A8V Deluxe & HDD Problems

My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
separate HDDs.

His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.

He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
that didn't do anything.

Can someone please suggest some things to try to resolve this problem?
Thanks for your time and coutesy.

"Holy Schmoly" <> wrote in message
news:...
> My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
> SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
> they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
> reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
> separate HDDs.
>
> His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
> properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
> Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.
>
> He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
> that didn't do anything.
>

Does this motherboard have different SATA connectors depending of if they
are to be used as RAID or non-RAID (JBOD) as the A8N mobos? If so make sure
he made the physical swap as well.


--
-Don
Ever had one of those days where you just felt like:
http://cosmoslair.com/BadDay.html ?
(Eating the elephant outside the box, one paradigm at a time)

In article <>, Holy Schmoly
<> wrote:

> My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
> SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
> they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
> reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
> separate HDDs.
>
> His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
> properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
> Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.
>
> He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
> that didn't do anything.
>
> Can someone please suggest some things to try to resolve this problem?
> Thanks for your time and coutesy.

It would help if you did "Delete Array" in the RAID BIOS
that did the "Create Array" in the first place. That erases
the metadata on the disks. Erasing the disks with DBAN would
be another option, but a waste of more time. (A single pass
erase would do.)

AFAIK, the 8237 uses the RAID driver, whether doing RAID or not.
For non-RAID, you are effectively using "JBOD". If you added
one disk to the 8237, did not enter the RAID BIOS, had the
8237 RAID driver installed, it is possible it might get picked
up as JBOD. If the metadata on the disk is valid for the 8237
though, and says the disk is part of some RAID array, there is
no reason for the driver to revert to JBOD.

Some Southbridge chips, like the Nvidia Nforce, can use the
Microsoft driver and run in non-RAID mode. There is usually
a BIOS setting that controls RAID per port as well. The
VIA don't seem to work that way, and as a result, I think
that is why the RAID driver is used all the time. And with
the RAID driver in place, you don't want any info in the
reserved sector telling the driver that the drives are
part of an array. I cannot see that helping.

The closest thing to a manual I can find for VT8237 is this:
http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/VT6420.pdf

In particular, read the last page of that document. Then
have a look at section 4.6 on page 12.

On the Promise controller, there are separate ATA and RAID drivers.
I think the Promise controller still uses a metadata (reserved sector)
approach, even when using those two drivers. It would not be a
good idea to confuse things, by presenting a disk that still
has the metadata from a RAID, and then trying to use the ATA
driver on it. So deleting the array on the two disks, if
prepped by the Promise RAID BIOS, might also be a good idea.

HTH,
Paul

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:38:20 -0700, "Don Freeman" <>
wrote:

>"Holy Schmoly" <> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>> My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
>> SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
>> they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
>> reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
>> separate HDDs.
>>
>> His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
>> properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
>> Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.
>>
>> He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
>> that didn't do anything.
>>
>
>Does this motherboard have different SATA connectors depending of if they
>are to be used as RAID or non-RAID (JBOD) as the A8N mobos? If so make sure
>he made the physical swap as well.

I'll be sure to have him check the connectors and see. Thanks.

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 19:25:12 GMT, (Paul) wrote:

>In article <>, Holy Schmoly
><> wrote:
>
>> My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
>> SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
>> they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
>> reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
>> separate HDDs.
>>
>> His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
>> properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
>> Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.
>>
>> He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
>> that didn't do anything.
>>
>> Can someone please suggest some things to try to resolve this problem?
>> Thanks for your time and coutesy.
>
>It would help if you did "Delete Array" in the RAID BIOS
>that did the "Create Array" in the first place. That erases
>the metadata on the disks. Erasing the disks with DBAN would
>be another option, but a waste of more time. (A single pass
>erase would do.)
>
>AFAIK, the 8237 uses the RAID driver, whether doing RAID or not.
>For non-RAID, you are effectively using "JBOD". If you added
>one disk to the 8237, did not enter the RAID BIOS, had the
>8237 RAID driver installed, it is possible it might get picked
>up as JBOD. If the metadata on the disk is valid for the 8237
>though, and says the disk is part of some RAID array, there is
>no reason for the driver to revert to JBOD.
>
>Some Southbridge chips, like the Nvidia Nforce, can use the
>Microsoft driver and run in non-RAID mode. There is usually
>a BIOS setting that controls RAID per port as well. The
>VIA don't seem to work that way, and as a result, I think
>that is why the RAID driver is used all the time. And with
>the RAID driver in place, you don't want any info in the
>reserved sector telling the driver that the drives are
>part of an array. I cannot see that helping.
>
>The closest thing to a manual I can find for VT8237 is this:
>http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/VT6420.pdf
>
>In particular, read the last page of that document. Then
>have a look at section 4.6 on page 12.
>
>On the Promise controller, there are separate ATA and RAID drivers.
>I think the Promise controller still uses a metadata (reserved sector)
>approach, even when using those two drivers. It would not be a
>good idea to confuse things, by presenting a disk that still
>has the metadata from a RAID, and then trying to use the ATA
>driver on it. So deleting the array on the two disks, if
>prepped by the Promise RAID BIOS, might also be a good idea.

Paul, thank you very much for your detailed reply. Really appreciate
it. And now that you mention it, I seem to recall the SATA disks were
being controlled by a Promise controller card.

So, he just took out the card, connected the SATA disks directly to
the A8V and was left with the problem of Windows not recognizing the
two SATA disks.

However, he did mention that during the boot process, the SATA disks
were listed along with the primary disk which has Windows XP Pro on
it. This disk is a non SATA drive.

So, since he was using a Promise controller previously, there's a good
chance that the metadata is still on the disks, therefore he should
delete the array?

Sorry for asking what probably is a very obvious question, but how
would one go about deleting or erasing the RAID on the disks? Would
my friend have to format the disks or use some utility to achieve
this? Thanks again.

"Holy Schmoly" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 19:25:12 GMT, (Paul) wrote:
>
>>In article <>, Holy Schmoly
>><> wrote:
>>
>>> My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
>>> SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
>>> they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
>>> reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
>>> separate HDDs.
>>>
>>> His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
>>> properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
>>> Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.
>>>
>>> He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
>>> that didn't do anything.
>>>
>>> Can someone please suggest some things to try to resolve this problem?
>>> Thanks for your time and coutesy.
>>
>>It would help if you did "Delete Array" in the RAID BIOS
>>that did the "Create Array" in the first place. That erases
>>the metadata on the disks. Erasing the disks with DBAN would
>>be another option, but a waste of more time. (A single pass
>>erase would do.)
>>
>>AFAIK, the 8237 uses the RAID driver, whether doing RAID or not.
>>For non-RAID, you are effectively using "JBOD". If you added
>>one disk to the 8237, did not enter the RAID BIOS, had the
>>8237 RAID driver installed, it is possible it might get picked
>>up as JBOD. If the metadata on the disk is valid for the 8237
>>though, and says the disk is part of some RAID array, there is
>>no reason for the driver to revert to JBOD.
>>
>>Some Southbridge chips, like the Nvidia Nforce, can use the
>>Microsoft driver and run in non-RAID mode. There is usually
>>a BIOS setting that controls RAID per port as well. The
>>VIA don't seem to work that way, and as a result, I think
>>that is why the RAID driver is used all the time. And with
>>the RAID driver in place, you don't want any info in the
>>reserved sector telling the driver that the drives are
>>part of an array. I cannot see that helping.
>>
>>The closest thing to a manual I can find for VT8237 is this:
>>http://support.asus.com/technicaldocuments/VT6420.pdf
>>
>>In particular, read the last page of that document. Then
>>have a look at section 4.6 on page 12.
>>
>>On the Promise controller, there are separate ATA and RAID drivers.
>>I think the Promise controller still uses a metadata (reserved sector)
>>approach, even when using those two drivers. It would not be a
>>good idea to confuse things, by presenting a disk that still
>>has the metadata from a RAID, and then trying to use the ATA
>>driver on it. So deleting the array on the two disks, if
>>prepped by the Promise RAID BIOS, might also be a good idea.
>
> Paul, thank you very much for your detailed reply. Really appreciate
> it. And now that you mention it, I seem to recall the SATA disks were
> being controlled by a Promise controller card.
>
> So, he just took out the card, connected the SATA disks directly to
> the A8V and was left with the problem of Windows not recognizing the
> two SATA disks.
>
> However, he did mention that during the boot process, the SATA disks
> were listed along with the primary disk which has Windows XP Pro on
> it. This disk is a non SATA drive.
>
> So, since he was using a Promise controller previously, there's a good
> chance that the metadata is still on the disks, therefore he should
> delete the array?
>
> Sorry for asking what probably is a very obvious question, but how
> would one go about deleting or erasing the RAID on the disks? Would
> my friend have to format the disks or use some utility to achieve
> this? Thanks again.

I have one of these systemboards. I had to use the Promise SATA378 Driver
during the Windows XP install otherwise the install would not see the SATA
hard drives.

If you provide the Promise SATA378 Driver during the install, the SATA HDDs
should show up in the list of available drives, the install will allow you
to delete any existing partitions and allow you to create new ones.

In article <>, Holy Schmoly
<> wrote:

>
> Paul, thank you very much for your detailed reply. Really appreciate
> it. And now that you mention it, I seem to recall the SATA disks were
> being controlled by a Promise controller card.
>
> So, he just took out the card, connected the SATA disks directly to
> the A8V and was left with the problem of Windows not recognizing the
> two SATA disks.
>
> However, he did mention that during the boot process, the SATA disks
> were listed along with the primary disk which has Windows XP Pro on
> it. This disk is a non SATA drive.
>
> So, since he was using a Promise controller previously, there's a good
> chance that the metadata is still on the disks, therefore he should
> delete the array?
>
> Sorry for asking what probably is a very obvious question, but how
> would one go about deleting or erasing the RAID on the disks? Would
> my friend have to format the disks or use some utility to achieve
> this? Thanks again.

If you are moving from one interface to the other, the metadata
is not compatible and would be ignored by the other controller's
BIOS. I was addressing the situation of staying on the VIA,
where the reserved sector would still say the drives were RAID,
in which case deleting the array or finding other means to
clean off the disk might help.

Whether using the VIA or the Promise, you either need the VIA
driver, or one of the two Promise drivers, to use those interfaces
respectively. If installing an OS on a SATA disk, you would need
to use the F6 option at the beginning of the install, and install
a driver there. If the OS is on another disk, and the disk you
are adding is just a data disk, then you can install the driver
from the motherboard CD if you want.

Paul

On Fri, 28 Jul 2006 18:24:18 GMT, Holy Schmoly <>
wrote:

>My friend has an A8V and is trying to have windows recognize the 2
>SATA HDDs which are to be used in a non RAID manner. He says that
>they were being used in some RAID configuration before, but he has
>reinstalled Windows XP Pro and is now wishing to use them as just two
>separate HDDs.
>
>His non SATA HDD has Windows XP Pro installed on it and is functioning
>properly and shows up in Disk Management of Windows XP's Computer
>Management. But his two SATA HDDs don't show up at all in it.
>
>He has tried disabling the onboard RAID controller in the BIOS, but
>that didn't do anything.
>
>Can someone please suggest some things to try to resolve this problem?
>Thanks for your time and coutesy.



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