

[RebateMonger]

If your 3114 controller can ONLY handle SATA RAID arrays, and if your original drive(s) were not originally in RAID configuration, then you'll likely have to install a different SATA controller card. One that will handle non-RAID drives. Those only cost ten dollars (US) or so. Newegg recently had a 3152-based Rosewill adpater for $8 with free shipping.

(Note: Installing the Windows Update SATA drives for MY $8 Rosewill adapter took down my entire SBS 2003 server, but I'm assuming that was a "bad driver" issue and not a hardware issue.)

If you had a drive or drives that WERE installed in a RAID mode, then you'd need a near-identical RAID controller card (using the same or fully-compatable chipset). Otherwise, it'd be best to make a system backup, reformat the drive(s) on the new controller, and restore your sytem with the backups.