gullducott

Ok a quick despcript. I have file server running Windows 2003 server. I have just added a PCI Sata card to increase storage capacity. I had no problems installing either the card or drivers or disks, but unfortunately cannot formate the drives even though they show up correctly just as they should.

After installiing the card (which is a mentor card) it showed up quite nicely in hardware manager as a Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATA Raid controller. The hard disk show up as well (Brand new 200gb seagate and WD) but when I try to format either drive it starts and then ends with the message "the format did not complete successfully.

A little strange considering there are no hard or sofware conflicts and all drivers appear to have been loaded correctly.

Guys! As always thanks for your help. I have yet to have a problem your combined grey matter is unable to resolve.

Gull

oldmn

Have you tried the WD tools?
http://support.wdc.com/download/inde...n&pid=4&swid=1

linderman

just so you are aware you can format a hard drive while its in another system without any ill side effects ???? if you have another computer that is running either win xp or win 2k then you can format the drive with them.


or try booting your server with the win cd and entering the recovery console / then you can format the drive from within that (many times thats easier anyway)

are you running service pack 4 ???????? I am unsure which service pack addresses large drives but I think its SP-3 ?????? but I would bump up to SP-4 just to make sure ?????

here is a link for using the recovery console / partitioning & formatting is outlined in there

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q229716

regards

joe

gullducott

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried the WD tools but they still failed to format the drive.

This is a Windows 2003 server and the current SP is 1. Yes it is patched up to the hilt latest updates etc.

I seem to be having a lot of disk troubles lately phew! Any more suggestions.

jimscreechy

This sil 3112 is a notoriously fussy piece of kit and it appears on so many SATA cards. I have seen this problem before with this SATA controller... what a royal pain in the *** At any rate it is normally fixed quite easily, though this will require a bios upgrade.

My fellow furum guru's are quite right in that you can format this drive from a different system then whack it back in your server. But this is not to say you won't experience future problems due to the archaic bios.

Go to www.siliconimage.com and find the download sections for this chip. This should do the trick. Don't waste anymore time loading drivers blah blah blah! Your wasting your time. Just do the bios update, which is fairly simple.

As always, let us know.

gullducott

Well, I loaded the latest bios from Silicon Image like you suggested, difficult as it was to understand the double dutch they used to determine the right file to download! But eventually I got there. Unfortunately I still have the same problem. I get the error message 'The format did not complete successfully' when try to format it in Windows. And all this with the latest Bios available for this chip dated 10/11/2005... what a gyp!

With this bios version loaded I no longer have the option to access the card settings during boot up. It used to say press either F4 or Ctrl+c for card config, now it just shows the two attached sata drives but I cannot access anything. I don't suppose this is too much of a problem because there is nothing to configure, so I suppose it is just as well.

One thing I did notice is that they have a sllightly later driver version than I have, so I will give it a shot as a last resort, but honestly I hold little hope. I think I will probably end up changing this card for different one. A right pain because In my frustration I formated the wrong drives and have to do all the restores from tape... which I am not even certain are up to date! Crap!

Anyhooo....

linderman

formatted the wrong drives >>>>>> ewwwww that sux !@#$%^&*()_



I would return that sata card for a PROMISE brand easily found on newegg.com / Promise cards are very strait forward easy to config / as you know they are not expensive either $35.00 to $40.00


goodluck & let us know how you progress


joe

gullducott

Thanks Linderman, if this fails tonight, I think I will do just that!

gullducott

Thanks for all the help guys. I turns out it was the controller card. I took it back to the shop, they were only too happy to replace it, the new card worked straight away no problems. Thanks again. just have to do some lengthy restores now.... Ouch!!!

linderman

thanks for the reply of resolution >>>> every bit helps


regards

joe