PCI SATA HDD RAID Controller error

[Guest]

I posted earlier, and received a few replies, but to no avail.

I have a PCI SATA RAID HDD Controller card (SYBA), with a Silicon Image
chipset (SiI3114) and 4 SATA ports. I have a Seagate 250gb SATA HDD connected
to it.

The card and HDD are recognized by my BIOS, by my copy of XP SP2, but I
cannot use the HDD.

In my Device Manager, I can see the controller card as a SCSI device, and
the HDD shows up as well. Both say they are working correctly.

In my Computer Management screen, I see two entries that have flags. On says
it is a foreign drive that can be imported (the process never works) and the
other shows as a missing (failed to initialize, cannot reinitialize) drive of
250gb.

I have updated the XP drivers, flashed the RAID cards BIOS, and installed
drives through the XP boot disk F6 route, but nothing works.

I have been told that because this is a RAID card, it may not work correctly
as a simple controller card for the single drive I have, but I have read
reviews from others who have purchased this same card without issue.

This seems to me to be a software issue, as all the hardware is recognized.
Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

I posted earlier, and received a few replies, but to no avail.

I have a PCI SATA RAID HDD Controller card (SYBA), with a Silicon Image
chipset (SiI3114) and 4 SATA ports. I have a Seagate 250gb SATA HDD connected
to it.

The card and HDD are recognized by my BIOS, by my copy of XP SP2, but I
cannot use the HDD.

In my Device Manager, I can see the controller card as a SCSI device, and
the HDD shows up as well. Both say they are working correctly.

In my Computer Management screen, I see two entries that have flags. On says
it is a foreign drive that can be imported (the process never works) and the
other shows as a missing (failed to initialize, cannot reinitialize) drive of
250gb.

I have updated the XP drivers, flashed the RAID cards BIOS, and installed
drives through the XP boot disk F6 route, but nothing works.

I have been told that because this is a RAID card, it may not work correctly
as a simple controller card for the single drive I have, but I have read
reviews from others who have purchased this same card without issue.

This seems to me to be a software issue, as all the hardware is recognized.
Any help will be appreciated.

When I installed a second drive using a RAID card (bought the wrong type of
drive and was too stubbon to take it back) I had a lot of trouble getting it
up and running.

My solution might not be any good for you but just in case you have not
tried this here it is:

Go in to Computer Management as you have before. Click on Storage. Then Disk
Management. Should show both your drives in the bottom window. Disk 0 and
Disk 1.

Right click the new drive (probably disk 1) and click 'Initiate'. It should
now give you the option to format it when you right click it again.
! if it is not saying in the status window 'Not initiansisd' or is is not
greyed out it may not be the same problem I had.

Hope it has been of some help.

 

[Guest]

As I said above "...and the other shows as a missing (failed to initialize,
cannot reinitialize) drive ...", this process does not work. I mixed up
initialize for initiate.

 

[DL]

If, from your earlier post you are saying that the drive works fine if
connected to an onboard sata port, but only has a problem when connected to
the card port, and it would appear you have installed the card correctly. I
would suggest you contact the card manu tech, as the problem appears related
only to the card.

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:

As always, I seem to have left out a vital piece of information describing
my problem, and no one asked the question as well.

After much confusion last night on why I could not successfully swap
positions of my SATA drives on the various MB ports, I began reading the help
section, picking up random pieces of information. I was noticing that all my
SATA drives were not being recognized after being plugged back in, even
though they were shown in the device manager and on the BIOS.

My FUBER was in that I failed to mention that all my SATA drives are running
as “Dynamic†drives in XP SP2. I converted them some time ago not realizing
what consequences there might be, and not really understanding the benefits.

As a result, the system was showing the drives I did not even have plugged
in, and this retention of information was causing my problem. I deleted the
old entries and rebooted the system. The compy re-detected the drives, and
after I assigned new drive letters I am golden, 5 by 5.

Thanks for everyone’s help in this. Again, my bad.

 

[RA]

UPDATE:

As always, I seem to have left out a vital piece of information
describing my problem, and no one asked the question as well.

After much confusion last night on why I could not successfully swap
positions of my SATA drives on the various MB ports, I began reading
the help section, picking up random pieces of information. I was
noticing that all my SATA drives were not being recognized after
being plugged back in, even though they were shown in the device
manager and on the BIOS.

My FUBER was in that I failed to mention that all my SATA drives are
running as "Dynamic" drives in XP SP2. I converted them some time ago
not realizing what consequences there might be, and not really
understanding the benefits.

As a result, the system was showing the drives I did not even have
plugged in, and this retention of information was causing my problem.
I deleted the old entries and rebooted the system. The compy
re-detected the drives, and after I assigned new drive letters I am
golden, 5 by 5.

Thanks for everyone's help in this. Again, my bad.

Thanks for posting what you learned. Isn't it a great feeling when you
figure it out on your own?