Kromos

Hello!

I dont visit this site often but I've noticed that you guys are very helpful in general. I've browsed this forum looking for issues that are very similar to mine but I didn't find any good matches.

My computer system:
Athlon 64 3200+
Radeon 9800 xt
Asus K8v deluxe MB
can't remember RAM.
Soundblaster live! 5.1 platinum
3com ethernet gigabit LOM

HDD's:
IBM 20gb (windows HDD)
WC 80gb (game hdd)
wc s-ata 200gb WC2000JD (mp3 vids etc HDD)


Story:
My computer has been running flawlessly for 1h+ without any formats or whatsoever. But one day last week when I got home and started the computer it said that a file was damaged in the windows installation. OK I thought. Why not format while you're at it? So I went on and just reformated in the windows setup. Didn't bother with drivers for the s-ata HDD at all so of course it didn't show up during installtion. After installtion following items couldn't be installed automaticly in device manager:

NIC
gfx
raid control unit
USB

But after I installed NIC drivers & sp2 & USB drivers from asus homepage now only this raid control unit remains. So I download "Promise SATA378 Driver V1.00.0.26 (ATA Mode)" driver from ASUS homepage and see if it works. It doesn't. About now I noticed that the s-ata HDD didn't show up under 'My computer'. So I try to install the new drivers but it doesn't work. I install them anyway and it's not detecting. I make floppies and reinstall windows and try both with "Promise SATA378 Driver V1.00.0.26 (ATA Mode)" driver and "Promise FastTrak 378 RAID Driver V1.00.1.37 for Windows 98SE/NT4/ME/2000/XP/2003". Setup isn't still detecting the HDD. I reinstall anyway and no news. Nothing has changed. I reinstall all other drivers & Sp2.

The S-ata HDD is detected in the "sata setup" in bios where you can make arrays and stuff. But you can't choose the s-ata HDD for hard disk priority in the bios or something. I've tried partition magic and some other programs and neither can see it in windows. I've tried both sata1 and sata0 port. Tried unplug the cable and replugged it. I even tried smashing my head into the table and had a little prayer to the guy up there but neither has worked so far.

So here I am now, pretty clueless on what to do next. :(

ANY help is appericed.

Sincerly,
Henrik

linderman

Welcome to TSF:

Until the drive is recognised in the bios there is no sense going any further. Plenty of cable troubles have been reported with sata drives / the strait in connectors are not as reliable as the 90 degree ones / the 90 degree connectors seem to be alot better ????

try wiggling the sata cable while the computer is booting and see if it will appear in the bios and get correctly identified as to manufacturer and size

disable the raid controller in the bios / you dont need that

if you have reset your cmos / then you will need to activate the sata contoller in the bios

let us know what you find

regards

joe

Kromos

Thanks for reply. :)


In VIA tech sata raid bios the following item is detected:

Serial_ch0: WD2000JD

So then I make the conclution that the HDD is properly installed cable wise.

When I enter normal bios and check 'Hard disk drives' the following items appear:

1: IBM 20gb HDD
2: WDC800BB (80gb)
3: VIA VT6420 1st HDD (What's this, really?)

From VIA's homepage about VT6420:
The VIA VT6420 Controller delivers the benefits of Serial ATA and RAID in a cost effective and easily integrated single chip package, providing Serial ATA technology to platform providers and systems builders and enabling them to satisfy the requirements of multiple market segments.

Also in bios in Onchip tab I've enabled 'sata bootrom'. And I've tried loading BIOS defaults a few times now.

More ideas?

crazijoe

Ok we have a problem here
It looks like you are trying to install the promise drivers while the drive is connected to the VIA controller. This will not work. You need to either move the drive to the Promise controller or install the VIA drivers.

Kromos

AAAAAAAAAAH!

You just helped me find the light at the end of this very dark tunnel!

After I've downloaded VIA_RAID_V430H from VIA's homepage the HDD now works again. Thanks alot linderman and crazijoe!