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#1
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A7N8X Deluxe SATA SetUp
I have seen several postings in last couple of weeks that for the most part
say subject MB will recognize and accept one or more SATA HDs, with or without any IDE HDs, and also can boot from said SATA Drive. However, no one seems to be able to go into detail about how to make this happen, just states it can be done. I am running the C1007 BIOS, and have installed first a single, then a second WD Caviar 120G SATA drive(s). The SATA driver is loaded as the Raid Controller shows up during boot sequencing, and can access the Raid configuration procedure (more on this later). Both SATA drives show up in the Control Panel under DRIVES, as does the RAID Controller under SCSI Controllers. However, I have found no way to get the BIOS to see or list any drives other than my singe WD CAviar 120G IDE drive C. If in fact this board can utilize one or more SATA drives, and/or boot from same, I would certainly appreciate it if the knowledgeable parties would patiently take me by the hand and lead me through the process, step by step. I am sure others would likewise be appreciative. I am not a novice, nor an expert, but cannot solve this one without a lot of hand holding. Some of my questions a 1. What advance preparation, if any, is required for the SATA drives in terms of partioning and formatting. Understand there is not Master/Slave relationship applicable as with IDE, but how about pinning of these drives? AT present both mine are unpinned. 2. How or can one get the BIOS to recognize and list these SATA drives and letter same? 3. What is procedure for Loading WinXP OS to a single SATA drive intending same to be the boot drive. WHat changes if any must be made in the BIOS? 4. What is procedure for copying an IDE boot drive (C) to a single SATA drive? WD provides no software as does Seagate and some others? Is the copy a simple copy C to some other letter, or must a specialized software be utilized? 5. On bootup sequence, following BIOS load, I get a message to hit F4 to enter the RAID setup, and it works. However, it recognizes and sees two drives listing them as 0 and 1. Am given several options all related to a RAID setup and maintenance. One is to CREATE a RAID configuration. I hit ENTER, and absolutely nothing happens, so am guessing there is something that must be done to the drives, but have'nt a clue what. WHile I do not at this time want to utilize a RAID SET, thought I would throw this phenomena in so perhaps someone can enlighten me about it too. I love this MB, but have had no experience with SATA drives or RAID. Have not found any web sites that provide the level of help I need at this point. I doubt I am alone, just willing to confess my ignorance and beg for help from those in the know. Am sure there will be more questions as lot of the time, responses cause same. Usually, if everyone hangs in there, it all eventually get pieced together and that is what hope happens here. Frankly, I suspect this particular MB does not support use of SATA drives in any mode other than RAID, but hope that is not the case. Sorry for the length of this plea. CAN ANYONE HELP? All responses appreciated, but those peculiar to this specific MB would be particularly useful. Thanks to any and all! |
#2
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Bill Tarkington wrote:
I have seen several postings in last couple of weeks that for the most part say subject MB will recognize and accept one or more SATA HDs, with or without any IDE HDs, and also can boot from said SATA Drive. However, no one seems to be able to go into detail about how to make this happen, just states it can be done. I am running the C1007 BIOS, and have installed first a single, then a second WD Caviar 120G SATA drive(s). The SATA driver is loaded as the Raid Controller shows up during boot sequencing, and can access the Raid configuration procedure (more on this later). Both SATA drives show up in the Control Panel under DRIVES, as does the RAID Controller under SCSI Controllers. However, I have found no way to get the BIOS to see or list any drives other than my singe WD CAviar 120G IDE drive C. If in fact this board can utilize one or more SATA drives, and/or boot from same, I would certainly appreciate it if the knowledgeable parties would patiently take me by the hand and lead me through the process, step by step. I am sure others would likewise be appreciative. I am not a novice, nor an expert, but cannot solve this one without a lot of hand holding. Some of my questions a 1. What advance preparation, if any, is required for the SATA drives in terms of partioning and formatting. Understand there is not Master/Slave relationship applicable as with IDE, but how about pinning of these drives? AT present both mine are unpinned. Dunno what you mean by pinning. 2. How or can one get the BIOS to recognize and list these SATA drives and letter same? The BIOS, as in the Award6 BIOS will not recognise the SATA drives, but after the BIOS has posted, you'll see the SiI 3112A "BIOS" come up, I don't recall the keys you have to enter maybe Ctrl-F2 or something, it tells you anyway - this is where you configure RAID... more on that later... 3. What is procedure for Loading WinXP OS to a single SATA drive intending same to be the boot drive. WHat changes if any must be made in the BIOS? Make sure you have the drivers extracted onto a floppy... check my FAQ ifor the latest drivers. Then boot from the Windows CD, hit F6 when prompted and insert the floppy. Select the appropriate driver. Continue as usual. Note: If installing to RAID, your partition must already be set up. As I understand it, for RAID you can do this from the SiI 3112A BIOS. In order to boot from the SATA drive, the easiest way is to set SCSI (bad name, it's the SATA controller) above IDE in the boot order. 4. What is procedure for copying an IDE boot drive (C) to a single SATA drive? WD provides no software as does Seagate and some others? Is the copy a simple copy C to some other letter, or must a specialized software be utilized? Ideally you need special software. Ghost is popular, but there are probably free versions.. never done it so can't tell ya'. You have to make sure that the drive (or more the the point, the partition) that holds the new copied version of Windows becomes Drive C when you change it over (or the same drive letter it was originally installed on) 5. On bootup sequence, following BIOS load, I get a message to hit F4 to enter the RAID setup, and it works. However, it recognizes and sees two drives listing them as 0 and 1. Am given several options all related to a RAID setup and maintenance. One is to CREATE a RAID configuration. I hit ENTER, and absolutely nothing happens, so am guessing there is something that must be done to the drives, but have'nt a clue what. WHile I do not at this time want to utilize a RAID SET, thought I would throw this phenomena in so perhaps someone can enlighten me about it too. Never tried it. Perhaps the drives must not be partitioned already. I would suspect that it can wipe them though, or at least inform you of the problem... nothing happening is probably not a good thing. I love this MB, but have had no experience with SATA drives or RAID. Have not found any web sites that provide the level of help I need at this point. I doubt I am alone, just willing to confess my ignorance and beg for help from those in the know. Am sure there will be more questions as lot of the time, responses cause same. Usually, if everyone hangs in there, it all eventually get pieced together and that is what hope happens here. Frankly, I suspect this particular MB does not support use of SATA drives in any mode other than RAID, but hope that is not the case Doing it without RAID is not a problem. I have a WD360 Raptor which is SATA and installed Win2K SP4 on it as the boot drive, as well as Linux. Absolutely no problems without RAID. It's the same as any other install... except that the OS needs to know about the SATA controller - it already knows about your IDE controller and has a driver, but needs a specific driver for the SATA controller. Sorry for the length of this plea. CAN ANYONE HELP? All responses appreciated, but those peculiar to this specific MB would be particularly useful. Thanks to any and all! No problems, if you can possibly try it, I'm usually around to help on-the-go (although you kinda gonna need a second machine to post and read this newsgroup), although I suspect it'll go easily when you try it, bearing in mind the controller driver. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#3
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Hi Ben: I was hoping you of all people would respond. Need to carefully
peruse your response, but I have already been to your web site and downloaded the drivers you recommend, except that when I click on the URL for Silicon Image, it goes to their home page where I have spent at least one hour trying to find something downloadable. Thought this site would provide the latest SATA 3112 driver. Did find a very small section or software associated with Storage. But, when click on it, just takes one back to the Home page. Ben, is there a driver to be downloaded here? IF so, I cannot locate it. If not, how do I locate the driver you referre to that goes on floppy? Also, I take it that the SATA drives never do show up in the BIOS? May be slow getting back to you if you respond to these questions as am leaving for Dallas, TX tomorrow and will not return until Sunday. Thanks, Bill "Ben Pope" wrote in message ... Bill Tarkington wrote: I have seen several postings in last couple of weeks that for the most part say subject MB will recognize and accept one or more SATA HDs, with or without any IDE HDs, and also can boot from said SATA Drive. However, no one seems to be able to go into detail about how to make this happen, just states it can be done. I am running the C1007 BIOS, and have installed first a single, then a second WD Caviar 120G SATA drive(s). The SATA driver is loaded as the Raid Controller shows up during boot sequencing, and can access the Raid configuration procedure (more on this later). Both SATA drives show up in the Control Panel under DRIVES, as does the RAID Controller under SCSI Controllers. However, I have found no way to get the BIOS to see or list any drives other than my singe WD CAviar 120G IDE drive C. If in fact this board can utilize one or more SATA drives, and/or boot from same, I would certainly appreciate it if the knowledgeable parties would patiently take me by the hand and lead me through the process, step by step. I am sure others would likewise be appreciative. I am not a novice, nor an expert, but cannot solve this one without a lot of hand holding. Some of my questions a 1. What advance preparation, if any, is required for the SATA drives in terms of partioning and formatting. Understand there is not Master/Slave relationship applicable as with IDE, but how about pinning of these drives? AT present both mine are unpinned. Dunno what you mean by pinning. 2. How or can one get the BIOS to recognize and list these SATA drives and letter same? The BIOS, as in the Award6 BIOS will not recognise the SATA drives, but after the BIOS has posted, you'll see the SiI 3112A "BIOS" come up, I don't recall the keys you have to enter maybe Ctrl-F2 or something, it tells you anyway - this is where you configure RAID... more on that later... 3. What is procedure for Loading WinXP OS to a single SATA drive intending same to be the boot drive. WHat changes if any must be made in the BIOS? Make sure you have the drivers extracted onto a floppy... check my FAQ ifor the latest drivers. Then boot from the Windows CD, hit F6 when prompted and insert the floppy. Select the appropriate driver. Continue as usual. Note: If installing to RAID, your partition must already be set up. As I understand it, for RAID you can do this from the SiI 3112A BIOS. In order to boot from the SATA drive, the easiest way is to set SCSI (bad name, it's the SATA controller) above IDE in the boot order. 4. What is procedure for copying an IDE boot drive (C) to a single SATA drive? WD provides no software as does Seagate and some others? Is the copy a simple copy C to some other letter, or must a specialized software be utilized? Ideally you need special software. Ghost is popular, but there are probably free versions.. never done it so can't tell ya'. You have to make sure that the drive (or more the the point, the partition) that holds the new copied version of Windows becomes Drive C when you change it over (or the same drive letter it was originally installed on) 5. On bootup sequence, following BIOS load, I get a message to hit F4 to enter the RAID setup, and it works. However, it recognizes and sees two drives listing them as 0 and 1. Am given several options all related to a RAID setup and maintenance. One is to CREATE a RAID configuration. I hit ENTER, and absolutely nothing happens, so am guessing there is something that must be done to the drives, but have'nt a clue what. WHile I do not at this time want to utilize a RAID SET, thought I would throw this phenomena in so perhaps someone can enlighten me about it too. Never tried it. Perhaps the drives must not be partitioned already. I would suspect that it can wipe them though, or at least inform you of the problem... nothing happening is probably not a good thing. I love this MB, but have had no experience with SATA drives or RAID. Have not found any web sites that provide the level of help I need at this point. I doubt I am alone, just willing to confess my ignorance and beg for help from those in the know. Am sure there will be more questions as lot of the time, responses cause same. Usually, if everyone hangs in there, it all eventually get pieced together and that is what hope happens here. Frankly, I suspect this particular MB does not support use of SATA drives in any mode other than RAID, but hope that is not the case Doing it without RAID is not a problem. I have a WD360 Raptor which is SATA and installed Win2K SP4 on it as the boot drive, as well as Linux. Absolutely no problems without RAID. It's the same as any other install... except that the OS needs to know about the SATA controller - it already knows about your IDE controller and has a driver, but needs a specific driver for the SATA controller. Sorry for the length of this plea. CAN ANYONE HELP? All responses appreciated, but those peculiar to this specific MB would be particularly useful. Thanks to any and all! No problems, if you can possibly try it, I'm usually around to help on-the-go (although you kinda gonna need a second machine to post and read this newsgroup), although I suspect it'll go easily when you try it, bearing in mind the controller driver. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#4
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Bill Tarkington wrote:
Hi Ben: I was hoping you of all people would respond. Need to carefully peruse your response, but I have already been to your web site and downloaded the drivers you recommend, except that when I click on the URL for Silicon Image, it goes to their home page where I have spent at least one hour trying to find something downloadable. Thought this site would provide the latest SATA 3112 driver. Did find a very small section or software associated with Storage. But, when click on it, just takes one back to the Home page. Ben, is there a driver to be downloaded here? IF so, I cannot locate it. If not, how do I locate the driver you referre to that goes on floppy? I'd give you a direct link, but it won't work, it requires a session ID which will be invalid. If you go to the link in my FAQ: http://www.siimage.com/products/sii3112.asp Then click the box that says "Product Support" next to Tech Docs, you'll get a new site (at 12.24.47.40). You want DOWNLOADS/Drivers/SiI3x12 and then the "Windows RAID Driver". http://12.24.47.40/utility/getfile.asp?rid=1734 Thats a direct link to the file, but it won;t work unless you already have a session on the server. It's a PITA and I may get around to automating the download using JavaScript. However I hate JavaScript and popup blockers will likely mess that up. Also, I take it that the SATA drives never do show up in the BIOS? Thats correct. May be slow getting back to you if you respond to these questions as am leaving for Dallas, TX tomorrow and will not return until Sunday. Thanks, Bill No problem, thread will be highlighted for a while... Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#5
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Thanks Ben
All this is very useful as is your site many thanks I have a working machine with single SATA drive booting to XP although I did not install the drivers. However I can not install and run Recovery Console - do you happen to know if that is because the drivers need to be installed seperately (i.e again) for that function? Reluctant to experiment in case i dig myself a hole but i would like to be able to get into recovery mode in case I ever need it! Eric "Ben Pope" wrote in message ... Bill Tarkington wrote: I have seen several postings in last couple of weeks that for the most part say subject MB will recognize and accept one or more SATA HDs, with or without any IDE HDs, and also can boot from said SATA Drive. However, no one seems to be able to go into detail about how to make this happen, just states it can be done. I am running the C1007 BIOS, and have installed first a single, then a second WD Caviar 120G SATA drive(s). The SATA driver is loaded as the Raid Controller shows up during boot sequencing, and can access the Raid configuration procedure (more on this later). Both SATA drives show up in the Control Panel under DRIVES, as does the RAID Controller under SCSI Controllers. However, I have found no way to get the BIOS to see or list any drives other than my singe WD CAviar 120G IDE drive C. If in fact this board can utilize one or more SATA drives, and/or boot from same, I would certainly appreciate it if the knowledgeable parties would patiently take me by the hand and lead me through the process, step by step. I am sure others would likewise be appreciative. I am not a novice, nor an expert, but cannot solve this one without a lot of hand holding. Some of my questions a 1. What advance preparation, if any, is required for the SATA drives in terms of partioning and formatting. Understand there is not Master/Slave relationship applicable as with IDE, but how about pinning of these drives? AT present both mine are unpinned. Dunno what you mean by pinning. 2. How or can one get the BIOS to recognize and list these SATA drives and letter same? The BIOS, as in the Award6 BIOS will not recognise the SATA drives, but after the BIOS has posted, you'll see the SiI 3112A "BIOS" come up, I don't recall the keys you have to enter maybe Ctrl-F2 or something, it tells you anyway - this is where you configure RAID... more on that later... 3. What is procedure for Loading WinXP OS to a single SATA drive intending same to be the boot drive. WHat changes if any must be made in the BIOS? Make sure you have the drivers extracted onto a floppy... check my FAQ ifor the latest drivers. Then boot from the Windows CD, hit F6 when prompted and insert the floppy. Select the appropriate driver. Continue as usual. Note: If installing to RAID, your partition must already be set up. As I understand it, for RAID you can do this from the SiI 3112A BIOS. In order to boot from the SATA drive, the easiest way is to set SCSI (bad name, it's the SATA controller) above IDE in the boot order. 4. What is procedure for copying an IDE boot drive (C) to a single SATA drive? WD provides no software as does Seagate and some others? Is the copy a simple copy C to some other letter, or must a specialized software be utilized? Ideally you need special software. Ghost is popular, but there are probably free versions.. never done it so can't tell ya'. You have to make sure that the drive (or more the the point, the partition) that holds the new copied version of Windows becomes Drive C when you change it over (or the same drive letter it was originally installed on) 5. On bootup sequence, following BIOS load, I get a message to hit F4 to enter the RAID setup, and it works. However, it recognizes and sees two drives listing them as 0 and 1. Am given several options all related to a RAID setup and maintenance. One is to CREATE a RAID configuration. I hit ENTER, and absolutely nothing happens, so am guessing there is something that must be done to the drives, but have'nt a clue what. WHile I do not at this time want to utilize a RAID SET, thought I would throw this phenomena in so perhaps someone can enlighten me about it too. Never tried it. Perhaps the drives must not be partitioned already. I would suspect that it can wipe them though, or at least inform you of the problem... nothing happening is probably not a good thing. I love this MB, but have had no experience with SATA drives or RAID. Have not found any web sites that provide the level of help I need at this point. I doubt I am alone, just willing to confess my ignorance and beg for help from those in the know. Am sure there will be more questions as lot of the time, responses cause same. Usually, if everyone hangs in there, it all eventually get pieced together and that is what hope happens here. Frankly, I suspect this particular MB does not support use of SATA drives in any mode other than RAID, but hope that is not the case Doing it without RAID is not a problem. I have a WD360 Raptor which is SATA and installed Win2K SP4 on it as the boot drive, as well as Linux. Absolutely no problems without RAID. It's the same as any other install... except that the OS needs to know about the SATA controller - it already knows about your IDE controller and has a driver, but needs a specific driver for the SATA controller. Sorry for the length of this plea. CAN ANYONE HELP? All responses appreciated, but those peculiar to this specific MB would be particularly useful. Thanks to any and all! No problems, if you can possibly try it, I'm usually around to help on-the-go (although you kinda gonna need a second machine to post and read this newsgroup), although I suspect it'll go easily when you try it, bearing in mind the controller driver. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#6
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Eric Carter wrote:
Thanks Ben All this is very useful as is your site many thanks I have a working machine with single SATA drive booting to XP although I did not install the drivers. However I can not install and run Recovery Console - do you happen to know if that is because the drivers need to be installed seperately (i.e again) for that function? Reluctant to experiment in case i dig myself a hole but i would like to be able to get into recovery mode in case I ever need it! I didn;t realise recovery console needed installing. Are the drivers for the SiI3112A installed now? I think it's quite possible that XP SP1 has drivers for it, but previous versions don't... Thats a guess, but would explain how you can install Windows "without a driver" for the SATA controller. Have no idea why you can't use recovery console. Works for me. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#7
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Hi Ben: Thanks for the prompt response. Well, I must confess that either I
am totally blind or totally stupid! Understood most of what you provided. Went to your site, clicked on SATA driver which took me to Silicon Image home page,but for the life of me, I just could not find any place thereon, the words "Product Support"?? I did find the words "Product Brief" listed just above the words Technical Documents. However,clicking on that gets me no where. I find no box specifying Product Support. Obviously I am missing something, please redirect me if you will. Ben, perhaps I do not need to get the SATA RAID driver cause think it is already loaded and working. When bootup, I get directions to hit F4, and when I do, it does take me to the RAID configuration facility. I thought your site was providing a pointer to perhaps a later driver than that provided me on the MB CD-Rom which is what I assume is working as described. What do you think about this? EIther way, once I have the driver in question, it is the SATA RAID driver I presume. The current one, however, provides no way I can see to address a single SATA drive, nor two except in a RAID configuration. So, if the objective with the driver is to gain entry to the RAID configuration, I do not understand what I am to do step by step once in there. Also, again I must ask, what preparation of the drive must I make, if any? Or, does the configuration facility take care of this automatically insome way? Once the drive is prepared, if needed, Precisely how does one go about loading Windows fresh, and/or making a bit for bit mirror image from an existing IDE boot drive (C)? Incidentally, you mentioned your BIOS was the Uber, guess the one your site lists. WHat the heck is UBER, anyway. I have never heard that expression before. Although I presently have the C1007 loaded, do you recommend the Uber instead for some reason, or perhaps it just does not matter for purposes of this discussion/education! Finally, I have seen elsewhere on this group, references stating that it is necessary to go into CMOS/BIOS and change first boot device to something other than IDE 0. One said to select SCSI. This reference was associated with another ASUS model board, but seemed like a logical thing to me. ANy comment on this? Recognize, this would likely be in play only if one is booting from a properly prepared and am guessing (lettered {C:}) SATA drive. May be getting way ahead of you, but just wanted you to see all the things I am wondering about. Thanks again for all you patience and help. "Ben Pope" wrote in message ... Bill Tarkington wrote: Hi Ben: I was hoping you of all people would respond. Need to carefully peruse your response, but I have already been to your web site and downloaded the drivers you recommend, except that when I click on the URL for Silicon Image, it goes to their home page where I have spent at least one hour trying to find something downloadable. Thought this site would provide the latest SATA 3112 driver. Did find a very small section or software associated with Storage. But, when click on it, just takes one back to the Home page. Ben, is there a driver to be downloaded here? IF so, I cannot locate it. If not, how do I locate the driver you referre to that goes on floppy? I'd give you a direct link, but it won't work, it requires a session ID which will be invalid. If you go to the link in my FAQ: http://www.siimage.com/products/sii3112.asp Then click the box that says "Product Support" next to Tech Docs, you'll get a new site (at 12.24.47.40). You want DOWNLOADS/Drivers/SiI3x12 and then the "Windows RAID Driver". http://12.24.47.40/utility/getfile.asp?rid=1734 Thats a direct link to the file, but it won;t work unless you already have a session on the server. It's a PITA and I may get around to automating the download using JavaScript. However I hate JavaScript and popup blockers will likely mess that up. Also, I take it that the SATA drives never do show up in the BIOS? Thats correct. May be slow getting back to you if you respond to these questions as am leaving for Dallas, TX tomorrow and will not return until Sunday. Thanks, Bill No problem, thread will be highlighted for a while... Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#8
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Bill Tarkington wrote:
Hi Ben: Thanks for the prompt response. Well, I must confess that either I am totally blind or totally stupid! Understood most of what you provided. Went to your site, clicked on SATA driver which took me to Silicon Image home page,but for the life of me, I just could not find any place thereon, the words "Product Support"?? I did find the words "Product Brief" listed just above the words Technical Documents. However,clicking on that gets me no where. I find no box specifying Product Support. Obviously I am missing something, please redirect me if you will. Think: Red Box. Now look again :-p Ben, perhaps I do not need to get the SATA RAID driver cause think it is already loaded and working. When bootup, I get directions to hit F4, and when I do, it does take me to the RAID configuration facility. I thought your site was providing a pointer to perhaps a later driver than that provided me on the MB CD-Rom which is what I assume is working as described. What do you think about this? Thats the SATA firmware, way before you need drivers. You can only update that with a motherboard BIOS update. Instructions in my FAQ :-) The one on the CDRom might be older, there have been some recent releases. EIther way, once I have the driver in question, it is the SATA RAID driver I presume. The current one, however, provides no way I can see to address a single SATA drive, nor two except in a RAID configuration. So, if the objective with the driver is to gain entry to the RAID configuration, I do not understand what I am to do step by step once in there. There is a "GUI" that allow some administration of the RAID. Should come with the driver. Also, again I must ask, what preparation of the drive must I make, if any? Or, does the configuration facility take care of this automatically insome way? Windows setup will partition and format a drive, empty or not. For RAID, as I understand it, you must first build the array. I doubt there is any preparation required for that, it should be doable from the F4 screen at startup. Once the drive is prepared, if needed, Precisely how does one go about loading Windows fresh, and/or making a bit for bit mirror image from an existing IDE boot drive (C)? To install Windows, whack the CD in the drive. Oh I should mention that the Jumper on the motherboard should be on for anybody else who does not see the SATA firmware come up, just after boot. Incidentally, you mentioned your BIOS was the Uber, guess the one your site lists. WHat the heck is UBER, anyway. I have never heard that expression before. Although I presently have the C1007 loaded, do you recommend the Uber instead for some reason, or perhaps it just does not matter for purposes of this discussion/education! The Uber is the standard BIOS with some more options enabled. Michael (the "author") has used a freely available tool to add those options. I might describe it in my FAQ, don't recall. I used to recommend the Uber when it had updated SATA firmware, but they're the same in the current release so take your pick. Not all of the options work, incidentally :-p Finally, I have seen elsewhere on this group, references stating that it is necessary to go into CMOS/BIOS and change first boot device to something other than IDE 0. One said to select SCSI. This reference was associated with another ASUS model board, but seemed like a logical thing to me. ANy comment on this? Recognize, this would likely be in play only if one is booting from a properly prepared and am guessing (lettered {C:}) SATA drive. I think I've said that many times in the newsgroup :-p Not necessarily Drive C:, but yes, usually. For Windows it's just easier. May be getting way ahead of you, but just wanted you to see all the things I am wondering about. Thanks again for all you patience and help. No problem. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
#9
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Ben, hope you are still with me. I never was able to locate the driver in
the way you described, but somehow did get it, I think? I somehow in someway I have not been able to reproduce got to a download page at the site you referenced. I downloaded the following files: 1. 3112 x86 rdvr logo 10050.zip 2. Java RAID GUI-113.zip. Am i correct that the first, is the driver I was looking for? If so, I followed the instructions for its installation via the SCSI controller entry in Device Manager utilizing the driver update wizard. Directed it to a floppy containing driver. Result was that it gave me a message indicating it could find nothing better than what was already installed. From this I assume I already have the above driver installed? Ben, what the heck is the RAID GUI file all about? Have not attempted to install it pending more knowledge of same and necessity, if any, for it. Comments, if any, on anything above? Thanks, Bill "Ben Pope" wrote in message ... Bill Tarkington wrote: Hi Ben: Thanks for the prompt response. Well, I must confess that either I am totally blind or totally stupid! Understood most of what you provided. Went to your site, clicked on SATA driver which took me to Silicon Image home page,but for the life of me, I just could not find any place thereon, the words "Product Support"?? I did find the words "Product Brief" listed just above the words Technical Documents. However,clicking on that gets me no where. I find no box specifying Product Support. Obviously I am missing something, please redirect me if you will. Think: Red Box. Now look again :-p Ben, perhaps I do not need to get the SATA RAID driver cause think it is already loaded and working. When bootup, I get directions to hit F4, and when I do, it does take me to the RAID configuration facility. I thought your site was providing a pointer to perhaps a later driver than that provided me on the MB CD-Rom which is what I assume is working as described. What do you think about this? Thats the SATA firmware, way before you need drivers. You can only update that with a motherboard BIOS update. Instructions in my FAQ :-) The one on the CDRom might be older, there have been some recent releases. EIther way, once I have the driver in question, it is the SATA RAID driver I presume. The current one, however, provides no way I can see to address a single SATA drive, nor two except in a RAID configuration. So, if the objective with the driver is to gain entry to the RAID configuration, I do not understand what I am to do step by step once in there. There is a "GUI" that allow some administration of the RAID. Should come with the driver. Also, again I must ask, what preparation of the drive must I make, if any? Or, does the configuration facility take care of this automatically insome way? Windows setup will partition and format a drive, empty or not. For RAID, as I understand it, you must first build the array. I doubt there is any preparation required for that, it should be doable from the F4 screen at startup. Once the drive is prepared, if needed, Precisely how does one go about loading Windows fresh, and/or making a bit for bit mirror image from an existing IDE boot drive (C)? To install Windows, whack the CD in the drive. Oh I should mention that the Jumper on the motherboard should be on for anybody else who does not see the SATA firmware come up, just after boot. Incidentally, you mentioned your BIOS was the Uber, guess the one your site lists. WHat the heck is UBER, anyway. I have never heard that expression before. Although I presently have the C1007 loaded, do you recommend the Uber instead for some reason, or perhaps it just does not matter for purposes of this discussion/education! The Uber is the standard BIOS with some more options enabled. Michael (the "author") has used a freely available tool to add those options. I might describe it in my FAQ, don't recall. I used to recommend the Uber when it had updated SATA firmware, but they're the same in the current release so take your pick. Not all of the options work, incidentally :-p Finally, I have seen elsewhere on this group, references stating that it is necessary to go into CMOS/BIOS and change first boot device to something other than IDE 0. One said to select SCSI. This reference was associated with another ASUS model board, but seemed like a logical thing to me. ANy comment on this? Recognize, this would likely be in play only if one is booting from a properly prepared and am guessing (lettered {C:}) SATA drive. I think I've said that many times in the newsgroup :-p Not necessarily Drive C:, but yes, usually. For Windows it's just easier. May be getting way ahead of you, but just wanted you to see all the things I am wondering about. Thanks again for all you patience and help. No problem. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
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Thanks Ben
Alas I have no idea how the original Win XP installation was carried out - maybe the drivers were on XP+SP1 or they used the SI drivers. The issue is Win XP is up and running - recovery console will not and perhaps I need to install the divers for that separately. What i think I will do is aquire a second SATA drive and experiment until I figure it out. Thanks for the suggestions Eric "Ben Pope" wrote in message ... Eric Carter wrote: Thanks Ben All this is very useful as is your site many thanks I have a working machine with single SATA drive booting to XP although I did not install the drivers. However I can not install and run Recovery Console - do you happen to know if that is because the drivers need to be installed seperately (i.e again) for that function? Reluctant to experiment in case i dig myself a hole but i would like to be able to get into recovery mode in case I ever need it! I didn;t realise recovery console needed installing. Are the drivers for the SiI3112A installed now? I think it's quite possible that XP SP1 has drivers for it, but previous versions don't... Thats a guess, but would explain how you can install Windows "without a driver" for the SATA controller. Have no idea why you can't use recovery console. Works for me. Ben -- A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups. I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String... |
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