Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hey guys, I'm having a problem with my RAID.  When originally
installing it I let Windows automatically pick drivers for it and
everything worked okay.  Then, I filled it up over the course of a few
weeks with 465GB of data.  Then, just recently, *something* happened,
and Windows installed a new driver.  I've tried going back to the old
driver, but it won't recognize my array as anything other than an
unformatted partition.  I was sure never to click yes to any dialog
box that asked if I wanted to reformat the array, so all of my data
should be intact ... I just have no clue how to read it.  Are there
are RAID tools out there that will look at the drives on a very low
level and try to figure out which driver was used to store the data?  
Or would I need to get the driver working correctly before a recovery
tool had a chance of working?  I tried reinstalling Windows, to no
avail.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 11 Nov 2004 21:51:33 -0800, cyde@umd.edu (Cyde Weys)
wrote:
 
>Hey guys, I'm having a problem with my RAID.  When originally
>installing it I let Windows automatically pick drivers for it and
>everything worked okay.  Then, I filled it up over the course of a few
>weeks with 465GB of data.  Then, just recently, *something* happened,
>and Windows installed a new driver.  
 
If you have windows auto-update turned on, disable it.  This
may be an important first step, otherwise you might find
that "new" driver reappears again.
 
 
>I've tried going back to the old
>driver, but it won't recognize my array as anything other than an
>unformatted partition.  
 
I don't recall the specifics of your array but is it
possible you simply had a drive failure-in-progress?  That
might account for missing filesystem.  Had you previously
been able to see files in DOS and can you now?  That'd keep
the driver out of the equation.  Didn't you look at the RAID
bios previously and get some kind of positive result from
that?  Is the RAID bios showing everything in order now?
 
> I was sure never to click yes to any dialog
>box that asked if I wanted to reformat the array, so all of my data
>should be intact ... I just have no clue how to read it.  Are there
>are RAID tools out there that will look at the drives on a very low
>level and try to figure out which driver was used to store the data?  
 
Did you make any backups of the OS partition prior to onset
of the problem?  If so then conceivably it'd be using the
"other" driver.  I"m not so sure it's the driver though, is
there any chance you can disconnect those drives and see if
controller and (whichever, all?) drivers work properly at
all with different drives?
 
>Or would I need to get the driver working correctly before a recovery
>tool had a chance of working?  I tried reinstalling Windows, to no
>avail.
 
if the driver is the problem then yes you'd need the
non-problematic driver to do anything about it in windows.
Recovery from DOS/other would depend on the support for that
other OS.  You might focus on the recovery tool, what it
attempts to do.  Typically the best type does not write to
the drives, only copying off any data found to different
drives.  Having a tool recreate filesystems if it really was
some driver or windows config problem might not be
desirable.
 
I'd try to determine if all drives are healthy before doing
anything else, and if the array should be viable outside of
windows.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in newsg29p0d781r7tt7j1vudtjq5lku0odqv3j@
4ax.com:
 
> On 11 Nov 2004 21:51:33 -0800, cyde@umd.edu (Cyde Weys)
> wrote:
>  
>>Hey guys, I'm having a problem with my RAID.  When originally
>>installing it I let Windows automatically pick drivers for it and
>>everything worked okay.  Then, I filled it up over the course of a few
>>weeks with 465GB of data.  Then, just recently, *something* happened,
>>and Windows installed a new driver.  
>  
> If you have windows auto-update turned on, disable it.  This
> may be an important first step, otherwise you might find
> that "new" driver reappears again.
 
Okay I have auto-update turned off.
 
>>I've tried going back to the old
>>driver, but it won't recognize my array as anything other than an
>>unformatted partition.  
>  
> I don't recall the specifics of your array but is it
> possible you simply had a drive failure-in-progress?  That
> might account for missing filesystem.  Had you previously
> been able to see files in DOS and can you now?  That'd keep
> the driver out of the equation.  Didn't you look at the RAID
> bios previously and get some kind of positive result from
> that?  Is the RAID bios showing everything in order now?
 
That's the problem - I'm not getting the RAID bios.  It used to be that I'd  
get the RAID bios (hit F4 to enter) during system boot up.  Now, I don't.  
Is this a more fundamental problem than not having the correct driver  
installed?  And if so, what do I do about it?  My RAID card is getting  
detected within Windows ... but is it not getting detected during boot up,  
for whatever reason?
 
Also, I haven't tried looking at the files from DOS.  How do you do that  
exactly, hold F8 while booting up or something?
 
>> I was sure never to click yes to any dialog
>>box that asked if I wanted to reformat the array, so all of my data
>>should be intact ... I just have no clue how to read it.  Are there
>>are RAID tools out there that will look at the drives on a very low
>>level and try to figure out which driver was used to store the data?  
>  
> Did you make any backups of the OS partition prior to onset
> of the problem?  If so then conceivably it'd be using the
> "other" driver.  I"m not so sure it's the driver though, is
> there any chance you can disconnect those drives and see if
> controller and (whichever, all?) drivers work properly at
> all with different drives?
 
I wish I had more drives :-D  And no, I didn't make a backup of the OS  
partition because it's too large (40GB).  I do know what driver I was  
previously using though - it shows up under "Unknown Manufacturer -  
SCSI/RAID Host Controller".  That may not be the problem though ... could  
it be hard drive drivers?  My hard drives are showing up using the driver  
"WDC WD25 00JD-22HBB0 SCSI Disk Device" - and my drives are definitely  
SATA, not SCSI.  What's up with that that?  I don't recall it being like  
that before.
 
>>Or would I need to get the driver working correctly before a recovery
>>tool had a chance of working?  I tried reinstalling Windows, to no
>>avail.
>  
> if the driver is the problem then yes you'd need the
> non-problematic driver to do anything about it in windows.
> Recovery from DOS/other would depend on the support for that
> other OS.  You might focus on the recovery tool, what it
> attempts to do.  Typically the best type does not write to
> the drives, only copying off any data found to different
> drives.  Having a tool recreate filesystems if it really was
> some driver or windows config problem might not be
> desirable.
>  
> I'd try to determine if all drives are healthy before doing
> anything else, and if the array should be viable outside of
> windows.
 
How would I go about testing the drives for healthiness without losing data  
integrity?  They're healthy in that they show up as an unformatted  
partition, ready to be "initialized".  I don't know if storing data on them  
works but I have no reason to assume that it wouldn't.  Heck, everything  
was working perfectly right up until the last reboot.
 
I think my problem is that the RAID bios isn't showing up at system boot  
anymore.  When it used to show up, everything was fine.  When I was having  
intermittent difficulties with the RAID being recognized sometimes and not  
at others, when I saw the RAID bios prompt at startup I knew it was going  
to work that time.  Now, I never see the RAID bios.  I think this is the  
root of my problem.  What is causing this?  Is it a Windows driver issue,  
or something more fundamental?
 
--  
~ Cyde Weys ~
Bite my shiny metal ass.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:02:46 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
<cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
 
 
>> I don't recall the specifics of your array but is it
>> possible you simply had a drive failure-in-progress?  That
>> might account for missing filesystem.  Had you previously
>> been able to see files in DOS and can you now?  That'd keep
>> the driver out of the equation.  Didn't you look at the RAID
>> bios previously and get some kind of positive result from
>> that?  Is the RAID bios showing everything in order now?
>
>That's the problem - I'm not getting the RAID bios.  It used to be that I'd  
>get the RAID bios (hit F4 to enter) during system boot up.  Now, I don't.  
>Is this a more fundamental problem than not having the correct driver  
>installed?  And if so, what do I do about it?  My RAID card is getting  
>detected within Windows ... but is it not getting detected during boot up,  
>for whatever reason?
 
Yes, if something is wrong with the raid bios it would
easily prevent anything positive from happening, it is
critical that the bios be working.  Check jumpers, do
whatever seems prudent to get the RAID bios up, working, and
same version as used to create the array.
 
>
>Also, I haven't tried looking at the files from DOS.  How do you do that  
>exactly, hold F8 while booting up or something?
 
What filesystem?
FAT32 will work from DOS boot floppy.
NTFS, you might head over to http://www.sysinternals.com/
for a freeware read-only version of a NTFS "driver".
 
 
>
>>> I was sure never to click yes to any dialog
>>>box that asked if I wanted to reformat the array, so all of my data
>>>should be intact ... I just have no clue how to read it.  Are there
>>>are RAID tools out there that will look at the drives on a very low
>>>level and try to figure out which driver was used to store the data?  
>>  
>> Did you make any backups of the OS partition prior to onset
>> of the problem?  If so then conceivably it'd be using the
>> "other" driver.  I"m not so sure it's the driver though, is
>> there any chance you can disconnect those drives and see if
>> controller and (whichever, all?) drivers work properly at
>> all with different drives?
>
>I wish I had more drives :-D  And no, I didn't make a backup of the OS  
>partition because it's too large (40GB).  
 
You might consider trimming down the OS partition so that's
possible in the future.
 
> I do know what driver I was  
>previously using though - it shows up under "Unknown Manufacturer -  
>SCSI/RAID Host Controller".  That may not be the problem though ... could  
>it be hard drive drivers?  My hard drives are showing up using the driver  
>"WDC WD25 00JD-22HBB0 SCSI Disk Device" - and my drives are definitely  
>SATA, not SCSI.  What's up with that that?  I don't recall it being like  
>that before.
 
It's common for a RAID card/device to be called SCSI, I'd
not worry about that.  IF it's different than previously
that might be something relating to the driver but it's a
secondary concern, get the raid bios working first.
 
>
>>>Or would I need to get the driver working correctly before a recovery
>>>tool had a chance of working?  I tried reinstalling Windows, to no
>>>avail.
>>  
>> if the driver is the problem then yes you'd need the
>> non-problematic driver to do anything about it in windows.
>> Recovery from DOS/other would depend on the support for that
>> other OS.  You might focus on the recovery tool, what it
>> attempts to do.  Typically the best type does not write to
>> the drives, only copying off any data found to different
>> drives.  Having a tool recreate filesystems if it really was
>> some driver or windows config problem might not be
>> desirable.
>>  
>> I'd try to determine if all drives are healthy before doing
>> anything else, and if the array should be viable outside of
>> windows.
>
>How would I go about testing the drives for healthiness without losing data  
>integrity?  They're healthy in that they show up as an unformatted  
>partition, ready to be "initialized".  I don't know if storing data on them  
>works but I have no reason to assume that it wouldn't.  Heck, everything  
>was working perfectly right up until the last reboot.
 
Check with HDD manufacturer, perhaps an email being sure to
mention the "missing" data so they don't recommend something
logically destructive.
 
>
>I think my problem is that the RAID bios isn't showing up at system boot  
>anymore.  When it used to show up, everything was fine.  When I was having  
>intermittent difficulties with the RAID being recognized sometimes and not  
>at others, when I saw the RAID bios prompt at startup I knew it was going  
>to work that time.  Now, I never see the RAID bios.  I think this is the  
>root of my problem.  What is causing this?  Is it a Windows driver issue,  
>or something more fundamental?
 
It is not a windows driver issue.
Where is this bios loading from?  You might've mentioned it
but I forgot... Is it integral to the motherboard bios or a
PCI card?  If part of motherboard bios, did you update that?
Check main bios settings and jumpers either way.
 
If it's a card, also check if there are any jumpers.  If the
bios was somehow lost then you might goto card manufacturers
(or possibly chip manufacturer's) website and get (hopefully
same version of) bios and reflash it. Anything that seems to
work may still pose a risk, you should try to salvage the
data before writing to the array at all.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in
news:voe9p0hr0pub68b736tia57gb5jj9ier4j@4ax.com:  
 
 
> Yes, if something is wrong with the raid bios it would
> easily prevent anything positive from happening, it is
> critical that the bios be working.  Check jumpers, do
> whatever seems prudent to get the RAID bios up, working, and
> same version as used to create the array.
 
I don't know if there even are jumpers on my RAID card.  It worked before  
and all of a sudden it stopped working - I never messed with the hardware  
in any kind of way.
 
>>Also, I haven't tried looking at the files from DOS.  How do you do
>>that exactly, hold F8 while booting up or something?
>  
> What filesystem?
> FAT32 will work from DOS boot floppy.
> NTFS, you might head over to http://www.sysinternals.com/
> for a freeware read-only version of a NTFS "driver".
 
Yeah, it's NTFS.  I've downloaded "NTFSPro" - but I'm going to need to hunt  
down a floppy disk somewhere before I get that to work :-)  I haven't used  
a floppy in years ...
 
 
>>I wish I had more drives :-D  And no, I didn't make a backup of the OS
>>partition because it's too large (40GB).  
>  
> You might consider trimming down the OS partition so that's
> possible in the future.
 
Yeah, next fresh install I'll be doing that.  What's a good size for the OS  
partition?  I'm thinking 4.4GB ... that way it can fit on a single DVD.  Or  
is that not large enough?
 
>> I do know what driver I was  
>>previously using though - it shows up under "Unknown Manufacturer -  
>>SCSI/RAID Host Controller".  That may not be the problem though ...
>>could it be hard drive drivers?  My hard drives are showing up using
>>the driver "WDC WD25 00JD-22HBB0 SCSI Disk Device" - and my drives are
>>definitely SATA, not SCSI.  What's up with that that?  I don't recall
>>it being like that before.
>  
> It's common for a RAID card/device to be called SCSI, I'd
> not worry about that.  IF it's different than previously
> that might be something relating to the driver but it's a
> secondary concern, get the raid bios working first.
 
I don't think it's different than it used to be.
 
 
> It is not a windows driver issue.
> Where is this bios loading from?  You might've mentioned it
> but I forgot... Is it integral to the motherboard bios or a
> PCI card?  If part of motherboard bios, did you update that?
> Check main bios settings and jumpers either way.
 
It's a PCI card.  Its name is "Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller".
 
I have a driver CD that came with it.  I'm looking through it ... it seems  
to have some utilities that might prove useful.  Would it be safe to update  
the firmware on the card if I find a new one somewhere?  Or could that lead  
to dataloss?
 
> If it's a card, also check if there are any jumpers.  If the
> bios was somehow lost then you might goto card manufacturers
> (or possibly chip manufacturer's) website and get (hopefully
> same version of) bios and reflash it. Anything that seems to
> work may still pose a risk, you should try to salvage the
> data before writing to the array at all.
 
Hrmm, how would I know what version of the RAID BIOS I used to store my  
data in?
 
 
--  
~ Cyde Weys ~
Bite my shiny metal ass.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

I just found a SiI RAID utility on the driver CD and installed it.  
I'm looking at the PDF directions and the screenshots show that the utility  
detects the individual drives and then the RAID sets.  When I run the  
utility it just detects the individual drives that are hooked up to the  
card.  Is this significant, or is this just telling us something we already  
knew?
 
 
--  
~ Cyde Weys ~
Bite my shiny metal ass.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Cyde Weys wrote:
> Hey guys, I'm having a problem with my RAID.  When originally
> installing it I let Windows automatically pick drivers for it and
> everything worked okay.  Then, I filled it up over the course of a few
> weeks with 465GB of data.  Then, just recently, *something* happened,
> and Windows installed a new driver.  I've tried going back to the old
> driver, but it won't recognize my array as anything other than an
> unformatted partition.  I was sure never to click yes to any dialog
> box that asked if I wanted to reformat the array, so all of my data
> should be intact ... I just have no clue how to read it.  Are there
> are RAID tools out there that will look at the drives on a very low
> level and try to figure out which driver was used to store the data?  
> Or would I need to get the driver working correctly before a recovery
> tool had a chance of working?  I tried reinstalling Windows, to no
> avail.
 
Good luck. Using striping gives you half the reliability at twice the cost.
 
 
--  
Conor
 
Opinions personal, facts suspect.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:49:39 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
<cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
 
 
>
>I don't know if there even are jumpers on my RAID card.  It worked before  
>and all of a sudden it stopped working - I never messed with the hardware  
>in any kind of way.
 
If this is really valuable data and cheap raid card, you
might consider buying another raid card if the
lost-bios-issue isn't resolvable, but if windows still sees
it and it has an EEPROM instead of PROM, you will probably
be able to flash the bios to it, providing the flasher and
bios is available.
 
 
>
 
>> You might consider trimming down the OS partition so that's
>> possible in the future.
>
>Yeah, next fresh install I'll be doing that.  What's a good size for the OS  
>partition?  I'm thinking 4.4GB ... that way it can fit on a single DVD.  Or  
>is that not large enough?
 
I suppose it depends on what you leave on that partition,
including where you install apps and system restore on/off,
etc.  4.4GB is manageable, though you might aim a little
higher like 7GB, so you not only have a little more margin
but with the expectation that an imaging program like Ghost
or Driveimage should be able to reduce the size by at least
25%, though 30-40% is typical for "high" compression
providing it's the typical files, not a boatload of JPEGS or
other pre-compressed file formats.
 
 
>> It is not a windows driver issue.
>> Where is this bios loading from?  You might've mentioned it
>> but I forgot... Is it integral to the motherboard bios or a
>> PCI card?  If part of motherboard bios, did you update that?
>> Check main bios settings and jumpers either way.
>
>It's a PCI card.  Its name is "Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller".
 
 
There's likely a bios on the Silicon Image website, though
again you ought to (guesstimate?) which version it ran
previously and use same bios version.
 
>
>I have a driver CD that came with it.  I'm looking through it ... it seems  
>to have some utilities that might prove useful.  Would it be safe to update  
>the firmware on the card if I find a new one somewhere?  Or could that lead  
>to dataloss?
 
yes it could lead to data loss.  Flash same version whenever
possible.  For valuable data I suggest not using a raid
controller at all unless one can secure the bios and have it
saved (somewhere else).  Some people like to put a sticker
on the card with the bios version listed on it for easy
reference... whether it be the manufacturer or system
integrator/builder that adds this sticker.
 
>
>> If it's a card, also check if there are any jumpers.  If the
>> bios was somehow lost then you might goto card manufacturers
>> (or possibly chip manufacturer's) website and get (hopefully
>> same version of) bios and reflash it. Anything that seems to
>> work may still pose a risk, you should try to salvage the
>> data before writing to the array at all.
>
>Hrmm, how would I know what version of the RAID BIOS I used to store my  
>data in?
 
Guess?  Based on date card arrived on market or purchase
date, you'd not want any bios with release data after that,
and if one data closely coincides with card age, it's also
probably newer than card.  When all else fails choose
original bios, earliest version...  if bios seems to "take"
but still no data, try a different bios version.
 
If your card is subject to bios loss i'd be questioning if
it's viable for use anymore too, you certainly dont' want to
have to go through this on a regular basis.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:57:55 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
<cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
 
>     I just found a SiI RAID utility on the driver CD and installed it.  
>I'm looking at the PDF directions and the screenshots show that the utility  
>detects the individual drives and then the RAID sets.  When I run the  
>utility it just detects the individual drives that are hooked up to the  
>card.  Is this significant, or is this just telling us something we already  
>knew?
 
 
If you're referring to the SiICfg for Medley,
(is what a PATA SiI card here came with)
There will be listings on the left-hand side for each drive,
and then a "Sets" category which should show the RAID
set(s), IIRC.  The PATA SiI card I"m looking at right now
doesn't have any attached drives in a RAID set though so I
can't show an example of that, but here's one:
http://prestissimo.itbdns.com/image/siicfg.jpg

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:35:14 +0000, Conor <conor.turton@gmail.com>
wrote:
 
>> Hey guys, I'm having a problem with my RAID.  When originally
>> installing it I let Windows automatically pick drivers for it and
>> everything worked okay.  Then, I filled it up over the course of a few
>> weeks with 465GB of data.  Then, just recently, *something* happened,
>> and Windows installed a new driver.  I've tried going back to the old
>> driver, but it won't recognize my array as anything other than an
>> unformatted partition.  I was sure never to click yes to any dialog
>> box that asked if I wanted to reformat the array, so all of my data
>> should be intact ... I just have no clue how to read it.  Are there
>> are RAID tools out there that will look at the drives on a very low
>> level and try to figure out which driver was used to store the data?  
>> Or would I need to get the driver working correctly before a recovery
>> tool had a chance of working?  I tried reinstalling Windows, to no
>> avail.
>
>Good luck. Using striping gives you half the reliability at twice the cost.
 
this may help to retrieve data:
http://www.active-undelete.com/
--  
                          Regards,  SPAJKY ®
   &  visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com  
    "Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"
              E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in
newspr9p0hpcgiprkm6bmniiu4phmg2dirf14@4ax.com:  
 
> On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:49:39 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
> <cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
>  
>  
>>
>>I don't know if there even are jumpers on my RAID card.  It worked
>>before and all of a sudden it stopped working - I never messed with
>>the hardware in any kind of way.
>  
> If this is really valuable data and cheap raid card, you
> might consider buying another raid card if the
> lost-bios-issue isn't resolvable, but if windows still sees
> it and it has an EEPROM instead of PROM, you will probably
> be able to flash the bios to it, providing the flasher and
> bios is available.
 
It is EEPROM, btw.
 
Okay, I've downloaded the flasher and BIOS.  It's very confusing to  
figure out how to use though.  When I boot from a FreeDOS disk and try  
to run the flasher, I have to choose from one of the following ...
 
AMD’s Am29F010B/Am29LV010B (1 Megabit) and Am29F040B (4 Megabit)
AMD’s Am29LV400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
Atmel’s AT49BV512 (64KB), AT29LV010A (1 Megabit), and AT49LV040 (4  
Megabit)
SST’s 39SF010 (1 Megabit), 39VF010 (1 Megabit), and 39SF020 (2 Megabit)
SANYO’s LE28C1001D (1 Megabit)
WinBound’s 29EE011 (1 Megabit) and 29EE512 (64KB)
STMicroelectronics M29F010B (1 Megabit)
STMicroelectronics M29W040B (4 Megabit)
STMicroelectronics M29W400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
 
What in the heck is all of this?  I need to answer this prompt before it  
lets me choose the BIOS image to flash.  They don't have a very good  
flasher util ... well, it may be good, but it's certainly not specific  
to their card, or even their brand, or maybe even architecture  
*rollseyes*
 
What would cause a card to lose a BIOS like this, anyway?  I had  
intermittent periods in which the BIOS wouldn't show up at system  
startup, and then all of a sudden it doesn't show up at all.  The HDs  
are still showing up as an unformatted RAID set in Windows though ...  
this is all very confusing to me.  The card isn't detected at startup  
but it is detected in Windows?
 
Anyway, the card is pretty cheap (certainly cheaper than my 450GB of  
data).  So I may just buy another version of the same card and see how  
that works out.
 
--  
~ Cyde Weys ~
Bite my shiny metal ass.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Cyde Weys wrote:
 
> kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in
> newspr9p0hpcgiprkm6bmniiu4phmg2dirf14@4ax.com:  
>  
>  
>>On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:49:39 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
>><cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>I don't know if there even are jumpers on my RAID card.  It worked
>>>before and all of a sudden it stopped working - I never messed with
>>>the hardware in any kind of way.
>>
>>If this is really valuable data and cheap raid card, you
>>might consider buying another raid card if the
>>lost-bios-issue isn't resolvable, but if windows still sees
>>it and it has an EEPROM instead of PROM, you will probably
>>be able to flash the bios to it, providing the flasher and
>>bios is available.
>  
>  
> It is EEPROM, btw.
>  
> Okay, I've downloaded the flasher and BIOS.  It's very confusing to  
> figure out how to use though.  When I boot from a FreeDOS disk and try  
> to run the flasher, I have to choose from one of the following ...
>  
> AMD’s Am29F010B/Am29LV010B (1 Megabit) and Am29F040B (4 Megabit)
> AMD’s Am29LV400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
> Atmel’s AT49BV512 (64KB), AT29LV010A (1 Megabit), and AT49LV040 (4  
> Megabit)
> SST’s 39SF010 (1 Megabit), 39VF010 (1 Megabit), and 39SF020 (2 Megabit)
> SANYO’s LE28C1001D (1 Megabit)
> WinBound’s 29EE011 (1 Megabit) and 29EE512 (64KB)
> STMicroelectronics M29F010B (1 Megabit)
> STMicroelectronics M29W040B (4 Megabit)
> STMicroelectronics M29W400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
>  
> What in the heck is all of this?  I need to answer this prompt before it  
> lets me choose the BIOS image to flash.  They don't have a very good  
> flasher util ... well, it may be good, but it's certainly not specific  
> to their card, or even their brand, or maybe even architecture  
> *rollseyes*
 
It wants to know which kind of flash chip your card uses. Picking the wrong  
one can put you in even worse shape than you're already in.
 
 
> What would cause a card to lose a BIOS like this, anyway?  I had  
> intermittent periods in which the BIOS wouldn't show up at system  
> startup, and then all of a sudden it doesn't show up at all.  The HDs  
> are still showing up as an unformatted RAID set in Windows though ...  
> this is all very confusing to me.  The card isn't detected at startup  
> but it is detected in Windows?
 
The BIOS for the card isn't loading so the 'smarts', or at least part of  
it, for RAID is not there but the controller hardware is so Windows see that.
 
Btw, what size does windows say the unformatted array is? Is it the right  
size for two drives or only one?
 
Does your card come with a windows utility that shows the drives and their  
array assignments and what their status is? Promise does, and is why I  
asked. On theirs you can see each drive, ot's port assignment, array  
assignment, and whether it's active or off-line, etc.
 
>  
> Anyway, the card is pretty cheap (certainly cheaper than my 450GB of  
> data).  So I may just buy another version of the same card and see how  
> that works out.
 
Frankly, I doubt the card's BIOS just suddenly vanished. BIOS not loading  
is symptomatic of an IRQ conflict. At least that always kills a Promise  
RAID controller. The other cause is not detecting any drives as there's no  
reason to load RAID BIOS with no drives and it saves boot time. Maybe your  
card doesn't load BIOS unless there are at least two drives since you can't  
RAID with just one (Defective drive? Slow spin-up?).
 
See if windows says it's sharing an IRQ with something else and recheck  
your BIOS settings. Maybe something in there changed you're not aware of.  
Also, set PnP OS to "no." If that doesn't help, in the PnP section tell it  
to reset data (which causes it to reassign IRQs). As a last ditch check  
remove everything else and see if the RAID BIOS loads up when it's the only  
thing there.
 
If not, it could be you lost a hard drive and, thinking it's the card, just  
don't know it yet. Try the drives on a 'plain' IDE port and see if they're  
detected. No need to boot, and don't, because the partitions won't make  
sense and you can't read any data plus you don't want Windows writing  
anything to them. It's just to verify they at least respond to the drive  
type detection. Make sure you keep track of which one is on which  
channel/port on the RAID card so you can put them back in the same place:  
write 'drive 1' and 'drive 2' on them, or whatever identifier suits your fancy.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 05:07:17 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
<cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
 
 
>It is EEPROM, btw.
>
>Okay, I've downloaded the flasher and BIOS.  It's very confusing to  
>figure out how to use though.  When I boot from a FreeDOS disk and try  
>to run the flasher, I have to choose from one of the following ...
>
>AMD’s Am29F010B/Am29LV010B (1 Megabit) and Am29F040B (4 Megabit)
>AMD’s Am29LV400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
>Atmel’s AT49BV512 (64KB), AT29LV010A (1 Megabit), and AT49LV040 (4  
>Megabit)
>SST’s 39SF010 (1 Megabit), 39VF010 (1 Megabit), and 39SF020 (2 Megabit)
>SANYO’s LE28C1001D (1 Megabit)
>WinBound’s 29EE011 (1 Megabit) and 29EE512 (64KB)
>STMicroelectronics M29F010B (1 Megabit)
>STMicroelectronics M29W040B (4 Megabit)
>STMicroelectronics M29W400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
>
>What in the heck is all of this?  I need to answer this prompt before it  
>lets me choose the BIOS image to flash.  They don't have a very good  
>flasher util ... well, it may be good, but it's certainly not specific  
>to their card, or even their brand, or maybe even architecture  
>*rollseyes*
 
Take out card, write down markings on the EEPROM, including
those under the sticker (if there is one).
 
If it came from SiI website, they can't know what EEPROM a
manufactuer used, they only make the chips & bios.
 
You are in a better position to tell us why it failed than
us, you.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 05:07:17 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys <cyde@umd.edu> put
finger to keyboard and composed:
 
>kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in
>newspr9p0hpcgiprkm6bmniiu4phmg2dirf14@4ax.com:  
>
>> On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:49:39 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
>> <cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
>>  
>>  
>>>
>>>I don't know if there even are jumpers on my RAID card.  It worked
>>>before and all of a sudden it stopped working - I never messed with
>>>the hardware in any kind of way.
>>  
>> If this is really valuable data and cheap raid card, you
>> might consider buying another raid card if the
>> lost-bios-issue isn't resolvable, but if windows still sees
>> it and it has an EEPROM instead of PROM, you will probably
>> be able to flash the bios to it, providing the flasher and
>> bios is available.
>
>It is EEPROM, btw.
>
>Okay, I've downloaded the flasher and BIOS.  It's very confusing to  
>figure out how to use though.  When I boot from a FreeDOS disk and try  
>to run the flasher, I have to choose from one of the following ...
>
>AMD’s Am29F010B/Am29LV010B (1 Megabit) and Am29F040B (4 Megabit)
>AMD’s Am29LV400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
>Atmel’s AT49BV512 (64KB), AT29LV010A (1 Megabit), and AT49LV040 (4  
>Megabit)
>SST’s 39SF010 (1 Megabit), 39VF010 (1 Megabit), and 39SF020 (2 Megabit)
>SANYO’s LE28C1001D (1 Megabit)
>WinBound’s 29EE011 (1 Megabit) and 29EE512 (64KB)
>STMicroelectronics M29F010B (1 Megabit)
>STMicroelectronics M29W040B (4 Megabit)
>STMicroelectronics M29W400B (4 Megabit) variable sectors
>
>What in the heck is all of this?  I need to answer this prompt before it  
>lets me choose the BIOS image to flash.  
 
Peel back the sticker on the flash chip, read the part number and
identify the manufacturer's logo. Post the info here if it doesn't
make sense to you.
 
>They don't have a very good  
>flasher util ... well, it may be good, but it's certainly not specific  
>to their card, or even their brand, or maybe even architecture  
>*rollseyes*
 
Like you said, the flasher must be poor because EEPROMs are able to
report a 2-byte manufacturer and device ID when queried properly.
There should be no need for the user to tell the software what is on
the card.
 
 
- Franc Zabkar
--  
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"Franc Zabkar" <fzabkar@optussnet.com.au> wrote in message  
news:2t4ep09so5t6l2n0ucck5af96tjisc6v6h@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 05:07:17 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys <cyde@umd.edu> put
> finger to keyboard and composed:
>
>>kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in
>>newspr9p0hpcgiprkm6bmniiu4phmg2dirf14@4ax.com:
>>
>>> On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:49:39 +0000 (UTC), Cyde Weys
>>> <cyde@umd.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don't know if there even are jumpers on my RAID card.  It worked
>>>>before and all of a sudden it stopped working - I never messed with
>>>>the hardware in any k