16.VIA SATA/RAID Controller problems:
A lot of people have been having problems OC'n with their HDD on the VIA controller. Some people report extreme fragmentation and an eventual no-boot. The
PROMISE controller is better and more stable. Certainly no problem OC'ing. See for example
THIS for problems our members faced with the VIA controller.
Using the PROMISE SATA controller or switching from VIA to PROMISE:
Important Note!
I have had questions about swapping controlers when the OS is on an IDE HDD and I answer them here. Suppose your boot drive is the IDE. Nothing needs to be done.
No swapping is possible or necessary between the Red Port and the Blue/Black ones. The Red port is your RAID port and you will keep getting errors if you swap from the Black--> Red ports. Errors will go away only if you set up RAID.
To double check, goto the BIOS and do this:
1. BOOT > HDD (or something similar) and move your IDE to the top of the list.
2. BOOT > BOOT DEVICE PRIORITY and your selected IDE should show up as a boot device. Bump it up to the top of the list.
You are done!
When your OS resides on the SATA being switched:
A lot of people have questions on how to activate the PROMISE SATA controller or switch over from the VIA SATA controller without reformatting their HDD. This is how it's done: (You need to have your XP install CD)
- Copy the PROMISE SATA drivers to a floppy.
- Turn off your computer and switch your HDD to the PROMISE controller
- Turn on goto the BIOS ; Advanced > OnBoard Devices Configuration > Onboard Promise Controller [Enabled] > Operating Mode [IDE]
- In the BIOSchange Boot priority to CD and exit BIOS
- Pop in your XP CD and press F6 (look carefully for the message at the bottom of the screen)
- Pop in your Floppy and let XP copy the PROMISE Drivers.
- Exit install when asked for.
- We are done!
[*] If the above method doesn't work, follow the same steps only let XP
repair the existing installation. You should not lose any data.
When your OS does not reside on the SATA being switched:
Follow the same procedure as above i.e load the SATA drivers but exit the XP installation when the drivers are loaded.
