Asus P4T533, Raid, IDE 3 & 4, W2K

[Russell Dyson]

Hi,

I have a question that I can't resolve using my Asus P4t533 board and IDE 3
& 4 (raid/ATA100 ide ports) in W2k sp4. I'm wondering if anyone else has
this same problem or a solution.

I've been trying run an AV system here. I want the advantages of a totally
seperate ATA100 channel for my audio and video hardf disk. (Along with the
32 bit memory bandwidths and a nice p4, this makes for a swift little
machine). I can get this working no problems as long as the RAID_SW jumper
is enabled. The Promise Fasttrack controller sees the HD attaches and
recognizes it as functional. The drive appears in W2k and works very well.

My problem is with the boot-up time of my machine because the Fasttrack raid
array scan is very slow. I'm not even using RAID for striping purposes - all
I want is the spare IDE channels. Now, with the RAID_SW jumper set to
disabled, the bootup time is superfast because it skips over the raid drive
search. However, I am unable to see my AV drive in Win2k because it disables
the whole IDE channel and not just RAID functionality. Duh!

Can you help me at all here? Am I missing something obvious like a BIOS
setting...though I can't see one related to RAID usage...except for BOOT
FROM ATA100 setting. All I want to do is to use the IDE channels 3 & 4
without it searching for raid array's at bootup.

Any comments, suggestions or information will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

R Dyson.

 

[Matt]

Hi,

I have a question that I can't resolve using my Asus P4t533 board and IDE 3
& 4 (raid/ATA100 ide ports) in W2k sp4. I'm wondering if anyone else has
this same problem or a solution.

I've been trying run an AV system here. I want the advantages of a totally
seperate ATA100 channel for my audio and video hardf disk. (Along with the
32 bit memory bandwidths and a nice p4, this makes for a swift little
machine). I can get this working no problems as long as the RAID_SW jumper
is enabled. The Promise Fasttrack controller sees the HD attaches and
recognizes it as functional. The drive appears in W2k and works very well.

My problem is with the boot-up time of my machine because the Fasttrack raid
array scan is very slow. I'm not even using RAID for striping purposes - all
I want is the spare IDE channels. Now, with the RAID_SW jumper set to
disabled, the bootup time is superfast because it skips over the raid drive
search. However, I am unable to see my AV drive in Win2k because it disables
the whole IDE channel and not just RAID functionality. Duh!

Can you help me at all here? Am I missing something obvious like a BIOS
setting...though I can't see one related to RAID usage...except for BOOT
FROM ATA100 setting. All I want to do is to use the IDE channels 3 & 4
without it searching for raid array's at bootup.

Any comments, suggestions or information will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

R Dyson.

What you are looking for is available on my older ASUS A7V133, but not
on P4T533R. I also have one and it is pretty fast as you say. You just
have to live with the Promise scanning the drives or disable it completely
by way of a jumper setting as you have described. The P4T533 uses the PDC
20276 Promise chip while the A7V133 used the PDC 20265. The settings in the
BIOS don't let you manage the behavior of the Promise controller on the
P4T533 as completely as the A7V133. Why? I don't know.

 

[Russell Dyson]

Thanks Matt, for your useful and quick response. At least I know its not
possible now and can stop wasting my time!

Cheers.