[GA-EP35C-DS3R] Plextools can't use a Plextor writer connected tothe Gigabytre SATA ports

Hello eveyone,

I connected a Plextor PX-801SA drive to one of the 2 Gigabyte SATA ports
(the urple ones, not the orange ones).
Everything worked fine as far as reading was concerned.

Yesterday, I installed plextools, wich I find sufficient for my writing
needs.
Plextools sees the drive but acts like if the drive wasn ot available
for writing.

I changed slots in order for the plextor drive to use an orange slot and
now, plextools seems to be able to write via the drive.


Have any of you got a clue about what could cause the drive not to be
able to write when it is connected to a Gigabyte SATA port?

Thanks for your attention.


Huey

 

I read the writeup for it and didn't see anything obvious - check your BIOS
settings for SATA and assure legacy and *NOT* AHCI or RAID.

hth

 

Thanks for your answer.
I don't have the time to switch the drive again to the gigabyte
controller. It works fine on the ICH9 controller, so why bother? (this
is not so much a rethorical question as it is a real question: is there
a reason why one would chose to connect the ATAPI devices on the
gigabyte controller? I did this in the first place only because in my
mind, these are "extra" ports).

My BIOS says that both my SATA controllers are in AHCI mode.
For the gigabyte controller (= onboard SATA/IDE), I get "IDE, AHCI, or
RAID/IDE". I guess that IDE is the so called "Legacy" mode.

Apart from getting my plextor DVD-writer to functiun properly, is there
a reason why I shouldn't use AHCI mode? for me, this was the default
mode, since I don't do RAID, and since the "Legacy mode" was a simple
way not to have to load the SATA driver when one would install an XP OS.
But I included the SATA drivers on the windows CD, so I was able to use
the SATA mode.

Thanks again for answering, Kris


Huey

 

For what it(s worth, I wanted to add that, while on AHCI mode, I
couldn't update the fimrware of the plextor drive.

Huey

 

Hey Huey,
"is there

I don't know - I wonder that, too.....

"My BIOS says that both my SATA controllers are in AHCI mode.

The only reason that AHCI catches my mind is that when trying to restore
Acronis images, standalone, the Linux software they use doesn't recognize
stuff on AHCI, so I thought that might be the case for the Plextor, though
since it's running under Windows, and Windows is taking care of all that,
it shouldn't make a difference... Yes, I think ""IDE"" is what used to be
""Legacy"" in the BIOSs - I find I have to do a little "re-think" with each
new board and bios, heehee. I DO like Gigabyte, though!!! But don't know
what the difference is in the sata ports...

"> Apart from getting my plextor DVD-writer to functiun properly, is there

None that I know of. I have heard folks try to talk against it (but folks
will talk against anything that's new and that they don't understand), and
maintain they can't see a difference, but I think it's fine. This is still
a new board for me so I haven't yet zapped vista registry and changed to
AHCI (I think BIOS defaulted to IDE, but I forget - I may have set that .
I mentioned the Acronis stand alone problem, but it is easy to change back
to ""IDE"" on the extremely rare time if and when I have to do a
stand-alone restore or partition work. So this may prod me to go to AHCI.

In any case, it works for you under AHCI on the main SATA ports, so good is
good. Who knows about the rest!!!