3rd and 4th sata connectors not working on p4c800-e deluxe.

Hi everyone. Up until now I've had two hard drives installed in my pc. A
Western Digital 36GB Raptor to handle to OS and programs attached to the
first sata connector on the MB and a Maxtor 250GB HD to handle storage of
files (photos, music, videos). The Maxtor is filling up quickly and I
decided it was time to add a 3rd HD. This week Best Buy is offering a
Seagate 500GB sata 3.0 drive for only $99, an offer to good for me to pass
up. Now I do realize that the Seagate is a sata 3.0 and my motherboard is
only sata 1.5. However, the Seagate drive does have the option of
installing a jumper to default to 1.5 speed.
I installed the new Seagate attaching it to the 3rd sata connector. When I
booted up, the drive was not detected, not in the bios and not in the device
manager. I powered down, opened the case, rechecked the connections and
rebooted, but still no detection. Just for the sake of it, I removed the
cable from the 3rd sata connector and tried the 4th. Again no change. I
then decided to fool around with some bios settings. I changed the HDD
detect time from quick to normal. Under the onboard device configuration, I
changed the onboard promise controller from disabled to enabled and changed
the operating mode from raid to IDE. Unfortunately these changes did not
help.
I then figured, well if the Maxtor is working connected to the 2nd connector
let me try placing the Seagate on the 2nd connector and see if it works.
That way if the drive is detected I'll know the problem is with the MB and
not the drive itself. I connected the Maxtor to the 3rd sata connector. I
booted again and this time the Seagate was finally detected. However, the
Maxtor now isn't being detected leading me to believe the problem is with
the 3rd sata connector. Any advise on what could be causing this and any
suggestions for solutions.
Thanks in advance for your help.

"ftran999" wrote in message
. ..
Hi everyone. Up until now I've had two hard drives installed in my pc. A
Western Digital 36GB Raptor to handle to OS and programs attached to the
first sata connector on the MB and a Maxtor 250GB HD to handle storage of
files (photos, music, videos). The Maxtor is filling up quickly and I
decided it was time to add a 3rd HD. This week Best Buy is offering a
Seagate 500GB sata 3.0 drive for only $99, an offer to good for me to pass
up. Now I do realize that the Seagate is a sata 3.0 and my motherboard is
only sata 1.5. However, the Seagate drive does have the option of
installing a jumper to default to 1.5 speed.
I installed the new Seagate attaching it to the 3rd sata connector. When
I
booted up, the drive was not detected, not in the bios and not in the
device
manager. I powered down, opened the case, rechecked the connections and
rebooted, but still no detection. Just for the sake of it, I removed the
cable from the 3rd sata connector and tried the 4th. Again no change. I
then decided to fool around with some bios settings. I changed the HDD
detect time from quick to normal. Under the onboard device configuration,
I
changed the onboard promise controller from disabled to enabled and
changed
the operating mode from raid to IDE. Unfortunately these changes did not
help.
I then figured, well if the Maxtor is working connected to the 2nd
connector
let me try placing the Seagate on the 2nd connector and see if it works.
That way if the drive is detected I'll know the problem is with the MB and
not the drive itself. I connected the Maxtor to the 3rd sata connector.
I
booted again and this time the Seagate was finally detected. However, the
Maxtor now isn't being detected leading me to believe the problem is with
the 3rd sata connector. Any advise on what could be causing this and any
suggestions for solutions.
Thanks in advance for your help.



Forgot to add, using bios v.1023 and WinXP sp2.

ftran999 wrote:
"ftran999" wrote in message
. ..
Hi everyone. Up until now I've had two hard drives installed in my pc. A
Western Digital 36GB Raptor to handle to OS and programs attached to the
first sata connector on the MB and a Maxtor 250GB HD to handle storage of
files (photos, music, videos). The Maxtor is filling up quickly and I
decided it was time to add a 3rd HD. This week Best Buy is offering a
Seagate 500GB sata 3.0 drive for only $99, an offer to good for me to pass
up. Now I do realize that the Seagate is a sata 3.0 and my motherboard is
only sata 1.5. However, the Seagate drive does have the option of
installing a jumper to default to 1.5 speed.
I installed the new Seagate attaching it to the 3rd sata connector. When
I
booted up, the drive was not detected, not in the bios and not in the
device
manager. I powered down, opened the case, rechecked the connections and
rebooted, but still no detection. Just for the sake of it, I removed the
cable from the 3rd sata connector and tried the 4th. Again no change. I
then decided to fool around with some bios settings. I changed the HDD
detect time from quick to normal. Under the onboard device configuration,
I
changed the onboard promise controller from disabled to enabled and
changed
the operating mode from raid to IDE. Unfortunately these changes did not
help.
I then figured, well if the Maxtor is working connected to the 2nd
connector
let me try placing the Seagate on the 2nd connector and see if it works.
That way if the drive is detected I'll know the problem is with the MB and
not the drive itself. I connected the Maxtor to the 3rd sata connector.
I
booted again and this time the Seagate was finally detected. However, the
Maxtor now isn't being detected leading me to believe the problem is with
the 3rd sata connector. Any advise on what could be causing this and any
suggestions for solutions.
Thanks in advance for your help.



Forgot to add, using bios v.1023 and WinXP sp2.


The motherboard inside my computer is a P4C800-E.

You realize, that the two sets of SATA connectors are on different chips ?

The Southbridge connectors are supported directly in the BIOS, in the
list of disks screen.

The Promise PDC20378 chip controls two SATA RAID connectors and one
PATA RAID ribbon cable connector. A total of four drives can be used
in RAID mode by that chip, or the chip can be set to a non-RAID
mode in the BIOS.

First, you have to enable the Promise chip in the BIOS. Then you
have to select the operating mode. Save and Exit the BIOS. That
will save the setting, for the next POST sequence.

The next time that the computer starts, you should see a separate
set of messages, during the boot up process. The add-in BIOS
module for the Promise, should show what drives it has detected,
connect to one of its ports.

You can boot from the Promise, assuming, during a fresh Windows
install, that you installed the appropriate Promise driver via F6.
To use a Promise connected disk as a data disk, while you are
booted from a Southbridge connected drive, you still have to
install a driver. The driver type used has to match how the
Promise chip is set in the BIOS - RAID driver if using the
RAID setting etc.

The only downside of the Promise stuff that comes to mind, is
the Promise driver doesn't have an uninstaller (and it should).
Some people have had problems in the past, switching from RAID
to non-RAID mode, so the decision as to what to select, should
not be a casual one.

I don't know if that is enough information for you to go on,
so what I'd do is:

1) I'm assuming everything you have to date, has been connected
to the Southbridge. (Western Digital and Maxtor, connected
to the ICH5R SATA ports.)

2) Connect Seagate 500 to one of the Promise SATA ports.

3) Enter the BIOS. Enable the Promise 20378 controller, set
it to IDE mode. Save and Exit. Enter the BIOS a second
time, and review the boot order selections, to make sure
nothing has changed, and that your "normal" boot disk
is still in the boot order.

4) On the final BIOS POST sequence, you should see a message
indicating the Promise 20378 is searching for disks. You
should see the Seagate 500GB listed at that time, as the
only one of four possible entries, that was detected.

5) Once booted into Windows, use the IDE driver for the
PDC20378. Enter Disk Management and do the usual stuff,
to put a partition on the disk, using NTFS or whatever.

Now you should have a new drive letter in Explorer.

HTH,
Paul

"Paul" wrote in message ...
ftran999 wrote:
"ftran999" wrote in message
. ..
Hi everyone. Up until now I've had two hard drives installed in my pc.
A
Western Digital 36GB Raptor to handle to OS and programs attached to the
first sata connector on the MB and a Maxtor 250GB HD to handle storage
of
files (photos, music, videos). The Maxtor is filling up quickly and I
decided it was time to add a 3rd HD. This week Best Buy is offering a
Seagate 500GB sata 3.0 drive for only $99, an offer to good for me to
pass
up. Now I do realize that the Seagate is a sata 3.0 and my motherboard
is
only sata 1.5. However, the Seagate drive does have the option of
installing a jumper to default to 1.5 speed.
I installed the new Seagate attaching it to the 3rd sata connector.
When I
booted up, the drive was not detected, not in the bios and not in the
device
manager. I powered down, opened the case, rechecked the connections and
rebooted, but still no detection. Just for the sake of it, I removed
the
cable from the 3rd sata connector and tried the 4th. Again no change.
I
then decided to fool around with some bios settings. I changed the HDD
detect time from quick to normal. Under the onboard device
configuration, I
changed the onboard promise controller from disabled to enabled and
changed
the operating mode from raid to IDE. Unfortunately these changes did
not
help.
I then figured, well if the Maxtor is working connected to the 2nd
connector
let me try placing the Seagate on the 2nd connector and see if it works.
That way if the drive is detected I'll know the problem is with the MB
and
not the drive itself. I connected the Maxtor to the 3rd sata connector.
I
booted again and this time the Seagate was finally detected. However,
the
Maxtor now isn't being detected leading me to believe the problem is
with
the 3rd sata connector. Any advise on what could be causing this and
any
suggestions for solutions.
Thanks in advance for your help.



Forgot to add, using bios v.1023 and WinXP sp2.


Thanks for your help Paul.
The motherboard inside my computer is a P4C800-E.

You realize, that the two sets of SATA connectors are on different chips ?
I'm just vaguely familiar with the Southbridge/Promise thing.

The Southbridge connectors are supported directly in the BIOS, in the
list of disks screen.

The Promise PDC20378 chip controls two SATA RAID connectors and one
PATA RAID ribbon cable connector. A total of four drives can be used
in RAID mode by that chip, or the chip can be set to a non-RAID
mode in the BIOS.

First, you have to enable the Promise chip in the BIOS. Then you
have to select the operating mode. Save and Exit the BIOS. That
will save the setting, for the next POST sequence.

The next time that the computer starts, you should see a separate
set of messages, during the boot up process. The add-in BIOS
module for the Promise, should show what drives it has detected,
connect to one of its ports.

You can boot from the Promise, assuming, during a fresh Windows
install, that you installed the appropriate Promise driver via F6.
To use a Promise connected disk as a data disk, while you are
booted from a Southbridge connected drive, you still have to
install a driver. The driver type used has to match how the
Promise chip is set in the BIOS - RAID driver if using the
RAID setting etc.

The only downside of the Promise stuff that comes to mind, is
the Promise driver doesn't have an uninstaller (and it should).
Some people have had problems in the past, switching from RAID
to non-RAID mode, so the decision as to what to select, should
not be a casual one.

I don't know if that is enough information for you to go on,
so what I'd do is:

1) I'm assuming everything you have to date, has been connected
to the Southbridge. (Western Digital and Maxtor, connected
to the ICH5R SATA ports.)
Originally I did but as I mentioned in my OP I switched the Maxtor the the
Promise (what I called the 3rd) SATA port and placed the Seagate on the
Southbridge Port (what I called the 2nd connector)

2) Connect Seagate 500 to one of the Promise SATA ports.
I decided to leave the Seagate connected to the Southbridge port.

3) Enter the BIOS. Enable the Promise 20378 controller, set
it to IDE mode. Save and Exit. Enter the BIOS a second
time, and review the boot order selections, to make sure
nothing has changed, and that your "normal" boot disk
is still in the boot order.

4) On the final BIOS POST sequence, you should see a message
indicating the Promise 20378 is searching for disks. You
should see the Seagate 500GB listed at that time, as the
only one of four possible entries, that was detected.
It did show the Maxtor listed since this was the one connected to the
Promise port.

5) Once booted into Windows, use the IDE driver for the
PDC20378. Enter Disk Management and do the usual stuff,
to put a partition on the disk, using NTFS or whatever.
This is where my problem was. For some reason the driver was not installed
properly. Through trail and error I was able to get the proper driver
installed.

Now you should have a new drive letter in Explorer.

Everything is working fine. Thanks again.


HTH,
Paul