Warning: nForce hates PATA => SATA converters

[NStriker]

After much struggling with my new MSI K8N I've been able to verify that the nForce IDE drivers (4.15 & 4.12 anyway) do not get along with SATA converters. Well, more specifically my Highpoint Rockethead 100s. The only way Windows 2K or XP will even boot is if the nForce IDE drivers are not installed on the SATA controllers you have the drives attached to.

No big whoop, eh? A lot of people don't trust or use those drivers anyway, right? And who still uses SATA converters anyway, huh? Okay, all valid points. Here's the trick though: nForce3 RAID requires the IDE driver to be installed as well as the RAID driver. Otherwise, it's an inaccessable boot device. I don't actually have any real SATA drives and I didn't intend to purchase new drives with this upgrade. I counted on this working.

Just a heads up, I guess.

-NStriker

 

[Odeen]

That's odd.

As far as I'm aware, PATA/SATA converters use the same Marvell chip that is installed on every "real" SATA drive. The only drives that are REAL SATA are Seagate and the new Maxtor Maxline.

Given the above, I can't fathom how a factory SATA drive would look any different to the controller than a "converted" PATA drive.

I have a pair of Abit Serillel2's that I've used successfully on ICH5R SATA, VT8237 SATA and SiL3112 SATA controllers. I'd be willing to bet they'd work on nVidia

You may want to crack open one of your Rocketheads and see which translator chip you have installed, maybe Highpoint's choice of chip is not as compatible as Marvell.