promise raid card help...

[Bacchana1]

I have a tx2200 card that I'm trying to get running in my system, but I can't get the card bios to come up, so I can create an array.

I only have one drive attached to the controller at the moment, I was just going to set it up as jbod to get me going.

Anyway, the manual says that the first time you boot up with the card and drives installed, the bios should autmatically pop up and prompt to create an array. It's plug and play so no bios settings need to be changed. Well I've tried messing with my boot order, and tried to get the controller/drive to show up in windows, but haven't had any luck. What do I need to do to get into the card bios...am I missing something here? Obviously I am.

Oh, the drive has power, the sata cable is connected, and the card is securely in the pci slot...

any ideas?

I have to go to a lame *** company xmas party, so I probably won't respond right away, but I'll be back later tonight

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Reset your bios to defaults, then see how it goes. Then try boot order. It can be very sensitive to boot order configuration. Play with some various settings and you will find that your bios starts loading if you get it right.

Try things you don't think would be right even, like scsi.

 

[Bacchana1]

okay, got into bios...now i'm having trouble setting up a 1 drive jbod "array". the drive shows up, and i can assign it as jbod. but when I try to set up an array no logical disks show up. does it need to be formatted or something.

the manual is pretty vague on jbod...since no one in their right mind would use it...of course i'm not one of those people


well i gotta go...be back later

 

[Bacchana1]

m'kay I set up a partition w'/ partition magic pro and what do you know...I have access to my drive. Anyway...the only weird issue I have now is the little "safely remove hardware" icon (the one that shows up when you use a usb key or whatever) is showing up in the system tray. I'm pretty sure I'll never want to "safely remove" my hdd (or more specifically, my controller card), is there any way to permanently opt out of this?

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Write caching is enabled by default for high-performance external storage devices such as IEEE 1394 hard drives and SCSI hard drives, in addition to for storage devices inside the computer that cannot be surprise removed.

Caching policy defaults can be changed in Device Manager for high-performance external storage devices. In Device Manager, on the property sheet for the removable storage device click the Policies tab to view the default write caching settings for the device. If the Policies tab does not display, this option is not provided for the device. If the write caching settings are enabled, you can change the settings based on your performance and safe removal needs as follows:

* Click Optimize for quick removal to disable write caching on the storage device and in Windows. This allows you to remove the device without using the Safely Remove Hardware application, but can have an impact on the performance of the device.
* Click Optimize for performance to enable write caching in Windows, which can improve the performance of the storage device. However, you must use the Safely Remove Hardware application to disconnect the device from the computer.

If these write caching options are not enabled, your storage device is not removable without turning off the computer, and a different option displays in the dialog box. This option allows you to disable write caching for your storage device, which can affect the performance of the device.

Or:

If you have an USB device attached to your system, you will notice an icon in the notification area. When you click this icon, you're given the option to stop your hardware before you unplug it. It's possible that you never unplug this hardware. So how do you get rid of the icon?

1.


Right-click within the notification area, and then click Properties.

2.


On the Taskbar tab, click Customize.

3.


Select Safely remove hardware, and in the Behavior column, click Always hide.

You may also hide the icon for a particular USB device by right-clicking its icon on the taskbar, and then clicking Hide Icon.

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. This is the name for a class of hardware that makes it easy to add peripheral devices (such as a mouse, keyboard, joystick, or digital camera) to your computer. If your mouse, keyboard, game controller, scanner, or other device has a USB connector, you can plug it into a USB port.

 

[Bacchana1]

rock on, appreciate the help man!

 

[I.M.O.G.]

No problem, glad that worked for you bud. If you really feel like having fun, throw in a second PCI RAID controller and try your luck. I have a fasttrak PATA RAID card and a generic SI chipset SATA card, and these buggers hate eachother.

Why the JBOD, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Bacchana1]

I only have one drive on the controller right now. I'm using it to recover data off a corrupted disk. In a couple weeks when I can afford it I'll get a second drive and run them in raid1.

edit: hey i love your malware warfare article btw. i've emailed the link to more than a few of my non-techno-geek friends. I also carry around a computer "rescue disk" that is based in part on your article.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

That sounds like a plan, I'd like to go RAID 1 eventually... I like my storage volume very much though, but maybe as pata prices drop I might be able to. Bigger fish to fry in the CPU/MOBO area for now though.

Glad you liked the article, got a lot of positive feedback.