Topic: Windows does not recognize my SATA disk (Sil3114)

[acechan]

I opened a call at ASUS technical support, but I haven't got any answer... after almost 2 weeks... I guess they just don't know the answer?!?

Hi, I'm very new on this forum, and I have to admit I only joined because I really hope somebody here will be able to help!

I'm setting up a new server. P4 3.4GHz, on an ASUS P5AD2-Deluxe motherboard, 2Gb memory... I was interested in buying this motherboard mainly because of its 3 IDE (6 disks) and 4 SATA (8 disks) controllers. I installed 2x 160Gb UDMA Maxtor Hard-Disks and a Samsung DVD Burner on the IDE Controllers. Had some problems with this, but it's fixed now. Both IDE Hard Drives are mirrored (they contain Windows 2000 Server system partition + Striped RAID-0 data partition).

Then I bought 3x300Gb SATA Hard-Disks (Maxtor as well). Here's what I'd like to do: I'd like to connect 8x 300Gb SATA disks on the 8 SATA connectors of the motherboard, and make a huge 2Tb RAID5 partition using Windows 2000 Server RAID5 solution (perfectly working on my old server, which has 4 IDE 200Gb drives configured in RAID5).

... and here's my problem: the P5AD2-Deluxe motherboard has got 2 different SATA controllers ("double-controllers", as I can connect 4 disks on each of them). The first one is an Intel something (not important), the second one is a "Silicon Image 3114". For test purposes (that's why I only bought 3 disks for now), I connected 1 SATA disk on Intel first controller (on "Master" connector), 1 SATA disk on Intel second controller (on "Master" as well), and 1 SATA disk on the first connector of the Sil3114 controller.

In the BIOS, you can choose whether you'd like the Sil3114 controller configured with RAID capabilities, or simply consider the connected drives as "SATA". I choosed the latest  (the other one doesn't work either, anyway).

When I boot up, the BIOS can see the 3 SATA disks without any problem (right size / constructor / etc.). If I run the "RAID Silicon Image Utility" when running Windows, it can see my SATA disk without any problem...

BUT... Windows Disk Management can only see my IDE drives (of course), and the 2 disks connected on the Intel first and second "Master" connectors. It just doesn't detect the third disk (the one connected on Sil3114)...

I checked on some forums, people say that Windows needs the latest Sil3114 driver to be able to see the disks, but it doesn't help in my situation!

Anybody got any idea? Thanks *A LOT* in advance!

[Sandra]

Hi acechan and
I am afraid I havent much idea about raid stuff, especially when SATA drives are involved, but hopefully someone may have and be able to point you in the right direction.

I may be on the wrong track here but doesnt the third SATA need to be paired with a fourth one for a raid array to work  

[acechan]

Thanks for your answer Sandra.

You'd be totally right if I wanted to create a RAID array using RAID function of my Sil3114 controller (and of course it would work well I guess). I would then need at least 2 disks on the controller to begin creating RAID arrays (2 minimum for RAID-0 or RAID-1, and 3 minimum for RAID-3 or RAID-5)

Here's what I imagined (for when I'll have the 8 SATA disks connected):

Clue 1:
 - Make a RAID-5 array with 4x300Gb on the Intel controller, using Windows 2000 Server RAID capabilities
 - Make a RAID-5 arraw with 4x300Gb on the Sil3114 controller, using Sil3114 RAID-5 capabilities
Problem with this solution is that I'll lose 2x300Gb instead of 1x300Gb (for the parity)

Clue 2:
 - Make a RAID-0 array with the 4x300Gb connected on the Sil3114 controller, and according to documentation, THEN Windows would see the newly built 1'200Gb "logical disk"...
Problem is that I would have then 5 "disks" for Windows: 4x300Gb and 1x1'200Gb... I would then have to create 4 partitions of 300Gb from my 1200 logical disk... imagine the mess if one of these 4 disks crashes: as the hardware sees these 4 disks as a RAID-0 array, I would lose everything!

Clue 3:
 - Find a way to make Windows recognize the disks connected on the Silicon Image controller...

Clue 4:
 - Maybe another brillant idea?  

Oh, and... sorry if I'm a little bit confusing... English's not my mother language, and the problem itself is a little bit confusing...  :'(

[Sandra]

Your english is perfectly fine and understandable, its just the content which is confusing  

We do have a few members who I think will understand and hopefully know of a solution but they havent been around much lately due to work committments  

Does windows 2000 server support SATA normally  ?
Maybe its a function that was only included in the server 2003 family  

[acechan]

Good question again!  (I'll answer, it may help other people who have questions about SATA, RAID or Windows 2000)

I first had problems recognizing my huge disks. In fact, Windows did only see "128Gb" of my disks... a little bit annoying, especially for the 300Gb ones  

It's good to know that the 48-Bits support has arrived with Service Pack 4 of Windows 2000, and Service Pack 2 of Windows XP. You must have one of these updates installed in order to "see" more than 128Gb! Of course, you also have to use 80-Pins cables for the IDE bus, to be able to use the Ultra-DMA capabilities of your disks!
Just for you to know, even after installing SP4 my Windows only recognized 128Gb disks. After searching the Net for a while, I finally discovered that you may need to add a registry key:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\EnableBigLba" to REG_DWORD=0x1

Now, to finally answer your question: no, I don't think that's the problem, as my 2 other SATA disks (the ones connected to Intel SATA Controller) are perfectly recognized by the OS.

[Sandra]

Ok, thanks for that info.
I came across the not seeing the full size of a 250 gig drive on XP before.
XP will "see" only up to 137 gig until SP1,(or presumably SP2 in place of SP1) is installed.
I wonder why 2000 would only see 128 gig as I thought it was some limitation in the ntfs file structure which would be common to both operating systems

[acechan]

Ouch sorry!!! I mistyped that one: it's Windows XP SP1, of course!

And... just to be a little bit more precise: the 48-Bits support is for the partitions above 128Gb  (137Gb is correct if you consider that 1 KB is 1000 Bytes, 1 MB is 1000 KB, and so on: 128Gb = 137438953472 bytes   )

[Dack]

I take it you've followed all the info from here:
http://www.asus.com/support/english/techref/raid/Sil3114.pdf

Especially the stuff from page 20 onwards.

[acechan]

Yes! Of course! This doc comes with the hardware...

I exactly choosed the right settings within BIOS, and I even tried to manually "update" the drivers using the ones describes in the doc...

The only thing I didn't try is to COMPLETELY REMOVE drivers (not only "uninstall", but delete all files as well) of the Sil3114 and re-install ONLY the ones that come with the motherboard... but I have to admit I dunno how to do this... I mean... I could even delete *ALL* drivers of my Windows (and re-installing everything one after each other) if it can help... it's still a test machine! 'will go to production only when my RAID-5 tests will be OK...

[acechan]

OK, I've re-read the doc you talked about in your last message, Dack... what I'd like to do is EXACTLY what's described under point 6.

To prevent people from downloading the whole .pdf, here's what is written:

6. Using Hard Drives as SATA Mode
Drives connected to the Silicon ImageŽ RAID connectors do not have to be set up in a
RAID array in order for them to work. By simply not assigning them to an array, they can
be used like any other drive connected to the board?s main IDE connectors.
1 ) Make sure the Silicon Image Mode is [SATA Mode] in BIOS setup menu.
2 ) Follow the remaining steps to install the SATA Mode driver manually.
3 ) Clean install Windows XP, right click on My Computer and go to properties.
4 ) Click on the Hardware tab and then click on Device Manager.
5 ) Open SCSI and RAID controllers and right click on 'PCI Mass Storage Controller' or
'PCI Raid controller' device, click on the ?Update Driver...?.
6 ) A "Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software?" window should
appear in Windows XP SP2 environment, choose ?No, not this time.? and click on the
Next button
7 ) Choose "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" then click on Next button.
8 ) Choose "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." Then click on Next button.
9 ) Click on " Have Disk..." button and Browse the specific folder,
\Drivers\Sil3114\SATA_RAID_Driver\ on support CD, then open [SI3114r.inf] file. Click
on the OK, Next and Finish button to complete the installation. Restart the computer
when prompted.


Problem is what I told you in the previous post: to be exactly in the same state as discribed in this doc, I would have to uninstall *ALL* drivers (what they call "Clean Install")