Help with RocketRAID 404 BIOS update - HOW?!!?

PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
edited October 2003 in Hardware
This may be a totally simple question, but I'm trying to update my Highpoint RocketRAID 404 to the latest BIOS. I've found the latest BIOS on the Highpoint website, but I can't find anything that describes the procedures to update the BIOS.

Anyone have one of these and mind sharing the steps?

Comments

  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    The same way that you would to flash a motherboard BIOS.

    Boot off a DOS floppy and run the flash utility provided by highpoint :)

    It will detect the PCI controller card and then update it :)

    Make sure you have everything backed up onto a non-highpoint connected hard drive. Flashing to the latest BIOS on those cards.. can cause your RAID array to dissapear & need rebuilding.

    Need anymore help mate.. just let me know :D
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Many thanks! Good advice, and I plan on flashing to the new BIOS before building my array, so I don't have to worry about any problems. I'd cry like a little girl if I lost my MP3s and Anime!

    I thought the procedure would be something like that, but I just RMA'ed my first 404 and didn't want to fry my second.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Definitely a wise plan ;)

    Im still using the same HPT370a based card I bought a couple of years back. Still gives great performance with a couple of WD SE's.

    With some tweaking and tinkering, you can get 80-90 in ATTO without breaking a sweat :cool:

    ...although I am going SCSI shortly
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    That's some great numbers, especially considering the age of the card. I can't wait to finish mine. I'm setting the 404 up as RAID 1+0. That's why I need the new BIOS. The old one only supports 0+1. All my reading says 1+0 is better.

    Computer would have been done by now, but I was experiencing major problems setting up my WD SATA Raptors in RAID 0 on the NF7-S' onboard SATA RAID (Drive on 404 are for data...Excessive I know.) I've had constant problems....believe after swapping drives and cables that the only thing that makes sense is a bad mobo. Luckily, I bought from NewEgg, so they'll take it back without giving me a run around.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I haven't had a chance to play with SATA .. so Im the wrong person to ask :(

    What is the problem you got with SATA ?? Corruption? Have you grabbed the latest BIOS to fix the older initial production problems with the SATA controller? :)

    Excessive.. ;D;D

    Until I sold my Epox 8K5A3+ with a 4 channel highpoint.. I had

    4 x 120gb (RAID-0)
    2 x 160gb (backup on IDE controller).

    800gb of storage :D

    Im down to "just" 2 x 120gb with the 2 x 160gb as backup... but I've got the 2 x 120gb ready for my new server rig.. along with some SCSI drives and so on from a buddy of mine in Texas ;)
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Shorty said

    4 x 120gb (RAID-0)
    2 x 160gb (backup on IDE controller).

    800gb of storage :D
    :cool: LOL! :eek: That's AWESOME!

    I used up my two WD JB 120GBs, so now I have the 2 WD Raptor 36 GBs in RAID 0 and 4 WD JB 200 GBs...that is assuming I can get the Raptors to play nice with my NF7-S.

    Yeah, I did update to the latest BIOS and drivers. I had problems with random freezes in windows, and when I'd reboot the RAID utility would say one or both drives were missing. I swapped cable and drives as well as spent numerous hours reading on Abit's forum and have only come to the conclusion that it's the mobo....hopefully I'm right...if I'm not, I'll come begging for some help and advice from all the Short-Medians!
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    From everything I have seen the NF7-S and WD Raptors do great together! Just make sure you are using bios 14 or higher!
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I upgraded to the latest on Abit's site which was 18. I wish mine did great together! Reading on Abit' site there has been a significant number of problems with the SATA RAID array.
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Well, I figured it out. It was a bad drive. It finally died on me. I ran every diagnostic WD has on it. They all came up with multiple errors and failures.

    RMA.....RMA....RMA....I go!
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    That took care of that. Now have you got the 404 and the other drives running good?
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Yes. BIOS is flashed to the newest Highpoint version. I've got a sole Raptor running as a temporary OS/Applications drive with the 4 WD JBs in RAID 5 for data. I'm currently experimenting with the differences between RAID 5 and RAID 10. I have LOTS of files, so I'd like to preserve the extra 200 GB via RAID 5 if I can. I've done some SiSoft Sandra Disk Benchmarks and the array in RAID 5 seems to be plenty fast for a data storage drive plus I get decent redundancy (1 drive failure tolerance and an extra 200 GB of space).
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