Boot SATA over IDE controller?

[Macy]

I took the general consensus and installed a PCI IDE controller. I
installed the drivers for it (Silicon Image SIL0680 by Syba). The Asus
motherboard sees it in the BIOS. The boot order is correct: My SATA
drive and then the SCSI drive on the new controller. However I can't
get into Windows unless I disconnect the drive from the controller.
Despite the proper boot order, it seems the IDE controller is taking
precedence and since Windows isn't installed on it, I just get a blank
screen with a cursor blinking in the upper left.
Each time it asks me if I want to do a raid setup, but I didn't think
that was neccessary to just simply run a second drive.
I actually do plan to format the SATA and install Windows on the IDE
one, but for now I'm curious why the SATA won't boot first.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Macy]

If I remove the optical drives from the one onboard IDE slot and put
the hard drive on that, it works fine, so nothing is wrong with the
drive itself. I put it back onto the IDE controller card, and decided
to install Windows on it. But after it prepares for system recovery, I
get a blue screen of death. Same thing if I try the HP recovery discs.

 

[Macy]

In actual fact, when the Maxtor drive is connected to the motherboard's
IDE slot, the bios recognizes it, but when Windows loads from the SATA,
the Maxtor doesn't show up in Windows or in Disk Management.

 

[Macy]

Well, I got XP installed on the Maxtor IDE by temporarily removing one
of the optical drives and connecting the Maxtor where the DVD-ROM drive
was on the motherboard IDE slot. Went great, and both it and the SATA
showed up in the bios as well as in Windows. So I shut down, and
switched the Maxtor back to the PCI IDE controller card. Lo and behold,
on restart both drives still showed up in the bios, and wonder of
wonders, the Maxtor booted up Windows. However, it's still not good as
gold because the SATA now doesn't show up in Windows or Disk Management.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I took the general consensus and installed a PCI IDE controller. I
installed the drivers for it (Silicon Image SIL0680 by Syba). The Asus
motherboard sees it in the BIOS. The boot order is correct: My SATA
drive and then the SCSI drive on the new controller. However I can't
get into Windows unless I disconnect the drive from the controller.
Despite the proper boot order, it seems the IDE controller is taking
precedence and since Windows isn't installed on it, I just get a blank
screen with a cursor blinking in the upper left.
Each time it asks me if I want to do a raid setup, but I didn't think
that was neccessary to just simply run a second drive.
I actually do plan to format the SATA and install Windows on the IDE
one, but for now I'm curious why the SATA won't boot first.

Thanks for any ideas!

You probably didn't get any replies because your sentences and
terms are too ambiguous to figure out. For instance, on which
controller did you put your SATA drive - on the motherboard
controller or the PCI acrd controller? Was the motherboard
controller PATA or SATA? Is the PCI controller PATA or SATA?
Are you reporting the actual HD boot order or are you looking at
just the configuration as reported by the BIOS(es)? When you
say you "can't get into windows", what does that mean, and on
which HD is windows installed? How many partitions are there
on each HD? Which are marked "active"?

IOW, you describe the problem as if we've been sitting alongside
you for a couple weeks, patiently watching you address your problem,
when in fact, we don't know what you've been doing and what you
are grappling with. The way to post a Help Wanted message is to
assume you're describing the problem to an alien who knows English,
but who understands only complete sentences and none of the jargon
or slang, and proceed from there. In short, you need to help the
helpers to help you.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Macy]

Hi Tim. Okay, my apologies for not being more clear. I have a computer
with an Asus P5LP-LE motherboard in it with one IDE/PATA controller and
four SATA controllers. The single IDE slot is being used by two optical
drives, and one of the SATA slots is being used by by a Western Digital
SATA drive. I have a smaller Maxtor drive I'd like to install and run
XP and program files from, and use the SATA for storage. I temporarily
removed one of the optical drives from the motherboard IDE slot and
connected the Maxtor and installed Windows XP on it, making it the 1st
boot device in the BIOS. At this time, both showed up in the BIOS and
when I booted into Windows from the Maxtor, XP recognized the SATA
drive and installed the drivers for it.
So after that was all running nicely, I shut down and installed my
Silicon Image SIL0680 ATA IDE controller card, restarted Windows and
let it install the drivers from the disc. then I shut down, switched
the Maxtor from the motherboard IDE slot to the Silicon Image card. Now
I can still boot into Windows from the Maxtor like it should according
to boot order, however the SATA drive no longer shows up in XP, only in
the BIOS. Only if I remove the Maxtor from the Silicon card and back to
the motherboard IDE slot, does the SATA show up in Windows again.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I have a computer with an Asus P5LP-LE motherboard in it
with one IDE/PATA controller and four SATA controllers.
The single IDE slot is being used by two optical drives, and
one of the SATA slots is being used by by a Western Digital
SATA drive. I have a smaller Maxtor drive I'd like to install
and run XP and program files from, and use the SATA for
storage. I temporarily removed one of the optical drives from
the motherboard IDE slot and connected the Maxtor and
installed Windows XP on it, making it the 1st boot device
in the BIOS. At this time, both showed up in the BIOS and
when I booted into Windows from the Maxtor, XP recognized
the SATA drive and installed the drivers for it.

So after that was all running nicely, I shut down and installed
my Silicon Image SIL0680 ATA IDE controller card, restarted
Windows and let it install the drivers from the disc.
then I shut down, switched the Maxtor from the motherboard
IDE slot to the Silicon Image card. Now I can still boot into
Windows from the Maxtor like it should according to boot order,
however the SATA drive no longer shows up in XP, only in
the BIOS. Only if I remove the Maxtor from the Silicon card
and back to the motherboard IDE slot, does the SATA show
up in Windows again.

Is there an OS installed on the SATA HD?
If so, is it a clone of the PATA HD, or was it installed
from a Windows XP CD?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

So after that was all running nicely, I shut down and
installed my Silicon Image SIL0680 ATA IDE controller card,
restarted Windows and let it install the drivers from the disc.
then I shut down, switched the Maxtor from the motherboard
IDE slot to the Silicon Image card. Now I can still boot into
Windows from the Maxtor like it should according to boot order,
however the SATA drive no longer shows up in XP, only in the
BIOS. Only if I remove the Maxtor from the Silicon card and
back to the motherboard IDE slot, does the SATA show up in
Windows again.

I suspect the answer lies somewhere in Syba's FAQs for
the PCI RAID/Ultra ATA Controller card:
http://www.syba.com/support_download/faq/03/index.html#1

This, from the FAQs, is interesting:

Q: How many devices can it support?
A: The controller card will support additional four IDE devices.
It is advised to connect hard drives to the card only.
You may connect your CD-ROMs to your onboard IDE ports.

The RAID function might also be getting in the way. This is
interesting:

Q: How can I flash the bios from Raid controller to Non raid?
A: If you have already bought raid controller and you do not use
the raid function. Please contact with us for bios to flash.

I think it's time to contact Syba's Tech Support. Please let us
know how you solve the problem.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Macy]

Yes, the SATA drive does also have XP on it, installed from a CD.
I read those FAQs at Syba's site too. The CD of drivers that came with
the card had a whole ton of things seemingly unrelated to this
card(maybe it's one CD they give out with all of their products) but
there were two different folders of drivers for this card, one for
raid, one for non-raid. I used the non-raid, and I do get the raid
set-up message that they say you have to bypass always if you aren't
going to use raid. But I'll e-mail and ask what that non-raid bios is
all about. Thanks!

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Yes, the SATA drive does also have XP on it, installed from a CD.

Any chance that when you move the PATA HD to the PCI card
the Win XP on the SATA HD is actually booting? If you have
trouble telling them apart, try putting a folder on the Desktop
with a name which identifies the HD.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Macy]

I thought if that too so I set different background images on the
desktops, but it was still the PATA drive booting. I've e-mailed Syba
so I'll see what they say. In the meantime I've removed one of the
optical drives and put the PATA drive on the motherboard's IDE
controller and am running Windows from it. I've also formatted the SATA
through Disk Management, which is what I intended to do anyway if I got
the PATA running properly on the IDE card. If all else fails, I might
leave it set up this way. The computer has a DVD burner and a DVD-ROM
as the optical drives, so the DVD-ROM is sort of redundant, other than
maybe saving the burner from excessive wear.