BIOS will only detect one of my two SATA drives

[storm79]

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for cross posting, I'm not sure my post belonged in the other thread, so if any moderators wish to rectify this then please be my guest.

I have a problem (well, I have many, but I have one specific *technical* problem). It's a problem that I think a BIOS update may fix, but before I go through with this semi-risky update I'd really like to get your advice.

Some background: I've got an Epox 8RDA3+ motherboard, which has a Phoenix AWARDbios and SATARaid SiI3112 bios. I've also got 3 hard disks. One IDE 30gig, one Maxtor 120gig SATA and one Maxtor 200gig SATA.

The Phoenix BIOS detect the IDE drive without any problems, the SATARaid system then scans for my SATA drives. It finds the 120gig drive without any problems but cannot find the 200gig drive.

Now I've tried all sorts of combinations, having different disks in at different times, using different cables, using different ports, flashing the phoenix part of the bios, but no matter what I do I can't get the 200gig drive to detect.

This is really puzzling as the first time I added the 200gig drive to the machine it detected it and worked fine (could see it in Windows etc). However, after a reboot it's like the drive is invisible. Note, I've tried the drive in another machine, and it works fine.

I'm really begging for advice here. Would flashing the SATARaid section of my BIOS help me? Is it even possible to just flash that bit (I'm not used to the concept of there being two different sections)? If it would help, where would what would be the best update for me to install. Thanks in advance for your help. I'm sorry for being such a n00b. I've spent two days on this issue now, and have tried to solve it myself. I'm not looking to be spoonfed, I'm looking for someone to perform a miracle and help me! :)

[storm79]

I'm not even sure if some of the BIOS updates linked to in this forum will work on my machine. Most of you seem to have ASUS based motherboards, would the Si3X12 updates work on my Epox motherboard?

:confused:

[Tex]

you only flash the bios for your EXACT motherboard. No other! Or your sh*t outa luck.

Before you mess with that though.... This isnt hard. You have the 120gb thats detected right? JUST unplug it and plug the 200gb into the same cables. Do not touch anything else. Turn it back on.

If the computer still doesnt see the new 200gb then its probably bad. It's not hard to test sata drives.

Tex

[storm79]

Thanks for the response.

The 120 is detected, and the 200 isn't. I've tried swapping the two over, in every possible combination, but it won't detect the 200gig drive. I'd be inclinded to think that the 200gig drive was dead if it didn't work in another computer (it's detected in another PC, and even boots up from the OS installed on it).

This is what's causing me so much confusion, add to that the fact that it did work once with the other machine, but now it cannot see it at all.

One question about the bios updates. Is the SATARaid a different system to the normal bios? I'm a little confused that's all. If they are two very different systems then is it not possible to just update the Si3112 bios, and not change my main mobo bios?

Sorry, I realise that I'm not making much sense here, but I'm under the impression that the updates for the Si3X12 are completely different to updates for the mobo bios, so therefore I should be able to update that regardless of who my motherboard is made by.... right? :scratch:

[Tex]

No the raid bios is imbedded as a piece of the MB bios. To update it then you flash the MB bios. There is no way to update just the raid bios without flashing the motherboard bios also.

Tex