Multiple Hard Drives - SATA & IDE 1

[Nilgni]

I am having trouble getting my configuration to mesh. Intel doesn't provide information worth a crap when it comes to configurations like mine.

BACKGROUND INFO:

[tt]I have a home-built box with Intel D975XBX motherboard.
Win XP Home, 4 Gig Ram, Asus GeForce 7950 GX2

The Operating System is on a SATA 120 Gig Drive.
I have 4 removable bays (like in a classroom type setting) that held IDE hard drives before I replaced the inside components of the PC.

I have multiple IDE hard drives: 1-250G, 1-160G, 1-120G, 2-40G and 2-13G All are Western Digital. I also have two 100+ external usb drives and one external USB shell that I can put any IDE drive into.

Each has a specific purpose. For example: 250 is for video, 160 is for music, the two 40's are for photo and photo back-up, the rest are other OS's, backups and gaming HDD's

I don't have SATA removable bays so I purchased a converters for the existing IDE enclosures when I rebuilt the box

I have one of the removable bays connected to a HDD on the IDE connection to the Motherboard in a master/slave configuration(along with a DVD CDrom).

The SATA drive is connected to the first bank of four via a direct SATA cable.

The remaining 3 removable bays are run via SATA to Converter to Encloser. All drives connected to the motherboard via the SATA connections are jumpered to CS.[/tt]

THE PROBLEM:
I cannot get all of the drives to work. I currently have the SATA drive and two of the IDE converted drives hooked up. If I could get one more I would be happy. The last bay can be just a storage compartment and I would restart and swap out as needed.

I really am not interested in RAID because I swap out drives to make my PC do different things. I also store some of the drives outside of my home at times for safety.

If the motherboard has 8 slots, then why can't I hook up 4 hard drives? I really want to stay away from the external USB drive enclosures (although they would solve my problem immediately) because they all require to be plugged in. I am overwhelmed with cables and plugs already.

Do I need a software controller that will allow me to do this?

Is there an article somewhere for those that have gone before me?

Thanks for the help
Keith Inglin

 

[wahnula]

Keith,

I have tackled this two different ways.

One is to enable RAID is sys BIOS, then get into the RAID BIOS during boot. You might need to "create an array" with each drive so it is viewable and usable, essentially a one-drive array. You might need to do a repair install to supply the RAID drivers (press F6 at first prompt during repair).

The second way I have seen is a setting in sys BIOS that allows you to "use SATA ports as normal IDE". This will usually be in the sys BIOS Main page under "IDE configuraion".

Best of luck!

Tony

 

[Nilgni]

Tony,

Thanks for responding. I currently have it set to show SATA as IDE in the BIOS.

What I didn't say in my original post is that I tried for about 12 hours to get this to work. I methodically put drives in and made one change at a time. There was actually one configuration where I had 4 hard drives up and they were all working. When I tried to add the last one the whole thing blew up.

What puzzles me the most is there doesn't seem to be any pattern. When I blew up I lined everything up the way it was and none of it worked. Eventually I disconnected every connection right down to the motherboard and started from scratch. It took me another 6 hours of trial and turmoil to get back to where I am now. If a drive was loaded, it wouldn't see it unless I put another drive in. NO PATTERN! I keep a note pad and write things down as I do them. If it worked one time shouldn't it work the same way the next time? Where is the easy button?

I am afraid to proceed any futher for fear of loosing the progress I have made.

I also tinkered with the RAID configuration. I didn't know that it was possible to configure a one drive array. I read about two hours on RAID configurations and cannot seem to find anything that works the way I want.

Could you (or anyone else) point me where to research this or find a tutorial on what you are saying.

I used to work in computers and now that I don't anymore I have no one to ask a question of. This site and all of you are very helpful - Thanks

Keith

 

[vacunita]

All those drives require power, can your PSU handle the load of all the drives being there at the same time, in addition to the rest of the components?



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[Nilgni]

Yes. When I specced it I added everything up and bought a power supply to cover that and have some extra.

 

[cdogg]

Do you have problems when the PC is completely powered down and you swap drives in the removable bays, then power back on? Or are you trying to accomplish a hot swap?

The reason why I ask is because the SATA converter for IDE hard drives do not always work well with the hot swap feature.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Nilgni]

I never hot swap, I didn't think that it was possible. IS IT?

Anyway, the answer is I always power down. Sometime If the drives didn't come up as expected, then I shut down all the way and try it again.

My poor box has been cycled about 80 times the last two days.

Keith

 

[firewolfrl]

This is what I would do
leave the drives that work in the order that work alone


if all you end up with after this idea is just one SATA drive connected to a SATA port...that is just the way it goes

look at this google search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=USB+to+IDE/SATA&btnG=Google+Search

then purchase two or three USB to IDE/SATA converters and plug the IDE port and use your existing power supply connectors

I have 2 boxes like this with removable drives (2 each)
the great side benefit is it makes the drives hot swappable



basically you are using USB-IDE converters instead of SATA-IDE converters


I have never had great luck with the SATA-IDE converter....

 

[Nilgni]

Final Resolution

Here is what I finally ended up doing. I connected the IDE cable to the CD-Rom only.

I took the hard drive that was hooked in the master/slave combination and changed it over to the SATA converter.

So the final configuration is:

One direct SATA to an internally connect HD (Operation SYS)

Three SATA | SATA Converter | Removable Drive Bay Connections

Two USB Drives (Backup and Transfer HD's)

One Removable Drive bay is reserved to hold a 320G Backup Drive (it is not hooked up)

I would have tried to hook it up, but there is a radiator over the remaining 4 SATA Connections.

I just want to thank all of you for your ideas and suggestions. To finally have it working is calming.

Keith