Hi,

I have that motherboard, but I have a question that I can not get any answer
from Asus or the Mobo's instruction

I already have the nVIdia SATA controler fill, and when I try to add another to
the second SATA connector set, all I get is an error message telling me that
there is no proper device connected, but that same drive if I connect it to the
other SATA connector set is seen and working (BTW the error happebes whatever
drive is connected)

If it needs to be a RAID, what good is it to put them there, when I pay over
$700 for 2x400Gb HDD, I want to be able to use the whole 800Gb for data

--
Thank you in Advance

Merci a l'Avance

Martin

Kinda confusing. You say you have the sata controller fill(filled?) and you
want to add another drive? or another controller?
I think you might want to check your BIOS settings.

"Martin Racette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:MdHjf.7040$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I have that motherboard, but I have a question that I can not get any
answer
> from Asus or the Mobo's instruction
>
> I already have the nVIdia SATA controler fill, and when I try to add
another to
> the second SATA connector set, all I get is an error message telling me
that
> there is no proper device connected, but that same drive if I connect it
to the
> other SATA connector set is seen and working (BTW the error happebes
whatever
> drive is connected)
>
> If it needs to be a RAID, what good is it to put them there, when I pay
over
> $700 for 2x400Gb HDD, I want to be able to use the whole 800Gb for data
>
> --
> Thank you in Advance
>
> Merci a l'Avance
>
> Martin
>
>

I want to add another drive to the second controlor, and the BIOS setting all I
have is enable or disable for the second controler

--
Thank you in Advance

Merci a l'Avance

Martin

"dawg" <don't (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:i_Ijf.205154$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Kinda confusing. You say you have the sata controller fill(filled?) and you
> want to add another drive? or another controller?
> I think you might want to check your BIOS settings.
>
> "Martin Racette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:MdHjf.7040$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have that motherboard, but I have a question that I can not get any
> answer
>> from Asus or the Mobo's instruction
>>
>> I already have the nVIdia SATA controler fill, and when I try to add
> another to
>> the second SATA connector set, all I get is an error message telling me
> that
>> there is no proper device connected, but that same drive if I connect it
> to the
>> other SATA connector set is seen and working (BTW the error happebes
> whatever
>> drive is connected)
>>
>> If it needs to be a RAID, what good is it to put them there, when I pay
> over
>> $700 for 2x400Gb HDD, I want to be able to use the whole 800Gb for data
>>
>> --
>> Thank you in Advance
>>
>> Merci a l'Avance
>>
>> Martin
>>
>>
>
>

I have a SATA RAID configuration. I use stripping which makes two HD's look
like one and doubles the space. The other option is mirroring which just
make the HD's look the same for backup purposes in case one of them fails.


"Martin Racette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:MdHjf.7040$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I have that motherboard, but I have a question that I can not get any
> answer from Asus or the Mobo's instruction
>
> I already have the nVIdia SATA controler fill, and when I try to add
> another to the second SATA connector set, all I get is an error message
> telling me that there is no proper device connected, but that same drive
> if I connect it to the other SATA connector set is seen and working (BTW
> the error happebes whatever drive is connected)
>
> If it needs to be a RAID, what good is it to put them there, when I pay
> over $700 for 2x400Gb HDD, I want to be able to use the whole 800Gb for
> data
>
> --
> Thank you in Advance
>
> Merci a l'Avance
>
> Martin
>
>

In article <C6Jjf.7098$(E-Mail Removed)>, "Martin Racette"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I want to add another drive to the second controlor, and the BIOS
> setting all I have is enable or disable for the second controler

I still don't know if I understand your question. Yes, the Nvidia
interface has some direct control in the BIOS. Remember that the
Nvidia ports are part of the "chipset", and chipset interfaces
get a "place of honor" in the main part of the BIOS.

Add-in controllers, are separate chips. Each chip which is added
to a motherboard, but is not part of the chipset, may have a
body of code called the "Option ROM". This is added to the BIOS
flash file, but is, in a sense, a separate piece of code. In
your case, pressing F4 in the BIOS, gains access to the interface
provided by the Option ROM code.

That being said:

1) In Onboard Devices, set "Silicon SATA Controller" [Enabled]
It is set that way by default. Do a Save and Exit, to save
the new setting. I think that is necessary to get the
controller to appear on the PCI bus. If disabled, you might
not be able to see the chip when using Everest Home Edition
(lavalys.com).

2a) The next time you start the BIOS, press <control-S> or
press F4. The Silicon Image RAID BIOS screen should
appear. See section 5.5.3 in the A8N-SLI Deluxe manual,
for instructions on what to do next. Note - Use this
interface, if you wish to set up a RAID array, or if
you want to do JBOD.

2b) If you want to use the disks separately, as IDE devices
but not as RAID, don't bother entering the RAID BIOS. The
consequences of doing this, AFAIK, is you cannot boot from
that disk, but still use it for data.

3) Install a driver. Now, there are drivers that claim to be
IDE and drivers that claim to be RAID. My suspicion is,
on your Asus board, you use the RAID driver for both
RAID or vanilla IDE use, as the IDE version might not
even install. There is no separate IDE driver for 3114 on
this page (click Driver at top):

http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us

The large download size of the drivers on the Asus Support
page, likely includes RAID Management software. In fact, the
bare disk driver files, are tiny in size.

If you go here (Silicon Image support)

http://www.siliconimage.com/support/...ctid=2&osid=4&

and select the 1.2.3.1 RAID entry at the bottom, you get a
tiny file.

If you then examine Si3114r5.inf in that download, you can
see entries like PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3114&SUBSYS_81361043 .
The 1043 is the Subsystem ID for Asus. I don't know how to
decode the 8136 part - it could be per-motherboard or generic.
In any case, the IDE download from the siliconimage.com site
doesn't have a "1043" subsystem entry, so it should not even
install on the Asus board (going to Device Manager and trying
to update the driver with the IDE version, should in my
estimation, fail).

Anyway, I hope some of the above helps. I cannot figure out
exactly what you want to do, but enabling the controller and
installing a RAID driver, should solve most of your problem.
You could press F4 key, when the BIOS starts, and set up a
stripe (RAID 0) of two disks, or you can set up JBOD if you
want to span two disks and make it look like one disk. Both
options will give you 800GB of storage.

Personally, I would run the disks as separate entities, as
data recovery in the future might be easier (i.e. if you have
no backups and like to live dangerously, without a backup).
To operate the disks separately, install the driver, and then
enter Disk Management in Windows and finish the installation
process. I would hope to see two separate disks in that case.

Page 18 through 38 of this Foxconn manual, gives some info
on SIL3114. It says, if you want to run a disk separately
and boot from that disk, specify JBOD. If you want to use
a disk separately as a data only disk, then don't use the
RAID menu to set up the disk. That is my interpretation of
reading this manual (the contents of this manual should
also be in the Manuals folder on your motherboard CD):

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/pdf/92...al-EN-V1.0.pdf

The only downside of using JBOD, might be that Windows
prepares the disk as a Dynamic Disk. You should do further
research to see if there are any disadvantages to using
Dynamic Disk. I don't remember all the reasons Dynamic is
bad, but if I find one of my drives is Dynamic in
Disk Management, I strive to return it to Basic if I can.

Just some guesses,
Paul

On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 16:42:44 -0600, "Transformers"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a SATA RAID configuration. I use stripping which makes two HD's look
>like one and doubles the space. The other option is mirroring which just
>make the HD's look the same for backup purposes in case one of them fails.
>

Are you having any problems wiith our SATA RAID? And are you using
a Nforce4 board?

Im actually getting a bit paranoid now with claims of random data
corruption.

I'm having an Nforce4 motherboard, and on it I have an NvRAID controller and a
SiliconImage RAID controller.

My current setup is that I have 4 SATA HDD already plug-in to the NvRAID, and
I'm attempting to connect an another one to the SiliconImage without creating a
RAID with this one

--
Thank you in Advance

Merci a l'Avance

Martin

"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 16:42:44 -0600, "Transformers"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>I have a SATA RAID configuration. I use stripping which makes two HD's look
>>like one and doubles the space. The other option is mirroring which just
>>make the HD's look the same for backup purposes in case one of them fails.
>>
>
> Are you having any problems wiith our SATA RAID? And are you using
> a Nforce4 board?
>
> Im actually getting a bit paranoid now with claims of random data
> corruption.

Tell me, if either of of your HDD that use stripping fails, what happens to the
data on the good one ?

--
Thank you in Advance

Merci a l'Avance

Martin

"Transformers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:JOKdnWZwtuSs4RLenZ2dnUVZ_v-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a SATA RAID configuration. I use stripping which makes two HD's look
>like one and doubles the space. The other option is mirroring which just make
>the HD's look the same for backup purposes in case one of them fails.
>
>
> "Martin Racette" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:MdHjf.7040$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have that motherboard, but I have a question that I can not get any answer
>> from Asus or the Mobo's instruction
>>
>> I already have the nVIdia SATA controler fill, and when I try to add another
>> to the second SATA connector set, all I get is an error message telling me
>> that there is no proper device connected, but that same drive if I connect it
>> to the other SATA connector set is seen and working (BTW the error happebes
>> whatever drive is connected)
>>
>> If it needs to be a RAID, what good is it to put them there, when I pay over
>> $700 for 2x400Gb HDD, I want to be able to use the whole 800Gb for data
>>
>> --
>> Thank you in Advance
>>
>> Merci a l'Avance
>>
>> Martin
>>
>>
>
>

The problem is that if I don't create a RAID on the SiliconImage controller, the
computer does NOT boot at all.

I don't understand why I should need to create a RAID, if I don't want or need
to

All I want to do is to install a HDD on that controller and to be able to use
it.

As for the driver part, I have already installed those drivers when I first
installed the motherboard to that computer.

BTW. I think that RAID are just a better way to loose everything, since when
someone want to just change the motherboard to upgrade the computer, one will
loose all the data on those drive since the new RAID controller will undoubtably
not be the same, and therefore will not be able to use whatever was on the
disk(s) before

--
Thank you in Advance

Merci a l'Avance

Martin

"Paul" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:nospam-0112052322450001@192.168.1.178...
> In article <C6Jjf.7098$(E-Mail Removed)>, "Martin Racette"
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I want to add another drive to the second controlor, and the BIOS
>> setting all I have is enable or disable for the second controler
>
> I still don't know if I understand your question. Yes, the Nvidia
> interface has some direct control in the BIOS. Remember that the
> Nvidia ports are part of the "chipset", and chipset interfaces
> get a "place of honor" in the main part of the BIOS.
>
> Add-in controllers, are separate chips. Each chip which is added
> to a motherboard, but is not part of the chipset, may have a
> body of code called the "Option ROM". This is added to the BIOS
> flash file, but is, in a sense, a separate piece of code. In
> your case, pressing F4 in the BIOS, gains access to the interface
> provided by the Option ROM code.
>
> That being said:
>
> 1) In Onboard Devices, set "Silicon SATA Controller" [Enabled]
> It is set that way by default. Do a Save and Exit, to save
> the new setting. I think that is necessary to get the
> controller to appear on the PCI bus. If disabled, you might
> not be able to see the chip when using Everest Home Edition
> (lavalys.com).
>
> 2a) The next time you start the BIOS, press <control-S> or
> press F4. The Silicon Image RAID BIOS screen should
> appear. See section 5.5.3 in the A8N-SLI Deluxe manual,
> for instructions on what to do next. Note - Use this
> interface, if you wish to set up a RAID array, or if
> you want to do JBOD.
>
> 2b) If you want to use the disks separately, as IDE devices
> but not as RAID, don't bother entering the RAID BIOS. The
> consequences of doing this, AFAIK, is you cannot boot from
> that disk, but still use it for data.
>
> 3) Install a driver. Now, there are drivers that claim to be
> IDE and drivers that claim to be RAID. My suspicion is,
> on your Asus board, you use the RAID driver for both
> RAID or vanilla IDE use, as the IDE version might not
> even install. There is no separate IDE driver for 3114 on
> this page (click Driver at top):
>
> http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us
>
> The large download size of the drivers on the Asus Support
> page, likely includes RAID Management software. In fact, the
> bare disk driver files, are tiny in size.
>
> If you go here (Silicon Image support)
>
> http://www.siliconimage.com/support/...ctid=2&osid=4&
>
> and select the 1.2.3.1 RAID entry at the bottom, you get a
> tiny file.
>
> If you then examine Si3114r5.inf in that download, you can
> see entries like PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3114&SUBSYS_81361043 .
> The 1043 is the Subsystem ID for Asus. I don't know how to
> decode the 8136 part - it could be per-motherboard or generic.
> In any case, the IDE download from the siliconimage.com site
> doesn't have a "1043" subsystem entry, so it should not even
> install on the Asus board (going to Device Manager and trying
> to update the driver with the IDE version, should in my
> estimation, fail).
>
> Anyway, I hope some of the above helps. I cannot figure out
> exactly what you want to do, but enabling the controller and
> installing a RAID driver, should solve most of your problem.
> You could press F4 key, when the BIOS starts, and set up a
> stripe (RAID 0) of two disks, or you can set up JBOD if you
> want to span two disks and make it look like one disk. Both
> options will give you 800GB of storage.
>
> Personally, I would run the disks as separate entities, as
> data recovery in the future might be easier (i.e. if you have
> no backups and like to live dangerously, without a backup).
> To operate the disks separately, install the driver, and then
> enter Disk Management in Windows and finish the installation
> process. I would hope to see two separate disks in that case.
>
> Page 18 through 38 of this Foxconn manual, gives some info
> on SIL3114. It says, if you want to run a disk separately
> and boot from that disk, specify JBOD. If you want to use
> a disk separately as a data only disk, then don't use the
> RAID menu to set up the disk. That is my interpretation of
> reading this manual (the contents of this manual should
> also be in the Manuals folder on your motherboard CD):
>
> http://www.foxconnchannel.com/pdf/92...al-EN-V1.0.pdf
>
> The only downside of using JBOD, might be that Windows
> prepares the disk as a Dynamic Disk. You should do further
> research to see if there are any disadvantages to using
> Dynamic Disk. I don't remember all the reasons Dynamic is
> bad, but if I find one of my drives is Dynamic in
> Disk Management, I strive to return it to Basic if I can.
>
> Just some guesses,
> Paul

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 17:27:31 -0500, "Martin Racette"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Tell me, if either of of your HDD that use stripping fails, what happens to the
>data on the good one ?

If you are using RAID 0 which has no back up , mirroring - then if
one HD fails you lose everything on both.

Thats why Anandtech advises against using RAID 0. He said there were
no performance gains for the vast majority of users at all but much
higher chance of data loss. He recommended not using it on desktops.

I just did it -- setup raid 0 and within hours it totally corrupted
windows XP new install and even started showing bad sectors and
mangled data on the disks.

I then tried to flash the bios and my dang motherboard died.

I do a search and find theres a steady stream of people with similar
problems.


http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...php?t8171.html


Its confusing -- various fixes and causes have been blamed.
And because people with nforce4s . sometimes the same brand dont have
problems its claimed to be a non problem by many.

In general my chaintech VNF4 has worked fine except
when RAIDED. And when I flashed with recent WINFLASH + newest bios
which adds the DUAL X2 cores compatibility.

However it makes you wonder if there were instances of wackiness like
the recent string of bad flashes to other devices. Was it the devices
fault ? Or is the nforce4 just unreliable in various mysterious ways?

The string of strange bad flashes Ive had recently ----though you
werent supposed to flash a 9600 to 9600XT maybe as I said it would
have worked in some fashion though poorly if it had been flashed with
another PC. Its similar to my motherboard flash and tons of people are
reporting the same experience though its random.

Some people who flashed with the NEW WINFLASH + newest bios are OK
while many others end up with a completely dead motherboard that
beeps. Cant clear the CMOS and boot up with floppy to fix after doing
everything right.

Now the big question is ---- are all nforce boards suffering from some
weird random data corruption problem that comes and goes ? With RAID
though it defintely does not come and go --- when you have problem it
destroys your data pretty quickly.