rungel

I'm trying to connect two 74gig Raptors in a RAID0 config. But the MB does not see one of the drives for some reason. My PSU is Antec 550 watt True Power 2

Thanks and .. Happy Thanksgiving All!

rungel

Sorry this is a Premium model. This seems very odd. Seems like the harddrive isn't even getting power. Neither drive is seen in the bios. I also changed Access Mode to Large.. still nothing

linderman

Welcome to TSF:

Have you enabled the raid controller in the bios ?????? have you installed the raid controller drivers ????

check you cables for proper connection & stable / sata cables can be a real pain

you could pick up a cheap multi meter at radio shack or best buy etc and check your sata connector coming off the PSU for presence of voltage ????

check these things and post your findings

regards

joe

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

First of all, in the BIOS setup menu, (main section) do ypu have the area for drives set to AUTO? (check page 4.18 in your manual for how each drive in this area will have a sub menu)

Also, in the advanced area in the NVraid configuration, make sure the riad drive area is enabled for each drive and not disabled.

When you take a look at this, post back or at least let us know you have visited that area and it is correct. That way, we can explore other options.

Third suggestion, if you have a regular IDE hard drive on this computer, i would remove the ribbon cable from any IDE hard drives while setting up the Sata drive with an Operating System. I do that on all of mine to avoid problems.

Addendum: Have you downloaded and used the drive manufacturer's utility to prepare the drives (both) for usage?

rungel

Happy Thanksgiving!
I changed all the drives back to Auto
I have enabled RAID for all the sata drives (just to make sure i catch the right ones on the MB)
I have no IDE drive hooked up.
I have not gotten the utility from WD to prepare the drives yet. (going to look now)
"have you installed the raid controller drivers ????" Humm how is that done? Don't i need to start the OS install to do that?

Thank you

rungel

Got the DOS utility from WD for the Raptor drives but that did not see the drives either
I did do a low level format in the bios on the drive thats seen.

rungel

Another quick question. For supplying power to the drives i see i have the molex connectors and the ATA connectors also? Which do i use? I had molex connectors first hope i didn't hurt the drives. Ok enough for this .. off to get some turkey..

linderman

if you are fortunate enough to have a drive which can be powered up by either connector / then its your choice doesnt matter >>> they both work



regards


joe

rungel

well a friend told me i was using the wrong ports on the mb. he told me to use the black ones. i hooked them up and noticed it was trying to detect the raid array when booting. it was also easy to get into F10 setup. but still just lists one harddrive. i went to bios still not showing any drives there except DVD drive. i ran the dos western digital setup floppy but it can't see ANY harddrives. the only thing showing was the dvd drive. as secondary master. this power supply is new and i used it on a DFI board with no problems. maybe i need to remove ribbon from DVD drive?

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

Just for myself, I am going to think out loud and try to work throiugh this one so I don't miss anything. Please follow me through it and hope I don't miss anything:

1) I have the data cables connected to the Raid ports (this board had raid and non-raid Sata ports)

2) I have power cables connected to each drive.

3) I have Raid enabled on the motherboard through the BIOS setup menu. (I think it comes standard from the factory as Raid default.

4) I have my all Sata Drives set to Auto in the BIOS setup menu.

5) I have all drives enabled in the BIOS setup menu.

6) I have downloaded the SATA drivers from the WD website and put them on a floppy disk.

7) I have set my boot order in BIOS setup menu to:

CDRom - 1st
Floppy - 2nd
Sata Array - 3rd

** Don't forget to save before you exit if you change anythinig.

8) I have any unnecessary IDE hard drives disconnected from the motherboard.

9) I have downloaded the Drive Utility from Western Digital and have used that utility to prepare the drives. (If this will not work in the Raid configuration, then prepare the drive in a non-raid situation. After it is partitioned and formatted, then set it back up in the Raid Array)

10) I have put the OS disk in the CDRom drive, booted up and when it asks if you need to put special or SCSI drivers, I have tapped F6. It then will keep loading.

11) When the OS install stops, I will put the Sata Drivers in the A: drive and let them install.

12) I will monitor the loading of the OS.

I sure hope I didn't miss anything, but this is off the top of my head on a busy day, so good luck.

Just an extra note, if this does not work, then put that drive in the slot that you have the drive that is recognized and see if it is recognized in that slot.

Post back and let us know how it goes.

rungel

Thanks for listing everything.. I did everything i got two files from the WD site and loaded them at F6 prompt Also i had the nVida Raid driver form the cd and put on a floppy and installed that. I went ahead and had windows install even though i knew it wasn't going to be a RAID drive. I was hoping after windows installs it will see this drive. But it didn't. I got the WD windows utility and ran that and it said there was no other drive except my OS install one. My bios still shows no sata disks. Master or otherwise. Not even the one that has the os on it. Do you think this drive is dead? Seems something should show in the bios. I should never had started this.

Oh i guess having raid enabled in bios may be preventing my installed os from showing. I did try plugging in the dead drive to the port where the good one was. And it didn't show there either. Tomorrow morning i will give it another go but do you think i should do a non-raid install?

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

If that drive does not show in the BIOS, I would give it another go, but you may just have a bad new drive. I would probably RMA that thing if you don't get it to respond while alone on either the RAID or non-raid Sata Connectors. Through the years, I have gotten some bad drives right out of the box. I would RMA it if your retrial does not prove successful.

rungel

Well i think this is more then just a harddrive also. Since the bios see's no harddrives at all. I have had these harddrives connected to the black ports .. don't know if that's a problem. I tried to install windows on the disk that i can't see and it would not go. Said it could find no harddrives. What's really puzzling is on the disk with windows installed and running.. down by the clock i have one of those icons that show a green arrow. indicating i can unplug that drive or what ever. It's my harddrive that has windows on it.
I would like to get the bios to see one of the drives at least. Think i should RMA the drive and MB? I'm gonna try this harddrive in another computer. And if it doesn't show it's all going back. Is there a phone number for Asus?

Update: I tried the harddrive in another computer and it didn't show.

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

Think I would RMA it if you can't get it to show in either computer.

rungel

I disabled raid now and the other harddrive is showing up in the bios. So that's a good thing. And windows is running fine. In Call of Duty2 i have maxed out the graphics and that runs real good.

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

Quick question. When you have Raid setup, how large does it report that drive (RAID drive) is. I mean is it showing you one disk with the capacity of two disks???? Example, you have two 40 gig disks and shows one disk with 80 gigs?

Post back.

rungel

Well i'm sure it was one disk. i'm not sure exactly what the mb reading was on it. it showed only one disk in my array.. with the positioning of 0. so if there was another disk it would have been 1 right? these were 74 gig drives. actual space was 69.. humm so what's that in megabytes? i think it read something like 79069 not sure.. i have another question about these red and black ports on the mother board. the red ones say raid above them.. i think these should be the ones to use right? for raid setup

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

If you are setting up a Raid array, you need to use the ports that say raid above them. I actually don't remember the color, but do remember that they are the ones closest to the center of the board and the regular (non-raid) ones are nearest the side of the board. I also remember putting one together and remembering that the Raid ones 1, 2, 3, 4 actually, don't sequence them like the Non-raid ones. I thought that was kind of odd. One is sequenced from the top row on the left side (no guarantees on that) and the other one from the bottom row on the right. Look, they are marked.

rungel

Does it matter in what sequence i use? Or will the raid array see whats connected and just add them?

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

If it were mine, I would use numbers 1 and 2. Then, be sure you go into the BIOS setup menu and make sure those ports are enabled under the Sata Raid area.