ASUS P5Q Deluxe and Promise FastTrak TX4310

Thank you for your help...

Both RAIDs are configured properly. The Promise RAID has got 2 HDDs also combined to one RAID1. If I would put the operating system on this RAID1 (the one from the Promise RAID) I suppose, that the onboard RAID won't be loaded either.

Any more ideas?

@MRFS: Depending on which controller is loaded (onboard, when skipping the Promise controller via Space-Key or Promise controller when doing nothing) only the HDDs of this controller - never both!

If I let it start up without doing anything: Promise.
If I skip the Promise: Onboard.

@MRFS:

BIOS of Promise FastTrak TX4310: 2.8.1.0004 - (newest, see http://www.promise.com/support/dow [...] 100&go=GO)

BIOS of ASUS P5Q Deluxe: 2301 - (newest, see ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5Q_Deluxe/)


Boot Device Priority says if I do nothing:

1st Boot Device: RAID:FT TX4310 Ary 3
2nd Boot Device: CDROM1-HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22LS
3rd Boot Device: 1st FLOPPY DRIVE

It tries to boot from CD-ROM...

----------------------------

Boot Device Priority says if I skip Promise with space key:

1st Boot Device: RAID: Intel Raid-1-Hulla
2nd Boot Device: CDROM1-HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22LS
3rd Boot Device: 1st FLOPPY DRIVE

In addition to that there is a menu entry calles "Hard Disk Drives", when the onboard is loaded. It finds both RAID1s:

1st Drive: RAID:Intel Raid-1-Hulla
2nd Drive: RAID:Intel RAID-1-Hulla

(case sensitive - the full names of the RAID1s contain a "-1" and a "-2" to differenciate - but the names are truncated. But BIOS diffenciates properly).

The BIOS of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager ICH10R wRAID5 is: v8.0.0.1038.

Then the operating system loads properly.

---------------

Additional information: There is a Promise FastTrack TX2300 (BIOS 2.00.0.31) on the other PCI-Slot, too. No drives connected. It will only be recognizes when skipping the TX4310.

The problem remains unchanged, if the TX2300 is removed. It also remains if I swap both controllers so they use another PCI-slot and it remains if I only change the PCI-slot of the TX4310 - with the TX2300 removed.

Please don't hesitate if you need more information and thank you really for your effort.

I'm almost certain that those 2 PCI controllers cannot co-exist
in the same machine.

Also, I suspect that the matching device drivers aren't being mapped
to the correct PCI slots.

At this point, my only suggestion is to remove all Promise
controllers from all PCI slots, and then re-boot using
the on-board ICH10R controller.

Try to stabilize your machine withOUT any Promise controllers.

I would also attempt to remove any Promise software
that you have already installed, particularly the
device drivers. They should be in C:\windows\system32\drivers .
That's where Intel's "iastor.sys" is stored.

Then, I would install the TX4310 and cable 2 HDDs to it
before booting. If XP does not request a device driver,
then you can check which driver has been loaded
by interrogating XP's Device Manager.

At that point, I would be sure that the correct device driver
is installed for the TX4310: if not, then force a driver update
while you're inside Device Manager.

You do NOT want the TX2300's driver assigned to the TX4310 controller!

Also, if my memory serves me, the TX4310 also has a
Windows management program: be sure to install that
sofware too, to confirm that you can interrogate the
status of that TX4310, using that Windows application.

If both the ICH10R and the TX4310 are working at this point,
I would then try to re-boot to confirm that the "Boot Device Priority"
remains like this:

1st Boot Device: RAID: Intel Raid-1-Hulla
2nd Boot Device: CDROM1-HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22LS
3rd Boot Device: 1st FLOPPY DRIVE

And, I would recommend a different naming convention:
these 2 names just look too similar (to me, anyway):

1st Drive: RAID:Intel Raid-1-Hulla
2nd Drive: RAID:Intel RAID-1-Hulla

GOOD LUCK!

MRFS

They did before on a P4P800-E Deluxe for years without any problem...

This was my first try at all - but I don't think that this is a windows problem at all, because already the BIOS of the mainboard doesn't detect the HDDs properly.

They do, obviously - but I can't change the name afterwards. But this is a small thing if anything else runs properly.

I will remove TX2300 and TX4300. Boot up several times. When this works I will put TX4300 in it an connect two drives, but I think it will result in the same thing.

I will try...

The system is stable without any Promise controllers. I will now re-insert TX4310 with 2 HDDs connected to a RAID1.

Yes - ASUS FTP is really slow ATM.

Are the Promise device drivers you are using certified for Windows 7?


MRFS

No - they aren't - they don't even provide drivers for Windows 7 - but on the stage where it fails, the computer doesn't know which OS is used at all. The BIOS makes the first mistakes!

Yes, it isn't as I said - but at the BIOS stage the operating system is not relevant at all - so I don't think that it is related to Windows 7.

I already booted with Knoppix - same problem... So it is not a Windows 7 problem.

You also have a P5Q Deluxe with this Promise RAID controller running (said in first answer)?

I agree, but there is one limitation I suffer: money ;-)...

So I have to use the "old" PCI-stuff...


> I disagree: the Plug-and-Play option in the BIOS can make a huge difference in the way certain devices are configured.

But with set to yes and also set to no I have got the same result. I don't get it.

OK, maybe the OS detects more HDDs than the BIOS but I should be able to see ALL connected HDDs and RAID volumes in the BIOS, too, right?

Don't you have any more ideas? I'm really stuck!

We have 4 HDDs wired to the ICH10R on our prototype workstation:
ASUS P5Q Premium with Intel Q9550. In one of the x1 PCI-Express slots
on that mobo, we also have a Highpoint RocketRAID 3120 working fine,
but that machine has XP/Pro SP3 32-bit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6816115047

There is really no point in staying with obsolete I/O, unless
your budget absolutely requires that decision, for now.

If I were you, I'd look into the latest SATA/"6G" controllers that
are also compatible with Windows 7, e.g.:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6816115072

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/PDF/ [...] asheet.pdf

Or, if your budget can afford it, Intel's RS2BL040 would be an
excellent "future-proof" RAID controller, provided that you
install it in a PCI-E 2.0 slot with a sufficient number of
PCI-E lanes assigned to that slot by the chipset:

http://www.intel.com/Products/Serv [...] erview.htm

Just because a slot is "x16 mechanical" does not mean that it will
get x16 or even x8 PCI-E lanes: check the motherboard's User Manual,
for example: for the P5Q Deluxe, there is a photo which documents
the actual number of PCI-E lanes assigned to each x16 mechanical slot.

Then, when SATA/6G SSDs become available, you'll have much
more headroom for future speed improvements.

The OCZ Colossus was recently announced, but it's quite expensive
and its interface is still 300 MB/second.

We're waiting for SATA/6G SSDs to mature, along with compatible
RAID controllers that also support that higher interface speed.

MRFS

I'll give it a try. But therefore I need to wipe the data of the RAID1 of the TX4310 - so I have to save it somewhere before - well, I think this is my only option, isn't it?

No more ideas, MRFS?

I have exactly the same problem as described by Anonymous but with a Promise FastTrak TX4650.

If I try to load with the on-board controller only it loads without a problem the 2x HDD RAID-0.

If I try to load with the on-board PLUS the TX4650 with 4x HDD RAID-0 & boot order is correctly set to on-board Intel as the first boot device:
1- If I do nothing, gives error "No enough Space to copy PCI Option ROM [00:1F:02]" and then craps out trying to load the OS with some message like "cannot detect boot media".
2- If I "space" during the BIOS of the Promise and skip it from loading, the OS loads correctly and even shows the Promise raid correctly within the OS.

I did notice during the boot process that both the Promise and something else is using IRQ15. Could this have something to do with it? Any ideas?

Those are unfortunately not isolated examples. In my case I have Asus Maximus Formula. I have 4 hd in RAID 0 under Intel plus 2 additional in remaining sata slots. I needed additional 2 sata's for my bluray and remaining hd so I went cheap SIL 2310.
Doesn't matter what i do, what is on and off as long as i keep those satas on SIL disconnected I can start just fine. However I boot system from Intel RAID. As soon as I change BIOS option for sata to RAID the Intel RAID doesn't load at all and "Not enough space to copy PCI OPTION ROM 00:1F:02" appears. However keeping sata setting in IDE allows my to run all drives in regular mode . I did run secondary XP from non-RAID configuration and everything works well. I noticed that some options from bios related to boot are also not present with RAID and additional board.
So far no solution. SIL by itself works great after firmware update. I run 7 Pro.
IT is not driver/system issue as some suggest. It is definitely Bios running out of space/addresses for additional hardware. Newest bios upgrade doesn't help either. Is it some kind of motherboard limitation?