Gigabyte MA790X + Phenom X4 Problem!

[dakrisht]

Hey Everyone,

I just installed a Phenom II 940 on a Gigabyte MA790X-UD4.

Everything works, but I'm experiencing a few issues.

I have 2 DVD-RW Drives + 1 Hard Disk Drive installed (both connected to the MB via SATA connectors)

However, in the BIOS - under "Standard CMOS Features" I see:

IDE Channel 0 Master [None]
IDE Channel 0 Slave [None]
IDE Channel 1 Master [ATAPI iHAS120 6]
IDE Channel 1 Slave [ATAPI iHAS120 6]
IDE Channel 2 Master [WDC WD6400AAKS]
IDE Channel 2 Slave

Something wrong with this picture? Everything is connected via SATA, why do I see IDE?

Also, when booting Windows XP (SP3) I see 3 DVD-R drives, there should only be two???

I've installed the Chipset drivers, under "Integrated Peripherals" I have

OnChip SATA Controller [Enabled]
OnChip SATA Type [Native IDE] --- (I'm not using RAID and don't know if AHCI should be used)



Some help is greatly appreciated

I don't think my 3 SATA devices should be showing up as IDE, I'm not sure, everything works - but I'm not sure if it's working properly.

The 3rd DVD drive in "My Computer" certainly smells like a BIOS issue.

Thanks in advance

 

[dakrisht]

Alright, I switched the SATA cable to a different SATA part inside the machine - that moved one DVD-RW drive device to:

IDE Channel 3 Slave [ATAPI iHAS120 6]

So now, both DVD-RW's are Slaves and the HDD is the Master.


I'm going to setup RAID-1 or RAID-5 in a the coming weeks - maybe this is when it'll display SATA. But they are connected as SATA so IDE must be something stupid I'm missing??


Question:If I have Windows XP installed on this system and add a drive (or two drives) and select a form of SATA RAID in the MB Settings - will I have to re-install the OS?


RE: The Second Drive - I have UltraISO and Nero installed, maybe this is a virtual volume created by one of the programs?

 

[pat]

IDE is the controller, SATA is the interface. Your drive and optical are all IDE drive, but use the SATA interface to connect to the controller. So no problem there, especially if everything is set at native IDE.

As for the third device, maybe it is some kind of virtual drive.

 

[jitpublisher]

Yes, you will have to reinstall the OS.
Why do want to start using RAID?
Hope you are not making the same mistake I see a lot of people make...... thinking running a RAID array is good backup......it is not.

 

[dakrisht]

Thanks everyone for your tips.

@pat - that clears up my IDE/SATA confusion - thanks!

@jitpublisher - I've always thought that RAID1 or RAID5 is a good idea for real-time backup and redundancy if one drive were to fail? Of course, there's EMC Retrospect and other backup software I've used in the past but I'm not too concerned with backing up at the moment. Could you tell me a few reasons why you feel RAID is not a good move?

Thanks!

 

[pat]

RAID will allow hot swap of a failed HDD without having to shut down the computer, so it is useful in critical and always on operation. If one drive fail, the computer is still running on the other, and you can replace the failed one and rebuild the arrasy.

On the other habd, if a virus corrupt files, it will corrupt files on BOTH drive. or, if the controller fail, then the array may disappear and you'll loose everything.

I'm using RAID0 for speed and better capacity, with a backup solution. I'm not using the onboard RAID. If the motherboard die, of you want to upgrade, then you'll have to have the same chipset to recover the array, as array are not easy, next to impossible, to move from one brand to another.

 

[Outlander_04]

Your BIOS is set to run in native IDE mode .

Out of the box XP doesnt support SATA and needs a SATA driver installed . Usually this is done before you install the operating system . The driver is transferred to a floppy from the mb driver disc , and then run before windows XP . The instructions should be in your mb manual

 

[pat]

Your BIOS is set to run in native IDE mode .

Out of the box XP doesnt support SATA and needs a SATA driver installed . Usually this is done before you install the operating system . The driver is transferred to a floppy from the mb driver disc , and then run before windows XP . The instructions should be in your mb manual

Out of the box, XP does support SATA drive, as long as the controller is set to native IDE. In fact, XP doesn't care about the interface between the drive and the controller. As long as it can talk to the controller, the controller will tell XP all it has to know about the device at the end of the cable, be it SATA or PATA.

exception

 

[Outlander_04]

Out of the box, XP does support SATA drive, as long as the controller is set to native IDE. In fact, XP doesn't care about the interface between the drive and the controller. As long as it can talk to the controller, the controller will tell XP all it has to know about the device at the end of the cable, be it SATA or PATA.

exception

The first mb's with sata ports didnot have Native IDE mode . The mb chipsets didnt support it and it wasnt an option in BIOS . Out of the box XP did not support SATA

 

[pat]

The first mb's with sata ports didnot have Native IDE mode . The mb chipsets didnt support it and it wasnt an option in BIOS . Out of the box XP did not support SATA

True, but not because of XP, but because chipsets from Intel, AMD, nvidia, VIA,SIS,... did not include the SATA interface as standard. SATA support was provided by third party controller, like Promise, Sil,..., so third party drivers has to be used by OS to recognize the device. Being onboard, they were using the PCI BUS, just like PCI card.

But, in example, nforce 3 250 was offering support for sata interface thru the chipset, so XP could be installed on a SATA drive without having to load driver with F6. And that was with the first realease of XP without SP1, on a 80 gigs HDD.

now, every chipset include native SATA support, and you can even install Win2000 on a SATA drive as long as AHCI is not enabled, without any drivers.