New computer set up need some help at DVinfo.net

Don Bloom · January 24th, 2008, 04:23 PM

Hi all,
I know it's not a Vegas question but there are some pretty ggod computer folks here so here goes.
I had to build a new box, my old one finally gave it up and I was able to get a nice C2D box free. I dropped in 2-750s, 1 500 a new burner and a couple more sticks of ram along with a big power supply. It runs like a champ-both monitors are working, the sound, everything is fine EXCEPT for some reason when I open 'my computer' it doesn't see the 3 HDDs.
It sees the system drive an the 2 FW drives that I have running but not the internal drives. Here's the thing, it's a SATA box so the drives are SATA, and I have a controller card installed for the DATA cables. I've run the setup but honestly I've never worked a RAID setup before and am a bit lost.
Any help would be apprecitated greatly.
Thanks
Don

Chris Soucy · January 24th, 2008, 04:50 PM

Not sure how much help I'm going to be but here goes.....

When my system starts up, it runs through two Raid setup utilities, Silicon Image (for the SI on board controller) and NVidia (ditto).

The SI one is actually redundant as that controller was found to be infinately slower than the NVidia one, so we transfered both the RAID drives to the NVidia.

What I haven't done is dive in at startup to kill the SI utility.

My rather long winded point is that there should be a RAID utility lurking somewhere that loads at startup to configure your two 750 gig drives (big presumption on my part - they're supposed to be Raid-ed?).

What I don't actually know is where you're likely to find said utility, tho' suspect it would have been included with the controller card. I don't think that the controller can be seen without this happening.

Under what circumstances it can be loaded and at what point, I am utterly in ignorance of as my system was built by a local techie and this was all done before I got it home to play.

CS

Chris Soucy · January 24th, 2008, 05:01 PM

having hoiked out the MOBO box with all relevant bits and bobs have actually read (part) of the FM relating to Raid.

It appears that, having enabled and set up the Raid bios, you load the special Raid driver, then initialize the Raid array in Windows via Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Disc Management. (Easy then!).

Think you must have a FM and a disc with drivers/ utilities lying about somewhere.

CS

Don Bloom · January 24th, 2008, 05:07 PM

Thanks Chris,
Yeah I found the install disc and it doesn't seem to want to load plus now I noticed in the BIOS setup that the RAID configuration menu isn't seeing the 500gig-just the 2 750s. I'm trying to set up as RAID 0 and the config menu (f4 when booting up) tells me there aren't enough drives to do that with.
I'm confused.
Oh well, I'll keep playing with it-maybe I'll stumble into it.
Thanks
Don

Chris Soucy · January 24th, 2008, 05:25 PM

I presume the 500 is on the same controller board as the 750's?

It may be that the connector/ cable/ power isn't seated correctly or the 500 has an incorrectly set jumper. My quick scan of the FM was at pains to point out that sata drives have no master/ slave arrangement.

Wouldn't hurt to make sure that drive is actually spinning up.

CS

Don Bloom · January 24th, 2008, 05:40 PM

Well as one gets older sometimes one get D U M B E R! That's me ;-(

I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to format the drives thru the disc management so naturally the computer couldn't see them (I should have lent it my glasses as I took my S T U P I D hat off the rack and put it on my head.

Thanks for the help Chris, all seems to be just ducky now! (as I hang my head in shame shame shame)
OO
\_/
Don

Chris Soucy · January 24th, 2008, 05:50 PM

I know how you feel tho'.

CS

Joe Busch · January 24th, 2008, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

Well as one gets older sometimes one get D U M B E R! That's me ;-(

I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to format the drives thru the disc management so naturally the computer couldn't see them (I should have lent it my glasses as I took my S T U P I D hat off the rack and put it on my head.

Thanks for the help Chris, all seems to be just ducky now! (as I hang my head in shame shame shame)
OO
\_/
Don

Was about to mention that ;)

SATA Drives are not natively detected by Windows XP, which is why if you want to install XP to a SATA drive you have to "Press F6 to load Raid/SCSI Drivers" because XP does not have drivers for Sata drives natively, once you install your motherboard chipset drivers, it should install drivers for the Sata/Raid Controller, you just need to format the drives.

Also if you're using Vista, you'd just have to format the drives.

Hope that helps, I know it was a pain when I first went to Sata, I had no idea what I was doing I just returned it and bought an IDE drive :)

Now I'm running 7 Sata drives, 2 in Raid-0, and 2 IDE drives across 1 server/1 workstation... 9 HDD's total...

January 24th, 2008, 04:23 PM	#1
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	New computer set up need some help Hi all, I know it's not a Vegas question but there are some pretty ggod computer folks here so here goes. I had to build a new box, my old one finally gave it up and I was able to get a nice C2D box free. I dropped in 2-750s, 1 500 a new burner and a couple more sticks of ram along with a big power supply. It runs like a champ-both monitors are working, the sound, everything is fine EXCEPT for some reason when I open 'my computer' it doesn't see the 3 HDDs. It sees the system drive an the 2 FW drives that I have running but not the internal drives. Here's the thing, it's a SATA box so the drives are SATA, and I have a controller card installed for the DATA cables. I've run the setup but honestly I've never worked a RAID setup before and am a bit lost. Any help would be apprecitated greatly. Thanks Don

January 24th, 2008, 04:50 PM	#2
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,691 Images: 18	Hi Don........... Not sure how much help I'm going to be but here goes..... When my system starts up, it runs through two Raid setup utilities, Silicon Image (for the SI on board controller) and NVidia (ditto). The SI one is actually redundant as that controller was found to be infinately slower than the NVidia one, so we transfered both the RAID drives to the NVidia. What I haven't done is dive in at startup to kill the SI utility. My rather long winded point is that there should be a RAID utility lurking somewhere that loads at startup to configure your two 750 gig drives (big presumption on my part - they're supposed to be Raid-ed?). What I don't actually know is where you're likely to find said utility, tho' suspect it would have been included with the controller card. I don't think that the controller can be seen without this happening. Under what circumstances it can be loaded and at what point, I am utterly in ignorance of as my system was built by a local techie and this was all done before I got it home to play. CS

January 24th, 2008, 05:01 PM	#3
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,691 Images: 18	Update............. having hoiked out the MOBO box with all relevant bits and bobs have actually read (part) of the FM relating to Raid. It appears that, having enabled and set up the Raid bios, you load the special Raid driver, then initialize the Raid array in Windows via Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Disc Management. (Easy then!). Think you must have a FM and a disc with drivers/ utilities lying about somewhere. CS

January 24th, 2008, 05:25 PM	#5
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,691 Images: 18	Hi........... I presume the 500 is on the same controller board as the 750's? It may be that the connector/ cable/ power isn't seated correctly or the 500 has an incorrectly set jumper. My quick scan of the FM was at pains to point out that sata drives have no master/ slave arrangement. Wouldn't hurt to make sure that drive is actually spinning up. CS

January 24th, 2008, 05:50 PM	#7
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,691 Images: 18	Jolly good show! I know how you feel tho'. CS

January 24th, 2008, 05:07 PM	#4
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	Thanks Chris, Yeah I found the install disc and it doesn't seem to want to load plus now I noticed in the BIOS setup that the RAID configuration menu isn't seeing the 500gig-just the 2 750s. I'm trying to set up as RAID 0 and the config menu (f4 when booting up) tells me there aren't enough drives to do that with. I'm confused. Oh well, I'll keep playing with it-maybe I'll stumble into it. Thanks Don

January 24th, 2008, 05:40 PM	#6
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	Well as one gets older sometimes one get D U M B E R! That's me ;-( I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to format the drives thru the disc management so naturally the computer couldn't see them (I should have lent it my glasses as I took my S T U P I D hat off the rack and put it on my head. Thanks for the help Chris, all seems to be just ducky now! (as I hang my head in shame shame shame) OO \_/ Don