Abit NF7-S v2.0 can SATA w/2 HDDs and no RAID?

ngfrazierngfrazier People's Republic of Ann Arbor
edited December 2005 in Hardware
Quick question for you guys (since you've been so helpful in the past),

I recently picked up the 74GB WD Raptor. Before that, I had 2x 200GB Seagate 7200.7 hooked up to the onboard SATA RAID-0. Now, I would like to run the Raptor + a Seagate off the SATA controller in a non-RAID setup. Is this possible? Can you mix/match drives in a non-RAID setup? I tried and can only get 1 drive to work.

I've using the latest official BIOS as well as the most recent Sil3112 SATA RAID drivers. Any help would be appreciated!

Abit NF7-S v2.0 (latest BIOS)
Barton Mobile 2400+ (actual @ 200x12)
2x 512 Micron PC3200
2x Seagate 200GB 7200.7
74 GB WD Raptor
nVidia 6800
NEC 2510 DVD+RW

Comments

  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited December 2005
    I'm 99.999% positive it should work. That last millionth of a percent is missing only because I haven't actually done it myself on my own machine, BUT I'm sure I've read/seen it done with the NF7-S before.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    TheSmJ is right.

    Straight from the horse's mouth.
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited December 2005
    100% positive it will work... Im doing it now.
  • ngfrazierngfrazier People's Republic of Ann Arbor
    edited December 2005
    Thanks for the responses, ppl.

    Now that I know it's possible, how about some help getting me there? :rolleyes:
    OK, here's the weird part: The onboard SATA controller recognizes the drive at boot, however Windows shows no second drive attached (viewing Hardware Manager --> view by connection)!

    When I entered the SATA boot utility, I found "Set0 Invalid Raid drive."

    The options in my utility are.
    1. Create Raid Set
    2. Delete Raid Set
    3. Rebuild Mirrored Set
    4. Resolve conflicts
    5. Low level format.

    The first thing I tried was "Resolve Conflicts" but it said, "No Conflicts exist!" which is not surprising. Next, I tried low-level formatting the new drive; however, it will only let me format the primary WD 74GB drive. There is no option to select the second drive.

    Even more bizarre, I removed the drive from the SATA, hooked it into the onboard IDE and formatted the drive NTFS without a problem. So, I know this drive works, but apparently there is some kind of a SATA configuration problem. Also, one last thing: When I installed Windows I only had the 74GB Raptor hooked up, and it was attached to the second SATA channel. When I figured out that was the reason it was slow booting, I switched it to the primary SATA channel. Anyways, hope this give you guys a better idea of what's going on.
  • ngfrazierngfrazier People's Republic of Ann Arbor
    edited December 2005
    UPDATE!!!

    Got it working (well, sorta of)...

    After fooling around with formatting the drive, I got an idea to switch it with my other Seagate. Well, low and behold, the SATA is now detecting two independent drives! Why and how the other drive fails to detect, I still do not know. My best guess is that the SATA controller needs the drive to be formatted in a particular way...

    Anyways, I now have all three drives working. Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

    Cheers!
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited December 2005
    I got tied up this afternoon and didn't get a chance to reply, but I was going to suggest you remove your main drive (for safety's sake), then delete the RAID set. Sounds like that's what ended up happening when you replaced the drive.

    Glad you got it going. :thumbsup:
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