KT7A-Raid cannot get drive to work

Motherboard: ABiT KT7A-RAID version 1.3
RAM: 512 Mbytes
Processor: Athlon AMD 1.13
Drives: 2 IBM 60 Gbyte (60GXP 7200 ATA100) mirrored, using IDE3 and IDE4

CD Writer IDE2 Master Yamaha CRW-F1E, connects as ultra DMA mode 2
CD Rom IDE2 Slave Mitsimi CD-ROM FX4830T, connects as ultra DMA mode 2

Bios 9R
HPT370A 2.32

OS Windows Server 2003

BIOS settings all set to AUTO.
Drivers are as installed by Windows Server 2003.
Device manager: Advanced option not ticked.


IBM Drives running Ok, no issues, have been for 2+ years.

Just added a Samsung 160GB (Spinpoint 7200 rpm ATA133) drive to IDE1 as
master using akasa ATA-133 round cable.

Drive initially connects as expected as DMA mode 5, drive is correctly named
as SAMSUNG SP1604N.
The drive can be partitioned and formatted and data written/read.

But later anything from 10 mins to 1 hour
Volumes appear to go (names revert to local disc), and cannot be accessed
giving message: the drive is not formatted
the hard drive name has been changed to RALSTNF RP0604N and the transfer
mode has changed to "multi-word DMA mode 2".

Can you help please.

Thanks
Brian

 

I've had similar issues on a KT7a (non raid) mobo with WD drives,
Brian, and finally realised that what seemed to be causing the problem
was the round ATA cable - I tried several, too, with no luck.

So I went back to using conventional ribbon cables - no more problems
and I've not used round cables since. YMMV.

patrickp

- take five to email me

 

To be honest I was very sceptical about problems with round cables.
However, you appear to be correct.

I changed the cable to a flat IDE DMA66 cable and so far so good (after 12
or so hours of use).

Any ideas why round cables cause problems ?

Thanks
Brian

 

To be honest I was very sceptical about problems with round cables.

Very strange, I use rounded cables (from svc) on several different
size drives without problems on this board. Both hanging off the raid
controller itself and the onboard ide.

Perhaps svc sells a bit higher grade of rounded cable? Or perhaps I'm
just lucky.

-GV

 

The longer cables are notoriously troublesome, but many use the
shorter round cables without problems.

Enkidu

 

I use the round cables but really don't trust them completely. On the next
system I build, I don't believe that I will use them. Hopefully, SATA will
take over everything by then and there will be no need for those bulky
antiques.

DDDD

 

I can only think that rounding a cable brings wires into close
proximity that wouldn't be on a flat cable, and perhaps this produces
some unwanted induction effect. I also think that this is going to be
more noticeable on boards where there may be problems anyway (the KT7a
I noticed problems on subsequently turned out to have a dodgy BIOS
chip).

However, having found out that rounded cables are more likely to cause
problems than flat ones, I'm unwilling to use them even on boards
where there don't appear to be noticeable problems. You never know
when there might be a need for that extra bit of reliability.

The drawback for me is that the choice of length and quality of flat
cables now seems to be getting a bit limited in the UK. A lot of
suppliers just don't carry them any more, and for the ones that do,
they often just seem to be a cheap option.



patrickp

- take five to email me

 

The longer cables are notoriously troublesome, but many use the

The ones I got from SVC are the 18" and less ones. I got some 10"
ones for a Micro-ATX board I setup, also from svc, also no problems.

-GV

 

The Akasa cable is 18" (with 11" from Board to Slave)

Brian