Onboard SATA controller died

ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
edited March 2004 in Hardware
... title speaks for itself.

I was just rebooting the machine as it was getting a bit sluggish. I haven't installed anything new or done anything :(

It's an onboard Via SATA controller with 2 drives striped across it. This has my OS and most recent stuff on it.. including important emails and so on.

Ive tried repair install, and various recovery apps I have. Nothing will make the PC see the array. The drive array is intact.. I can see it in NTFS dos.. but if I need to use the driver, it dies... Ive tried the latest driver from the site.. and that does the same thing... so either one of my 3 week old sata drives has just died.. or the controller has gone south.

Thoughts?

My one saving grace is that the 3000+ lines of code Ive just written for the new frontpage.. are backed up on my dualie rig.. and mirrored at work.

Comments

  • NecropolisNecropolis Hawarden, Wales Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Your not having much luck with this bloody A64 are you?
  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2004
    When my SATA WD died it would see the drive and act like it was going to install (I was trying to do a repair install as well) but then when it was time to copy files the transfer would just freeze.
    I don't know if this helps or not.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    Uhm... are you positive it's the controller? If so, you could try getting an identical board, and seeing if that works. If it doesn't, hey- you'll have TWO Athlon 64 boards, which is EXACTLY TWO MORE THAN I HAVE :rant: :bawling: ;D
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    I dont have two.

    I lent one out.

    I think the MFT is completely borked on this setup.. which is why its just dying a death all the time.

    Looks like Ive lost it regardless. Im so unthrilled.

    Im seriously considering ditching the A64 altogether... I dont have time to spend messing about with this.

    :rant:
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    All my utils have failed.. so Ive strapped them onto the Promise controller.. and have started a windows install.

    Im hoping I can run a drive recovery after its up.. maybe grab some of it.. if it can find anything :(

    :bawling: I Hate you VIA... they are flying on the Promise Controller :range:
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    To tie and end up this thread..

    1) Via onboard SATA is horrible. Im not the only one suffering this from forums Ive searched on google.

    2) The Promise is very stable and fast from what Ive read.

    3) The data is gone, zero-ed. Even with a real low level tool, the whole structure is crushed. Ive lost about three weeks worth of stuff, could have been a damn sight worse.

    4) The IDE maxtors just earned their money, but I need to run an automated backup on key stuff.

    5) Im so damn annoyed, I lost the 5 page review and all the photos I took of a power supply :(
  • SlackerSlacker CA, USA
    edited February 2004
    Shorty wrote:
    The Promise is very stable and fast from what Ive read.

    Which Promise card are you referring to? And did this card live up to expectation?
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Its an onboard controller :)

    An equivilent PCI card would be any carrying the Promise 378 chipset (FastTrak) :)

    I find its performance excellent, stable as a rock and very configurable. Im intending to hang two WD Raptors off it next week, then it will really have something to play with :D
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited February 2004
    Either VIA is crap or you're plain unlucky. (maybe both)
    It seems that Via's first revisions haven't improved.
    It is still the first revision right? Not K8T800A? ;)

    I'm happy I've decided to wait till next year before going 64bit.
    Better boards, better chipsets and better processors. ;-)

    A wise guy on overclockers.com said:
    2004: A New Competition Between AMD and Intel

    It seems like AMD and Intel made an agreement. Intel went to AMD and said, "Just for a change of pace, instead of trying to outdo each other, let's see who can f--- up more this year."

    AMD agreed, figuring it had a lock on that, then Intel blindsided them with Prescott. AMD said, "This is going to be pretty hard for even us to beat. Hmmmm. Until we can screw up our 90nm process, why don't we just price the s--- out of our Hammers so nobody will buy them, and obsolete the ones we have out there?"

    I know they're not doing that, but what's the competition going to be for most of 2004?

    An overheated CPU versus an overpriced one.
    Borrowed from:
  • tomeytomey
    edited March 2004
    I got a similar problem on an ASUS KT600-based system.

    After some onimous file corruptions over some weeks, the on-board VIA 8237 SATA (promise-based?) chip definitely *killed* a maxtor HD (with everything on it :thumbsdow ) and now my newer Seagate starts behaving similar - lost clusters, corrupted index etc.

    Will get me a Sil3112-based card today and shut down the onboard crap. Hope it's not too late...

    Tomey
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited March 2004
    check the bios and make sure that they are turned on, it happened to me. i updated the bios, ( i know u didnt install anything but... ) it reset the sata controler to always off tryt that
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Seriously, those Via controllers are just terrible. I did my research on it after the event. Seems I wasn't the only one. If hunt out the links and post 'em.
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