KR7A-RAID BIOS & IDE Port problems

[Maverick]

Hi All

I'm new to this group so please bear with me if I am asking a question or two that has been covered before. I have had a glance at a lot of the previous postings and not found what I am looking for.

1. I have three HHDs and three ATAPI devicess (DVD ROM, CD-RW and DVD RW) I have just found out through a posting from a year or so ago that you cannot connect the ATAPI to IDE 3 or 3. Is this still true or can a later BIOS now resolve this issue.

2. If it isn't resolved I need to change my HDDs around but, although I have had instructions from ABIT, I cannot seem to get my system to boot from HDD0 while on IDE 3 which it tells ne to use. It says to install Windows 2000 without devices (how do I do that?) then swap drive from IDE 1 to IDE 3. Then reboot system. I coundn't see how to stop the devivces being installed and then, once HDD0 was on IDE 3, I got an error that System disc could not be found. Any advice, please.

3. Can any body help in explainimng hpw to upgrade the BIOS in W2K. I have just re-installed W2K and don't really want to do that again but will if absolutely necessary.

4. If I leave HDD0 on IDE 1 and have the DVD ROM as slave on the same port would the overall performance of my system suffer. I only use that drive for system files and program files. The othertwo drives are used for video editing.

Sorry to make this so long but, after several weeks of struggling I could really do with the help.

Cheers

 

[Wes Newell]

On Wed, 02 Jul 2003 16:23:26 -0700, Maverick wrote:

2. If it isn't resolved I need to change my HDDs around but, although I have had instructions from ABIT, I cannot seem to get my system to boot from HDD0 while on IDE 3 which it tells ne to use. It says to install Windows 2000 without devices (how do I do that?) then swap drive from IDE 1 to IDE 3. Then reboot system. I coundn't see how to stop the devivces being installed and then, once HDD0 was on IDE 3, I got an error that System disc could not be found. Any advice, please.

There's a boot from ATARAID or something like that in my bios. HDD0 worked with some bios, but didn't with others if the boot drive was on the raid controller if I recall correctly. I've got all my HD's on the HPT also. I've got a KT7-raid, but it should be similar.

3. Can any body help in explainimng hpw to upgrade the BIOS in W2K. I have just re-installed W2K and don't really want to do that again but will if absolutely necessary.

Get a dos diskette and upgrade the bios with it. IOW, boot from floppy.

4. If I leave HDD0 on IDE 1 and have the DVD ROM as slave on the same port would the overall performance of my system suffer. I only use that drive for system files and program files. The othertwo drives are used for video editing.

I think the only time you will loose performance would be copying from the DVD to the HDD on the same channel. Probably not done too often.

 

[Rusty (archive)]

On 2 Jul 2003 16:23:26 -0700, (Maverick) wrote:

Hi All

I'm new to this group so please bear with me if I am asking a question or two that has been covered before. I have had a glance at a lot of the previous postings and not found what I am looking for.

1. I have three HHDs and three ATAPI devicess (DVD ROM, CD-RW and DVD RW) I have just found out through a posting from a year or so ago that you cannot connect the ATAPI to IDE 3 or 3. Is this still true or can a later BIOS now resolve this issue.

2. If it isn't resolved I need to change my HDDs around but, although ...

Set ATARAID (or ATA100 or ATA133) as the first boot device in the BIOS. Then go to the HPT 372 conroller (hit CTRL-H) and set your boot drive.

You didn't say if you have a RAID or not, but the HPT controller can act as a plain IDE controller.

The drive letter swap in Windoze won't help, because it changes drive letter assignment AFTER your already booted.

And make sure your boot drive is bootable!

 

[Mike (32)]

"Rusty" wrote:

On 2 Jul 2003 16:23:26 -0700, (Maverick) wrote:
Set ATARAID (or ATA100 or ATA133) as the first boot device in the BIOS. Then go to the HPT 372 conroller (hit CTRL-H) and set your boot drive.

That sounds easy enough!

You didn't say if you have a RAID or not, but the HPT controller can act as a plain IDE controller.

No, I don't require RAID but really needed the speed of ATA 133 for video editimng.

The drive letter swap in Windoze won't help, because it changes drive letter assignment AFTER your already booted.

I assume it's OK to change drive numbers, though as HDD0 is drive C - that's OK, but then the DVD ROM nd CD RW are mapped as D & E with the otyer two HDDs as F & G. So I change things so that HDD0,1 & 2 are C D & E.

And make sure your boot drive is bootable!

I assume that as I install windows on to HDD0 then that becomes the bootable drive. Is this a correct assumption or is there someyhing else I must do.

Cheers for all the help.

 

[Mike (32)]

"Rusty" wrote:

On 2 Jul 2003 16:23:26 -0700, (Maverick) wrote:
Set ATARAID (or ATA100 or ATA133) as the first boot device in the BIOS. Then go to the HPT 372 conroller (hit CTRL-H) and set your boot drive.

Ooops. Looked at HPT Controller and not sure what you mean by 'Set my boot drive'. Could you explain a little please aas this isn't my main area.

Cheers

 

[TomG]

in the Highpoint bios, there are onscreen hints as to setting the boot drive... I think it is F2 or something like that? you highlight the drive in question and mark it with an asterisk to indicate to the Highpoint bios that the drive is to be the boot drive.

 

[Mike (32)]

"TomG" wrote:

in the Highpoint bios, there are onscreen hints as to setting the boot drive... I think it is F2 or something like that? you highlight the drive in question and mark it with an asterisk to indicate to the Highpoint bios that the drive is to be the boot drive.

Thanks. In the middle of video editing now so will try again later and let you know how it goes.

Cheers

 

[Mike (32)]

"Mike" wrote:

"TomG" wrote:

in the Highpoint bios, there are onscreen hints as to setting the boot
drive... I think it is F2 or something like that? you highlight the drive in question and mark it with an asterisk to indicate to the Highpoint bios that the drive is to be the boot drive.

Thanks. In the middle of video editing now so will try again later and let you know how it goes.

OK

I've had time to test things out and here's what I did.

Take HDD0 from IDE 1 leaving that port empty. and put it into IDE 3. IDE 4 already has HDD1 & 2 as master slave working fine.

IDE 2 has DVD ROM/CD RW as master slave already working fine.

Booted to BIOS and set Boot disc to ATA 133RAID. Then on to HTP372 control panel and set HDD3 as it is (it's the 20GB drive) showing as boot drive.

Now it displays a message about checking VMI pool (have I got that right) for a considerable time. Then I finally get the white windows 2000 screen with the blue bars at the bottom. They reach about 2/3 of way across and there it stays. I've left it for 15 mins and nothing else happens but the HDD light does go on and off in long bursts.

Does anyone have any idea as to what is going wrong.

The BIOS is : VT8366A-8233-6A6LVA1AC-CX Dated 18 Nov 2002 as displayed by FlashMenu

The HighPoint ROM Device is 2.345.0.0

Please help as my hair is getting greyer by the minute

Cheers

 

[MJH]

If HDD0 on IDE3 is your C drive shouldn't that be your boot drive in the Highpoint setup?

Mike. 30705. 3:52am ET
.........

"Mike" wrote:

I've had time to test things out and here's what I did.

Take HDD0 from IDE 1 leaving that port empty. and put it into IDE 3. IDE 4 already has HDD1 & 2 as master slave working fine.

IDE 2 has DVD ROM/CD RW as master slave already working fine.

Booted to BIOS and set Boot disc to ATA 133RAID. Then on to HTP372 control panel and set HDD3 as it is (it's the 20GB drive) showing as boot drive.

Now it displays a message about checking VMI pool (have I got that right) for a considerable time. Then I finally get the white windows 2000 screen ...

 

[Mike (32)]

"MJH" wrote:

If HDD0 on IDE3 is your C drive shouldn't that be your boot drive in the Highpoint setup?

In the Highpoint set-up it lists the drives as HDD1 2 & 3. Windows is installed on the 20GB HDD which is being shown as disc 3 so that is what I selected.

Cheers

 

[MJH]

FYI:
On my KR7A-RAID [non-RAID configuration] I have my system files on the drive on IDE3 and my second drive on IDE4. In the Highpoint setup the "channel status" section lists them as Primary Master and Secondary Master; no drives on slaves. My Primary Master listed as BOOT and Secondary Master listed as HDD1. Just out of curiosity I switched Secondary Master as BOOT and Primary Master became HDD1 and Secondary Master as BOOT. I don't think it would boot that way with my system files being on my Primary Master and Secondary Master as BOOT drive. Apparently the Highpoint will make whatever drive listed as BOOT the HDD0 drive. I don't know how this affects your drive arrangement.

Are your jumpers configured as CS or are you using Master / Slave designations?

Mike. 30705. 6:14am ET
...........

"Mike" wrote:

"MJH" wrote:

If HDD0 on IDE3 is your C drive shouldn't that be your boot drive in the
Highpoint setup?

In the Highpoint set-up it lists the drives as HDD1 2 & 3. Windows is installed on the 20GB HDD which is being shown as disc 3 so that is what I selected.

Cheers

 

[Mike (32)]

"MJH" wrote:

FYI:
On my KR7A-RAID [non-RAID configuration] I have my system files on the drive on IDE3 and my second drive on IDE4. In the Highpoint setup the "channel status" section lists them as Primary Master and Secondary Master; no drives on slaves. My Primary Master listed as BOOT and Secondary Master listed

as

HDD1. Just out of curiosity I switched Secondary Master as BOOT and

Primary

Master became HDD1 and Secondary Master as BOOT. I don't think it would boot that way with my system files being on my Primary Master and

Secondary

Master as BOOT drive. Apparently the Highpoint will make whatever drive listed as BOOT the HDD0 drive. I don't know how this affects your drive arrangement.

Are your jumpers configured as CS or are you using Master / Slave designations?

Not too sure what you mean by CS. But windows is installed on the 20GB drive which is set as Master on IDE 3 with no other drive attached. The 60 & 80GB drives are Master/Slave on IDE 4.

Cheers

 

[Mike (32)]

OK

So I've tested all setting again and this is the result.

Once again I get a long delay with the message 'Verifying DMI Pool Data...' then Windows 2000 Pro starts to boot. The white logo screen pops up and the blue bar at the bottom goes straight to about 3/2 way acroos. The HDDD light goes on for about 10 secs off for two, on/off, etc.~

After around 15 minutes the following error is displayed.

***STOP Stoop : 0x0000007B #(0Xeb81b84c,0xc0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000 INNACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE

There are no viruses and I haven't installed any new drives or their drivers.

Current BIOS is VT8366A-8233-6A6LVA1AC-CX Dated 18 Nov 2002

HPT Conytroller is: HPT370/372 V.2.32

I have ATA133RAID set as 1st Boot device with the Windows installed HDD on IDE3 The HPT Controller shows.

Primary Master 20GB BOOT
Primaray Slave No Drive
Secondary Master 60GB HDD1
Secondary Slave 80GB HDD2

A few questions;

Should I update to a later HPT driver if there is one and where is it?

Should I re-install windows with the 1st Boot drive set to CDROM then reboot setting to ATA133RAID?

Any other advice as to what I might do to resolve this problem.

Cheers.

 

[Mike (32)]

BTW I was sent a document from ABIT that states IDEs 1 & 2 supports UDMA66/100/133 on IDE1/2 and UDMA66/100/133 on IDE3/4

This conflicts with the manual which say that IDE 1 & 2 support upto 100.

Cheers

 

[MJH]

HD settings appear to be correct; must be software issue you're having.

I bought my KR7A-RAID to get the ATA133 which was not available on IDE1/2 but was/is on IDE3/4. I've updated to CX BIOS as well. Will try the 133 on IDE1 later to see if ATA133 is recognized but I doubt it will be.

M. 30706. 1:24am ET
............

"Mike" wrote:

BTW I was sent a document from ABIT that states IDEs 1 & 2 supports UDMA66/100/133 on IDE1/2 and UDMA66/100/133 on IDE3/4

This conflicts with the manual which say that IDE 1 & 2 support upto 100.

Cheers

 

[Mike (32)]

Problem still not sorted but now have another with what seems to be a faulty CD-RW drive.

Hey-ho, it never rains...

Cheers

 

[MJH]

Good luck sorting it out.

Oh, the IDE1/2 boot my Maxtor 133 drives at UDMA100 as expected; so the tech that wrote you must have mis-spoke.

M. 30706. 11:28pm ET
............

"Mike" wrote:

Problem still not sorted but now have another with what seems to be a

faulty

CD-RW drive.

Hey-ho, it never rains...

Cheers