SATA Drive problems.

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 01:50 PM

Has anyone else had problems with ASUS motherboards (I am using P5

and SATA drives not being detected? It seems I can only ever hook up 2 SATA drives... I have tried all sorts of combinations of BIOS settings and physical connection the the various SATA ports on the board. It is really pissing me off... search on the web seem to mention heaps of problems with SATA or RAID drivers and XP installs etc.. but I mean it does not even get recognised in the BIOS... is there a limit of NON RAID drives you can have or something? Is not making sense to me... not sure if the board if faulty or I am doing soemthing wrong or there is a limit???

Is just really shitting me...

Thoughts???

Klink · 29-07-2008, 01:54 PM

Generally motherboard will have a number of sata connectors... but its sometimes hard to figure out which "controller" those sata connectors are connected to.

A couple of things to check:
- Have you set the sata controller to active in the bios?
- What mode is the sata controller in?
- Is there a RAID controller configuration you can get into (usually pops up just after BIOS).

I havent dealt with ASUS mobos for a while, im almost entirely a Gigabyte kinda guy now.

Ambian · 29-07-2008, 02:14 PM

I recently got an Asus board (P5Q-Pro) and it was a real plug'n'play affair with 5 sata drives attached. This is my first Asus, and so far, pretty impressed.

On my last board (DFI), the BIOS had the option to disable the second SATA controller (which I did to shave off some boot time). It also had the option to set it to RAID or SATA, but either way, it would detect the drive in the BIOS or during POST... plus as Klink mentioned, the RAID bios should load and list connected devices also.

I'd say by default the ports would be configured for SATA anyways, so if they arent detecting and the bios is showing everything enabled and set to sata, then possibly something wrong with ports? cables? power? drives? Bios up to date?

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 02:52 PM

Thanks for the tips..

It seems like there are way too options... I remember and IDE drive you just plugged in and away you go... if I can remember correctly off the top of my head (PC is at home obviously) is that RAID is disabled and SATA is setup as ATA. On the MB there is a single SATA slot by itslef (which I believe is the RAID) and then 4 (2 red, 2 black) on another spot on the MB. Plus there is 1 external (eSATA) connector. For the SATA mode if I select AHCI it recognises the drives but then crashes when loading windows and continually fails, restarts, fails, restarts. I tried setting up RAID but that did not seem to work.. I have moved one drive onto the single SATA slot on the MB.. just nothing seems to quite work.. I remember having problems when I first got the PC as Windows XP does not recognise the drives and took forever to find a combination that works... and when I say works.. I bought a 120gig drive because windows doesn;t recognise anything above that as the only way it seemed to work??

I will go over your suggestions at home and try again, though I am very tempted to go get a Gigabyte board... I might be paying the price for being an early adopter of Core Duo as there were not many boards available when I got it and maybe the RAID/SATA/BIOS is a bit piss poor and there is nothing I can do about it... havign said that I have always loved ASUS stuff before...

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambian

I recently got an Asus board (P5Q-Pro) and it was a real plug'n'play affair with 5 sata drives attached. This is my first Asus, and so far, pretty impressed.

So you can just plug any SATA drive in and away you go... no stuffing around with RAID settings or whatever?

As I said I am wondering if ASUS had some issues with SATA/RAID setup on the early boards or if it might be an actual fault?

In the end as the new drive was in an external case I connected it up via USB and windows found it straight away and let me partition and format it up no worries. So I am going to knwo try it back as SATA as I presume SATA is much faster that USB2.

Klink · 29-07-2008, 02:57 PM

Have a good look at the manual mate. Those different colours for the sata connectors usually means different controllers. One is probably for a standard SATA controller and the other is probably for a RAID controller.

SATA indeed should be a simple plug and play affair. But dont forget SATA came into mainstream use after XP was released, and your board is miles ahead of what XP is designed to recognise to be plug and play.

I find installing XP is an absolute pain in the ass, because of the drivers you have to load via floppy (or use nlite if you are so inclined to slipstream the drivers).

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klink

I find installing XP is an absolute pain in the ass, because of the drivers you have to load via floppy .

+1 billion for that...

I was thinking of buying another copy of XP that should have SP2 included so it picks up this kind of stuff but not even sure that would work..

I have not looked into slipstreaming though I have heard it mentioned a fair few times.

Ambian · 29-07-2008, 03:25 PM

+1 for slipstreaming. Last time I bought a motherboard I slipstreamed the latest drivers into a build and that way the first install was effortless..

THIS time with the Asus though, my other machine died so I was not able to slipstream a build ahead of time ... on top of this, the motherboard didnt come with a floppy disk (and I dont have a floppy drive anyway) so I was a bit worried, but it detected the sata drive straight away and installed. Go figure.

It sounds strange to have one port of by itself ... sounds like it was meant for a pass-thru eSata connection or something? As mentioned the colours probably align with two different controllers ... either or both could be raid capable. Also check what the drive configuration is set to.... along with the ahci settings, the 'Legacy/Enhanced/Native' settings can complicate things (not usually with XP tho?)

Also ... perhaps reset the bios back to factory defaults/optimised defaults and try again. There could be a setting somewhere that has been set at sometime thats causing the problem ... *shrugs*

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambian

Also ... perhaps reset the bios back to factory defaults/optimised defaults and try again. There could be a setting somewhere that has been set at sometime thats causing the problem ... *shrugs*

Yeah i think I will double check I have the latest BIOS.. if not install it or otherwise reset to the defaults. I will probably try a new install of XP as well if I can get it to at least find the drive in POST.

I ams ure the manual (hard copy) did not mention the colours on the SATA but I will also check for a newer version of that as well...

Fun Fun Fun....

Gryphen · 29-07-2008, 06:57 PM

What's the actual board (ie P5B-VM ?)

Gryphen · 29-07-2008, 06:59 PM

You might need to enable the J-Micron port as well.

But be carefeul or rather aware that depending upon the actual model, you may find no IDE devices when this is enabled...

Seems its not the best MOBO for additional SATA drives (+ raid) as it has the older ICH8 (??) chip

Just read through the manual. http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/.../e2620_p5b.pdf

Have you got the SATA set to Enhanced IDE, and then all the SATA drives on the bios main page set to Auto?

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gryphen

What's the actual board (ie P5B-VM ?)

Just P5B

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gryphen

You might need to enable the J-Micron port as well.

But be carefeul or rather aware that depending upon the actual model, you may find no IDE devices when this is enabled...

Seems its not the best MOBO for additional SATA drives (+ raid) as it has the older ICH8 (??) chip

Just read through the manual. http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/.../e2620_p5b.pdf

Have you got the SATA set to Enhanced IDE, and then all the SATA drives on the bios main page set to Auto?

I just downloaded the new manual myself after checking the model number to reply to your post!

So I will have a look at it... yeah I think it might just be crap... yeah I have disconnected the IDE HD and DVD writer as that makes things even worse.. was going to try and get it workign with 3 SATA drives then see if I can get IDE working...

MikeC · 29-07-2008, 08:42 PM

If they're the ones i'm thinking about i have a couple at werk. They're a really weird mix of on-board features. Manual is a must, BIOS updates are probably a good idea too.

smeghead · 29-07-2008, 09:07 PM

As an IT person I standardised on ASUS a while ago. I agree that some models have a weird combo of chips & features but the P5 series has been very reliable for me as I have not had one fail going back years.

BIOS update is always the first thing I do, followed by reseting the mobo to BIOS defaults.

Many of the driver CD's are bootable & will let you build the floppies you need from their menu, try it.

Load SP2 straight up, if you have an older version you can load all bar the most recent cut of XP (the older one had a greenish sticker & the newer one blueish). I can provide an SP2 OEM disk assuming you have the license to suit.

Kingy · 29-07-2008, 09:22 PM

Thankyou all for you help... after many interations I finally have 3 x SATA drives and 2 x IDE drives working... I think the problem may have been trying to configure the eSATA drive... by setting SATA to IDE and Setting JMicron to Enabled and using IDE it all seemed to work once I plug the drive into the SATA port on the MB rather than then eSATA port.

Thanks again.

P.S If I was going to reinstall XP that woul probably be an issue again but at this stage I am happy to have the new drive as Data and if I decide to reinstall XP (like I do every now and then to clean it up) I can face that challege then!

Cheers.

D'Artagnan · 29-07-2008, 10:55 PM

Use nlite to slipstream the drivers as well mate. Heaps easier.

Kingy · 30-07-2008, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan

Use nlite to slipstream the drivers as well mate. Heaps easier.

Cheers I will look into nlite. I presume it is a free util you are talking about??

And also look at exporting the drivers using that double driver or whatever it was called Klink has previously mentioned.

D'Artagnan · 30-07-2008, 08:54 AM

nLite is free. Stick your XP cd in, select any pre-downloaded hotfixes and service packs (see http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/foru...ght=downloader). Enter your CD Key and select any option you want. Burn CD / DVD. Boot!

Kingy · 30-07-2008, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan

nLite is free. Stick your XP cd in, select any pre-downloaded hotfixes and service packs (see http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/foru...ght=downloader). Enter your CD Key and select any option you want. Burn CD / DVD. Boot!

Nooiceeee....

Thanks mate will look into it but sounds just what I need... I wonder if it can include the relevant RAID drivers that you have to press F6 and load... as I don't have a floppy anymore... but even if it doesn't the rest of it will be much easier.