Adding two IDE drives to pre-installed SATA RAID

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send2bryan

I just purchased a computer that was preconfigured with a two harddrive
SATA RAID. I would like to add my two IDE harddrives to the machine
but am having difficulty doing so. It is on a ECS PF4 Extreme
motherboard and their documentation is unhelpful. I would like to keep
the RAID as the boot drive.

Simply plugging in the IDE drives results in a "broken RAID" message.
I haven't found anything in the BIOS that works so far either. When
the RAID is attached, the BIOS doesn't even recognize that the RAID is
there (In the boot-priority option it only lists Add-in cards).

Any suggestions?

If I wanted to delete the RAID do I just delete it through the RAID
utility and then do a clean install of the OS?

Thanks for any insight!
 
I just purchased a computer that was preconfigured with a two harddrive
SATA RAID. I would like to add my two IDE harddrives to the machine
but am having difficulty doing so. It is on a ECS PF4 Extreme
motherboard and their documentation is unhelpful. I would like to keep
the RAID as the boot drive.

Simply plugging in the IDE drives results in a "broken RAID" message.
I haven't found anything in the BIOS that works so far either. When
the RAID is attached, the BIOS doesn't even recognize that the RAID is
there (In the boot-priority option it only lists Add-in cards).

Any suggestions?

If I wanted to delete the RAID do I just delete it through the RAID
utility and then do a clean install of the OS?

Thanks for any insight!
Click to expand...

The ECS download page has a manual for the SIS180. I don't see
the usual section in the ECS manual for the Intel RAID.

Pressing something like <ctrl> I when the computer starts,
would be one way to get into the Intel RAID BIOS. That
assumes the Intel RAID ROM has been enabled in a previous
BIOS session and saved. (And since I don't see that option
in the manual, it kinda makes me wonder.) When I speak of
a RAID ROM, I am referring to a small file within the BIOS
flash chip's file system - your two RAID facilities are
controlled by two separate BIOS modules, and normally
the BIOS would contain an option to enable the operation
of each of those BIOS modules.

Pressing <ctrl> S might allow you to get into the SIS180
RAID BIOS.

Your board has two SATA and one IDE, controlled by the SIS180.
The Intel Southbridge controls four SATA and one IDE cable.
Normally, you would try to put drives on the Intel first,
for best bandwidth (no PCI bus limit, just the 266MB/sec
hub bus limit). The Southbridge IDE should be saved for ATAPI
optical drives (CD/DVD), as separate storage controller
chips are seldom up to the task of driving optical
devices, without some kind of issue.

So, I don't know where your builder has connected this
stuff. Knowing that would help.

In some RAID BIOS, once an array is created, there is
an option to place an asterisk next to the array that
is bootable. Presumably, doing so means the array will
be registered with the INT 0x13 service in the BIOS,
so at boot time, the array is available as a boot option.
It might show up when "Boot Other" is enabled, for
example, or it could be classed as a "SCSI Device".

Reading the downloadable ECS manual is nauseating (two
page format, plus my need to zoom in). The stuff I'd expect
to see seems to be missing. Looks like it is going to
be a "puzzle in a box" :-(

Paul
 
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