Computer not detecting hdd!?

[Chief Wiggum]

To start with i had 3 hdd and 2 dvd writers installed on my computer, all working fine. I hard drive is the primary which is ide. The other 2 are SATA plugged into sata connections. All 3 are full with data.

There were two slots left on the sata connectors, so i added another hdd. To use these i had to install promise controller drivers.

The problem is that when i boot up it says array not defined and when it gets to windows it doesn't detect the new hdd on this promise connection. I know the hdd works because when i swap the connectors around for sata it detects the new hdd.

I don't want to set up a raid array since the data i have could be lost and the hdds are too big to back up with any ease. I want to keep it all internal and not go the external route.

Any suggestions. I am mightily confused. The motherboard i have is an AOpen AX4C Max II running a prescott P4 if that is any help.

thanks

[sammie]

I can't give you the specificics, because so far every SATA host I've seen sets up a little bit different. But they all have some similarities. First, you almost always have to identify the drive at the BIOS level first, Windows can't detect it until then. So you have to watch carefully for the hit delete, F10 or whatever screen as the system boots. If you have an add on SATA card this will obviously be at a different time than you system BIOS interupt prompt.

Now it sounds like you've already figured that much out, since you are asking about RAID arrays. I haven't heard a lot of reasons why, but most of the adapters both MB based and ad-on seem to be set up as RAIDs. That's fine, it's perfectly ok to define a RAID of only one disk (silly yes, but still ok). Somewhere in you instructions it will tell you how your card prefers you to set up a drive in this situation. Both of mine say set it up as spanned, but only spanning one physical drive. Don't get tempted to span your already full drives! It will almost certainly erase you data and require you to format your new volume, even if it says it won't.

This is generic information and hopefully will be enough to get you going. Maybe someone has a similar sytem and can give you more specifics. I've just seen several threads here and other places where people are stuggling to add SATA drives. It isn't as easy as plugging in an IDE drive has become. But people have forgotten how hard that was at first, and certainly don't remember what setting up early SCSI and MFM drives was like.

[Nelson37]

You should have shared the joys of CompSurf on server drives for old Novell. An overnight process.

Anyway, to avoid some possibilities of catastrophic loss, connect ONLY the new HD on the previously unused controller. Other HD all disconnected.

As mentioned, SATA controller setups can vary greatly, and BIOS menus can be a little odd. Secondaries often set for RAID, usually an option buried somewhere to set as single volume.

[Chief Wiggum]

I didn't know you could set up an array with one disk That might do it. Its not an add on SATA card. The promise controller is built into the motherboard as a chip set, i just had to load the drivers.

In the bios i have different options for the hard drives such as auto, enhanced detection etc.

[INFRATOM]

Your promise card being part of motherboard or separately has a bios. the primary default bios is for Raid but you can switch it to HD controller. To make the story short you need to go to bios setup and set it for HD controller. If it is a part of your MB you go to MB bios otherwise to the card bios. When you set it to HD controller at start up you may get the bios is not installed error but it goes away. You cannot setup an array with one drive you need at least 2 for mirroring raid 0 or 1.

[KBeee]

Another problem might be that you installed the Promise drivers.
My setup is different, but I only needed to install additional drivers because I DID want a raid array.
If you want just another standard hard disk, you should be able to install the new HD, go into bios to detect it, then boot into Windows and do whatever you have to do in Win2000 to detect and format it.

[Chief Wiggum]

Ok guys thanks for all the advice. I have got it sorted.

Actually i tried to install without the promise drivers but i couldn't see how i could detect the 4th hdd. The onboard sata chip-set was already set on ide instead of RAID.

I unplugged all my hard drives except the new one and set up a striped array. I think with mirroring you need the 2.

I can now see all hard drives. Yay!

[sammie]

@infratom While I understand that 1 drive certainly is not an "array", several controllers do in fact require you to set a single drive up that way. As Nelson mentioned, some have a switch buried in the BIOS setup, others instruct you to set it up as an ARRAY of some type number of drives =1. This may effectively just trigger a software switch turning the RAID component off, but you still have to set it up like that.

[Nelson37]

Were there any other options besides striped? That is the most dangerous one of all. Lose one drive, lose all data, unless there is a parity drive.

[Chief Wiggum]

It was that or mirrored. But since this is the only hard connected that was blanked out. Whats a parity drive?

[Nelson37]

Parity drive is third drive in a stripped pair. Allows for either of two primary drives to fail and rebuild the data onto a replacement drive. Rarely used outside of servers.

As long as no critical data is stored on the array, not really necessary. I'm still wondering exactly what you get with a single-drive stripped array, but if it works, OK.