How to install single drive with data onto Adaptec 31205?

iieeann · 10-04-2007, 07:23 AM

Single SATA drive will not work natively on Adaptec 31205. Setting in bios must be done for the adapter to accept it, else it will display "No logical drives found", "Bios not installed!" error regardless of bootable or non bootable drive.

I set the drive to simple volumn in bios, but 31205 need to initialize the drive, and so all old data is gone. The drive is detected as Adaptec Array SCSI Disk in windows. Windows prompts to initialize and format the disk.

I install that drive back to onboard SATA controller, and it is detected as normal drive, and the new data is there. What has been done by 31205 can be read by SATA controller without problem, but why cant 31205 do the same??

For new drive there is no problem to throw on 31205, but how about drive with data?? is there a way to install old drive on 31205 without losing the data?

Thank you.

iieeann · 10-04-2007, 06:34 PM

All right, Adaptec says no way, single hardisk must be initialized before able to use by 31205, and doing that will destroy all data on the hardisk.

Hardisk that has been initialized and configured as simple volumn will be able to work as single drive. Even after that dismantle the drive and install on other SATA controller, it will work normally; and later install back to 31205 will have no problem too. This sounds like 31205 has written something onto the drive during initialization.

wildpig1234 · 08-21-2009, 02:39 AM

I am really screwed. i install a adaptec 31205 and set one of my connected drive as simple volume and it seems all my data is now gone. Any way i can recover my data. I am sure it's on there still since i haven't written any new data to the hard drive.

Adaptec should had made this more clear. They should have given a warning when you set a drive as simple drive in the adaptec partition manager that everything will be gone. This is really f***ing horrible. Over 1 TB of my data is gone ;(.

Running a Active Partition recovery right now and the status is bad for recovery ;(....

wildpig1234 · 08-23-2009, 04:23 AM

all data recovered as they weren't over written but what a disaster. took a whole wkend almost. anyway, again you can't add a HD to the adaptec without it destroying the existing partition table. The adaptec controller not only redo the partition but it also hide about 526 MB (in this case for a 1 TB HD, maybe even more if bigger hd?) into a separate partition, the purpose i can only guess, (redundancy so you can remap bad sectors when you tell the controller to surface scan?).

After properly setting everything up, while restoring files, i was getting substained speed of about 40 +MB/s. this is writing to a single volume, not raid. can only imagine how much faster things would be with a proper raid. it was definitely writing files to the drives on the adaptec controller faster than writing files to drives on the MB controller

With 256 MB cache, i will just have to remind myself every time to wait at least 20 secs to make sure the cache is emptied to my mounted hd completely if i was writing anything big to the drive before i power down the computer since i don't have the battery pack

oh well, this controller is definitely not for novice or the faint-hearted. Definitely a made for pro product.

10-04-2007, 07:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
iieeann Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 6 OS: WinXP	How to install single drive with data onto Adaptec 31205? Single SATA drive will not work natively on Adaptec 31205. Setting in bios must be done for the adapter to accept it, else it will display "No logical drives found", "Bios not installed!" error regardless of bootable or non bootable drive. I set the drive to simple volumn in bios, but 31205 need to initialize the drive, and so all old data is gone. The drive is detected as Adaptec Array SCSI Disk in windows. Windows prompts to initialize and format the disk. I install that drive back to onboard SATA controller, and it is detected as normal drive, and the new data is there. What has been done by 31205 can be read by SATA controller without problem, but why cant 31205 do the same?? For new drive there is no problem to throw on 31205, but how about drive with data?? is there a way to install old drive on 31205 without losing the data? Thank you. __________________ CPU = AMD FX55, 2x 1Gb RAM on DFI LP UT NF4-SLi DR Expert VGA = X1900XTX Hdd = 2x Raptor 74Gb (onboard), Seagate 320Gb Addon = Adaptec 31205, Creative X-Fi, Gigabyte i-RAM 3Gb

10-04-2007, 06:34 PM	#2 (permalink)
iieeann Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 6 OS: WinXP	Re: How to install single drive with data onto Adaptec 31205? All right, Adaptec says no way, single hardisk must be initialized before able to use by 31205, and doing that will destroy all data on the hardisk. Hardisk that has been initialized and configured as simple volumn will be able to work as single drive. Even after that dismantle the drive and install on other SATA controller, it will work normally; and later install back to 31205 will have no problem too. This sounds like 31205 has written something onto the drive during initialization. __________________ CPU = AMD FX55, 2x 1Gb RAM on DFI LP UT NF4-SLi DR Expert VGA = X1900XTX Hdd = 2x Raptor 74Gb (onboard), Seagate 320Gb Addon = Adaptec 31205, Creative X-Fi, Gigabyte i-RAM 3Gb

08-21-2009, 02:39 AM	#3 (permalink)
wildpig1234 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 9 OS: XP	Re: How to install single drive with data onto Adaptec 31205? I am really screwed. i install a adaptec 31205 and set one of my connected drive as simple volume and it seems all my data is now gone. Any way i can recover my data. I am sure it's on there still since i haven't written any new data to the hard drive. Adaptec should had made this more clear. They should have given a warning when you set a drive as simple drive in the adaptec partition manager that everything will be gone. This is really f***ing horrible. Over 1 TB of my data is gone ;(. Running a Active Partition recovery right now and the status is bad for recovery ;(....

08-23-2009, 04:23 AM	#4 (permalink)
wildpig1234 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 9 OS: XP	Re: How to install single drive with data onto Adaptec 31205? all data recovered as they weren't over written but what a disaster. took a whole wkend almost. anyway, again you can't add a HD to the adaptec without it destroying the existing partition table. The adaptec controller not only redo the partition but it also hide about 526 MB (in this case for a 1 TB HD, maybe even more if bigger hd?) into a separate partition, the purpose i can only guess, (redundancy so you can remap bad sectors when you tell the controller to surface scan?). After properly setting everything up, while restoring files, i was getting substained speed of about 40 +MB/s. this is writing to a single volume, not raid. can only imagine how much faster things would be with a proper raid. it was definitely writing files to the drives on the adaptec controller faster than writing files to drives on the MB controller With 256 MB cache, i will just have to remind myself every time to wait at least 20 secs to make sure the cache is emptied to my mounted hd completely if i was writing anything big to the drive before i power down the computer since i don't have the battery pack oh well, this controller is definitely not for novice or the faint-hearted. Definitely a made for pro product.