S3870 and Raid

I have S3870G2NR-RS Tiger K8SSA motherboard, and I want to setup RAID 1
on it. But I can't find the RAID setup anywhere.

What am I missing here? How do I do that with this board?

Mikko Peltoniemi wrote:
> I have S3870G2NR-RS Tiger K8SSA motherboard, and I want to setup RAID 1
> on it. But I can't find the RAID setup anywhere.
>
> What am I missing here? How do I do that with this board?

Dear Mikko,

here is a link to the manual:

http://www.tyan.com/manuals/m_s3870_100.pdf

Interestingly enough, not a bit of discussion in the manual about
setting up RAID, and, from what I could see, no BIOS options for RAID.
(I have a Tyan S2565, and RAID is set in the BIOS...)


I assume (ass-U-ME) that you run some version of Windows. Here is a
link to the Tyan driver page with SATA RAID Drivers:

http://www.tyan.com/support_download...?model=S.S3870


And, here is a link to the BIOS page:

http://www.tyan.com/support_download...?model=S.S3870

*Note version 1.03 adds some RAID options*....depending on your BIOS
version, it might be that updating it will give you some RAID options
like the S2865 has.


Otherwise, it looks to me like you have to use the F6 option to install
the RAID driver when you install Windows. (Again, assuming you do use
Windows....)


HTH,

BC

BC wrote:

> Interestingly enough, not a bit of discussion in the manual about
> setting up RAID, and, from what I could see, no BIOS options for RAID.
> (I have a Tyan S2565, and RAID is set in the BIOS...)

Right. The manual talks about RAID, except it does not talk about the
setup. And I can't find any options in BIOS.

> I assume (ass-U-ME) that you run some version of Windows. Here is a
> link to the Tyan driver page with SATA RAID Drivers:
>
> http://www.tyan.com/support_download...?model=S.S3870

I tried these too, but the Windows 2003 warned that it couldn't verify
that the driver was correct for my system. I went ahead anyway, and
the system wouldn't boot.

That all was so odd, that I started suspecting that maybe Newegg had
shipped me a MB without RAID, instead of one with RAID. But all the
model numbers match, not just with the packaging, but the MB/BIOS
itself.

> *Note version 1.03 adds some RAID options*....depending on your BIOS
> version, it might be that updating it will give you some RAID options
> like the S2865 has.

Mine is 1.05, so it doesn't look like that is the issue either.

Mikko Peltoniemi wrote:
> BC wrote:
>
>> Interestingly enough, not a bit of discussion in the manual about
>> setting up RAID, and, from what I could see, no BIOS options for RAID.
>> (I have a Tyan S2565, and RAID is set in the BIOS...)
>
> Right. The manual talks about RAID, except it does not talk about the
> setup. And I can't find any options in BIOS.
>
>> I assume (ass-U-ME) that you run some version of Windows. Here is a
>> link to the Tyan driver page with SATA RAID Drivers:
>>
>> http://www.tyan.com/support_download...?model=S.S3870
>
> I tried these too, but the Windows 2003 warned that it couldn't verify
> that the driver was correct for my system. I went ahead anyway, and
> the system wouldn't boot.
>
> That all was so odd, that I started suspecting that maybe Newegg had
> shipped me a MB without RAID, instead of one with RAID. But all the
> model numbers match, not just with the packaging, but the MB/BIOS
> itself.
>
>> *Note version 1.03 adds some RAID options*....depending on your BIOS
>> version, it might be that updating it will give you some RAID options
>> like the S2865 has.
>
> Mine is 1.05, so it doesn't look like that is the issue either.
>

If I download a driver (Broadcom_HT1000_SATA_2k3_64.zip) from the above
link, the txtsetup.oem says:

[HardwareIds.scsi.bchtsw64]
id = "PCI\VEN_1166&DEV_024A", "bchtsw64"

If I look in the PCI.IDS on Sourceforge ( http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids ),
this is what is listed for Broadcom (vendor=1166). You have two BIOS
settings, either native SATA (mapped to PCI address space, suitable
for a modern OS), or legacy PATA compatible mode (in the I/O space,
at the same magic addresses as a PATA drive). So this entry here,
says the enumeration changes, depending on the BIOS setting. (It does
raise the question though, how the chipset can have six drives, two
PATA and four SATA, and use a legacy mode...)

024a BCM5785 [HT1000] SATA (Native SATA Mode)
# The device starts as 024A, and changes to 024B if set to PATA mode in BIOS
024b BCM5785 [HT1000] SATA (PATA/IDE Mode)

Note that the implication of the manual not mentioning RAID at all
would be, that you cannot boot from the RAID array. You can use
a "software RAID" driver, and have a RAID *data* array. But without
INT 0x13 support via a RAID BIOS module, you won't be able to
boot from it.

Now, downloading a BIOS for the board, and using mmtool to tear
it apart, reveals 8 PCI Add-in ROMS inside the BIOS. Each of these
deals with bits of hardware. For example, the one with PXE in it,
would be for network boot via PXE. I'm guessing the Adaptec ROMs would
be for an Adaptec card you plug into some slot (I don't know why the modules
are repeated). The second one looks interesting, but I have no idea
whether this is supposed to work with the four chipset SATA ports
or not. The last string of numbers suggests it is. If you can get
INT13 support, by getting that add-in ROM to load, then you get
a bootable RAID array.

*******
ServerWorks Serial ATA Controller . IDE BIOS V. MMIO BIOS V.Copyright
(c) 2002-06 Broadcom Corp. All rights reserved...IDE Disk error...
Drive 80 : .x: .Port x:* . GB . MB .ATAPI CD-ROM : .Ultra DMA mode
*******
RAIDCore, Incorporated.RAID Controller
Press <CTRL-R> to Configure
BIOS NOT INSTALLED - User Disabled INT13 BIOS Load
BC44XX.BC48XX.HT1000.BC58XX.BC5XXX.BC55XX_B.BC50XX _B.BC48XX_N
*******
XGI VGA True Color Graphics and Video Accelerator
BIOS Version 1.02.02 Support VESA BIOS Extension Ver 3.0
*******
Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.2.28.IBA GE Slot 0000 v1228.PXE
*******
Adaptec AIC-7901 SCSI BIOS v4.30 .Adaptec.AIC-7901
*******
Adaptec AIC-7901 SCSI BIOS v4.30 .Adaptec.AIC-7901
*******
Adaptec AIC-7902 SCSI BIOS v4.30 .Adaptec.AIC-7902
*******
Adaptec AIC-7902 SCSI BIOS v4.30 .Adaptec.AIC-7902
*******

This is the test I would try. Enter the BIOS. Change the mode to
S-ATA. INT13 should be enabled, to load the RAIDCore Add-in ROM.
Save and exit the BIOS. When POST begins, press <ctrl-R> and see
if the Broadcom RAID screen appears. Other than that, talk to Tyan
tech support :-)

HT1000 S-ATA [Enabled]
S-ATA Mode [P-ATA] <--- change to [S-ATA], save, exit, reboot, press <ctrl-R>
INT13 Support [Enabled]

This downloadable manual has a promising file name, but may
be totally irrelevant :-)

ftp://ftp.tyan.com/manuals/m_broadcom_ht1000.pdf (~7MB)

Note - I'm not a server guy, just an amateur desktop hacker
with a copy of mmtool.

Good luck,
Paul

Paul wrote:

> This is the test I would try. Enter the BIOS. Change the mode to
> S-ATA. INT13 should be enabled, to load the RAIDCore Add-in ROM.
> Save and exit the BIOS. When POST begins, press <ctrl-R> and see
> if the Broadcom RAID screen appears. Other than that, talk to Tyan
> tech support :-)

Thanks, Paul. You did quite a bit of work, unfortunately it did
not help, though. I had already enabled the Native SATA mode before
(which was disabled by default). It did change things in Windows
Device Manager though. Ctrl-R did nothing.

I did fire an email to Tyan's email support, so I'll see if they
respond, and I'll post the response here as well.

Ok, so I got a response from Tyan's support... It took a long time. But
anyway, what I can gather from their reponse is that I don't have the
RAID board... Which is odd, since the model number on the package
points to the RAID version. And nothing suggested that it had been
opened and swapped. Crap.

Oh well, at least I wasn't going crazy.