Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card HELP!!!

Ebay is a good place to look; you don't need a "new" board. BTW, Maxtor doesn't make the card, it just has the real manufacturer slap a Maxtor label on their card, so looking for "brand name" isn't as easy as it seems.

Promise Technologies cards are a good value too

OK - I need help on this one....

I've got a new XBX2 board and 2 SATAdrives. Everything boots fine, and system runs great! (C2D e6600)

Then I start to add my old IDE drives, along with the Promise Ultra133TX2 controller. This is where the trouble begins.

I'm just trying to get ONE of the IDE drives to work first. (the on-board IDE controller is handling 2 CD/DVD writers)

If a drive is connected to the Promise controller, the boot sequence hangs immediately after the Promise controller boots and detects the hard drive attached.

If I disconnect the drive, then the boot will complete, but with the message that since there were no drives detected, the promise BIOS wasn't loaded.

I really need/want to get my IDE drives wotking along with the SATA drives.

Any ideas?

Oh - it's WinXP Pro.

Thanks!

The Gunny

maybe your boot sequence in the BIOS is looking at the drives on the Promise card first? Or, if the drives were originally set up formatted with a different controller, it's s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y possible that something in the MFT or boot sector on those drives is making the controller act funny.

Maybe try disconnecting optical drives and seeing if the IDE disks will work on the mobo controller, just as a test. You could also use a utility like Acronis to more closely look at how th IDE disks are set up - are they primary partitions from an older PC setup, with an OS installed? It might be creating some conflicts.....

OK, the drive is detected and fully functional using the on-board IDE controller.

So it's the Promise controller that is the problem.

But I can't use the on-board controller because I've got other devices (DVD writers) that will be connected to it, so I have to solve the Promise issue.

The controller is good - shouldn't be a problem!

If the Promise Ultra133TX2 is non-functional in Intel XBX boards, what controller are people using in Intel XBX board to expand the IDE connectivity? I can't see that it would only be a problem with the Promise controller.

Is there a config fix for the Promise?

What's next? I can't let 600 Gigs (3 PATA 133 drives) of disk just sit there!

The Gunny

Well, this IS the Maxtor controller. Made by Promise, but branded by maxtor - it was included with one of the drives when I bought it.

I've got the latest recommended version of the driver/firmware from Maxtor - they tell you to only use their approved version, but I think I'll go to the Promise site and try their BIOS update and latest driver. Nothing to lose.

I was hoping some of the folk who said they had actually done this with promise controllers would offer some tips or insight. Of course, FAQ and the sites don't say anything about conflicts....

Thanks, slim!

The Gunny

It works!

The Maxtor/Promise card was using the current driver according to Maxtor, and even reloading their driver didn't help.

Then I went to the Promise site and updated the BIOS and got their latest driver.

Now everything is working fine.

Thanks, slim!

The Gunny

Story of my life - always learning things I didn't want to know......

The Gunny

Agreed, 440BX - this will be the third machine this particular has resided in.

That's why I was somewhat dismayed when it didn't [initially] work!

The Gunny