Which SATA controller card do I need?

[angminas]

The SATA ports on my motherboard are bad. Two don't work, one works very poorly, and one works sorta poorly. I just want to bypass them and keep all the hardware I have now. I'm using one 1TB hard drive, and I need to use non-RAID mode. I need a PCI interface and at least one internal SATA port. I know almost nothing about RAID.

First I bought this and it failed to initialize, so I'd prefer to buy from another company: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816124013

Then I bought this, and it looks like it won't work with a single hard drive (all the options in the manual required at least 2): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...012&Tpk=rc-215

Now I'm considering this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816132009

Am I missing something? The manufacturer page says the only difference between the rc-215 (the one I have) and the rc-212 (the one I'm considering buying) is the external ports. All the guts are the same. Why would one work with a single hard drive, but not the other? Is this just poor documentation? Should I keep my current card, and somebody here will know how to make it work? I'm using an existing installation of WinXP, and I do not want to format.

Thanks very much for the input.

 

[Phynaz]

I'd bet you're having a software issue. Time for a clean install.

 

[fzabkar]

Those boards appear to be based around VIA's VT6421 controller.

http://www.rosewill.com/products/d_983/productDetail.htm

The VT6421 has a 1.5Gbps limitation that prevents it from connecting with 3Gbps HDDs.

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Sata_via

 

[bryanl]

Those boards appear to be based around VIA's VT6421 controller.

http://www.rosewill.com/products/d_983/productDetail.htm

The VT6421 has a 1.5Gbps limitation that prevents it from connecting with 3Gbps HDDs.

VIA came out with a revision chip, VT6421A, that overcomes the speed limitation, at least with samples made since 2009 or 2010, and the Rosewill card uses that chip (dated 2007 in picture). I've run generic VT6421A controllers with Hitachi 3Gbps/6Gbps HDDs, which cannot be configured for 1.5Gbps, I believe.

angminas: Both Rosewill controllers in your links use the same VIA VT6421A chip, and neither has be run with RAID, that is, with 2 HDDs. The cards are identical except one has external SATA connectors (only 2 HDDs can be connected at once, despite the card having 4 SATA connectors). The first card in your link uses a Silicon Image chip and should have worked, but there can be conflicts between any controller chip and the controllers built into on some motherboards, either due to the BIOS or the driver software, and I believe the latter is your problem.