Asus P5W DH Deluxe SATA Harddrives recognition

[megabrown]

Hello,
I am currently in the process of swapping and modding my PC and have run into some issues. I have a P5W DH Deluxe which I used to run Windows XP x64 off of with no proble but I have recently made some changes to my system and am now using the following setup:

Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz 1066FSB
Memory:Kingston ValueRAM 4GB PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SDRAM Kit (2 x
2GB)
Harddrives: 1 x 500GB Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive
2 x 250GB Western Digital
2 x 2TB Seagate Barracuda
Power Supply: Corsair Gaming Series GS 700W

In my BIOS I have all my hardrives set to ACHI. Windows 7 x64 installed perfectly fine but because one of my 2TB drives were installed into the Jmicron363 governed SATA II port, one of the first things I did was to install the Jmicron363 driver. After installing the driver Windows will not load up even in safe mode, it just keeps restarting itself. I'm guessing I'll have to reinstall windows but is there any way which I can still use the harddrive without using that particular SATA II port or setting them up in RAID?

 

[COLGeek]

Set your BIOS SATA mode to IDE and see if it will boot properly.

 

[jaquith]

Hmm a couple possibilities: 1. New OS + Old OS on other drives, 2. Wrong driver installed + BIOS changes.

If you're installing a new Windows OS and there is/are other Windows OSes installed then a slew of problems can occur including a corrupted boot INI file. First, any new install I ALWAYS pull all but the {Primary} HDD/SSD. A 'potential' fix is to run Windows 7 repair -> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/startup-repair with no other HDDs attached.

If that cannot fix then save the 'important' files, reformat and reinstall Window 7 with only the primary HDD attached to the MOBO.

There could be ALL SORTS of things that happened, and often the 'fix' takes longer then the 'reinstall.'

 

[COLGeek]

Hmm a couple possibilities: 1. New OS + Old OS on other drives, 2. Wrong driver installed + BIOS changes.

If you're installing a new Windows OS and there is/are other Windows OSes installed then a slew of problems can occur including a corrupted boot INI file. First, any new install I ALWAYS pull all but the {Primary} HDD/SSD. A 'potential' fix is to run Windows 7 repair -> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/startup-repair with no other HDDs attached.

If that cannot fix then save the 'important' files, reformat and reinstall Window 7 with only the primary HDD attached to the MOBO.

There could be ALL SORTS of things that happened, and often the 'fix' takes longer then the 'reinstall.'

+1....so true on the potential complexities of the "fix". Thus, the simple solution initally offered to at least move forward from a physical aspect.

Also, make sure the right HDD is selected as the boot device.

Good luck!

 

[megabrown]

Thank you for the prompt replies!

I actually do not have an old OS on any of the harddrives because I swapped the harddrive I previously had my OS on for the Momentus XT. It was a clean install and I had the correct boot order. I'm fairly certain it was the Jmicron driver, it was really this sketchy and it seems some other people were also having problems with it on this particular MOBO.

On my MOBO I have onboard RAID (2xSATAII ports) and I currently have a harddrive connected to one of them (and its working fine) but when I connect another one of my harddrives to the other SATAII port, the newly connected drive doesnt show up in my BIOS. Is there a way I can use the second RAID SATAII port as a regular functioning SATAII port?

 

[jaquith]

I don't have 1st hand experience with your MOBO, but I see people freaking out all of the time about not 'seeing' drives in the BIOS {SATA2 & SATA3}; in those cases ONLY the SATA2 'are' visible in the BIOS even though the SATA3 'are' being recognized by the BIOS but in a different post screen.

Likewise I assume the ICH7R are being shown in the BIOS and the JMB363 in a post screen. You need the access the JMB363 in your post screen; see your manual for the CTRL + ?? to access. Further on a ICH7R I would ONLY use it for the 'boot' drives and primary RAID for the 'boot' drives, and use the JMB363 for data.

 

[COLGeek]

I don't have 1st hand experience with your MOBO, but I see people freaking out all of the time about not 'seeing' drives in the BIOS {SATA2 & SATA3}; in those cases ONLY the SATA2 'are' visible in the BIOS even though the SATA3 'are' being recognized by the BIOS but in a different post screen.

Likewise I assume the ICH7R are being shown in the BIOS and the JMB363 in a post screen. You need the access the JMB363 in your post screen; see your manual for the CTRL + ?? to access. Further on a ICH7R I would ONLY use it for the 'boot' drives and primary RAID for the 'boot' drives, and use the JMB363 for data.

This is great advice. What jaquith is telling you is that you need to access the JMB363 config tool to see if you have the options to allow your RAID ports to be designated as "regular SATA/IDE ports.

Also his advice on splitting your drives across your SATA/RAID controllers could not be better. Good luck!

 

[roscolo]

I also have the P5W DH Deluxe. I had similar problems when building a few years ago. Don't remember all the details, and not sure I did everything exactly right, but I did eventually get it all up and running. I know that a lot of people had the same problems you are having with that board and all of those answers are over on the ASUS p5W DH Deluxe forum at the ASUS site.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=P5W+DH+Deluxe&SLanguage=en-

When you read through the forum you will see similar question to yours asked several times. Here's one answer I just plucked, and I remember getting a similar answer back when I built my system with this board:

QUOTE: "The only way you can connect 4 single, Non-RAID, drives is:
- 3 drives, connected to ICH7R - ports SATA1, SATA3 and SATA 4
- 1 drive on JMB363 - port SATA_RAID1 (close to the AUDIO ports, onboard)

The ports EZ_RAID1 and EZ_RAID2 can only be used in connection with RAID:
- EZ_RAID1 + EZ_RAID2 ===> RAID 0 or RAID 1
- SATA1 + SATA3 + SATA4 + EZ_RAID1 ===> 4-drive RAID 5 or RAID 10

- SATA1 + SATA3 + SATA 4 ===> 3-drive RAID 5

Remember to enable JMB363 in BIOS and to install the driver for the JMB363 controller.

Edit:
I just realized, that your CDROM also is a SATA drive.
Sorry, what you want is not doable."

 

[jaquith]

You are asking for problems mixing different controllers within the same RAID. Personally I think it nuts and a corruption begging to be.

If the manual says you "can" the person writing it was a fool or couldn't translate Chinese.

 

[COLGeek]

You are asking for problems mixing different controllers within the same RAID. Personally I think it nuts and a corruption begging to be.

If the manual says you "can" the person writing it was a fool or couldn't translate Chinese.

I agree with jaquith 1000%. Mixing a RAID across controllers is beyond unwise, even "if" it will work. For the OPs original question, it may be time to get an add-on RAID card and not use the on-board RAID due to the limitations and OP desires.

 

[megabrown]

Thanks for all the assistance guys! Yeah I would never mix different controllers within the same RAID either. I should have mentioned earlier that my CDROM was IDE so the number of SATA devices did not exceed the number of SATA ports. I ended up pretty much building a new system (got new MOBO, video card, and processor) because I ran into some other issues:

1. My MOBO was reading the 4GB of RAM as 3200MB on POST even though it should be able to handle up to 8GB
(tested the RAM and it was not at fault and my motherboard should be compatible with that RAM)
2. To resolve the issue of connecting all my harddrives (impossible to connect 5 hardrives non-RAID directly to my board b/c of
the EZ RAID as mentioned by Roscolo) I bought a SATA II Controller (PCIe) but once connected it would not even POST

 

[jaquith]

Aren't we having fun! - NOT

Q - What: MOBO, RAM, RAID Controller?

If you're tunning a 32-bit OS then 3.2GB 'available' isn't too unusual especially if the MOBO has an onboard GPU with 0.5GB 'reserved' for its use. How much RAM is installed? Is it 4GB or 8GB I'm a little fuzzy from what you said above? I assume it's 4GB.

I assume that you wiped the HDDs and the PCIe RAID Controller is in the correct slot(s) and properly seated.

 

[megabrown]

Since running into the issues I mentioned in my previous post, I have built a new system (Got frustrated with the P5W-DH Deluxe :S)

Those issues were on the P5W-DH from the beginning of the thread and to answer your question this is what I was trying to get going:
MOBO : Asus P5W-DH Deluxe
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 4GB PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SDRAM Kit (2 x2GB)
Controller: Vantec UGT-ST310R 6 Port SATA II 150 PCI Host Card w/ RAID
OS: Windows 7 Home 64-bit
The HD's were wiped and the controller was in the correct slot and properly sealed.

 

[Magic Fingers]

Since running into the issues I mentioned in my previous post, I have built a new system (Got frustrated with the P5W-DH Deluxe :S)

Those issues were on the P5W-DH from the beginning of the thread and to answer your question this is what I was trying to get going:
MOBO : Asus P5W-DH Deluxe
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 4GB PC2-6400 (800MHz) DDR2 SDRAM Kit (2 x2GB)
Controller: Vantec UGT-ST310R 6 Port SATA II 150 PCI Host Card w/ RAID
OS: Windows 7 Home 64-bit
The HD's were wiped and the controller was in the correct slot and properly sealed.

I am running a dual boot ASUS P5w DH Deluxe system ...Upgraded from the x64bit edition of windows professional to Windows Vista Ultimate (upon the release of the P5W DH Deluxe Vista Bios)
Install the Vista Driver for the wireless adapter. For any RAIDed or Dynamic hard drives connected to the system, simply open >>control panel>>administrative tools>>disk management>>.........when the disk management console loads then navigate to the dynamic discs connected to the system, (designated by a triangle w/ an exclamation point) right mouse click and a dialogue box will appear, navigate to option, "import dynamic disk"...........the disc should shortly appear in the my computer disk selection menu.


More details about my computer


Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 4.9 4.9
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB 5.2
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5450 5.1
Gaming graphics 2367 MB Total available graphics memory 6.2
Primary hard disk 92GB Free (149GB Total) 5.7
Windows 7 Ultimate

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC
Model P5W DH Deluxe
Total amount of system memory 6.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 3223 GB
Disk partition (C 82 GB Free (233 GB Total) (Windows Vista Ultimate)
Disk partition (D 92 GB Free (149 GB Total) (Windows7 Ultimate)
Disk partition (E 89 GB Free (279 GB Total)
Disk partition (F 138 GB Free (233 GB Total)
Media drive (H CD/DVD
Media drive (I CD/DVD
Media drive (J CD/DVD
Media drive (K CD/DVD
Disk partition (L 830 GB Free (1863 GB Total)
Disk partition (M 452 GB Free (466 GB Total)

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 5450
Total available graphics memory 2367 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1343 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.821.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1280x1024
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11b/g 54Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter
(Windows vista driver installed)



Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*The gaming graphics score is based on the primary graphics adapter. If this system has linked or multiple graphics adapters, some software applications may see additional performance benefits.
**The partitions in this configuration are physical not virtual as in a normal dual boot windows installation. (Ie. Windows Vista on drive C: and Windows 7 on Drive D:.........In a normal Dual Boot System this configuration would be separated by a virtual partition on the same hard drive.) Windows Boot Manager still manages the boot sequence
***Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller (Uses RAID 0 or Striped volumes which combines multiple volumes into one single volume or data redundancy...also called concantenation. Disk partition (L 830 GB Free (1863 GB Total) Problem Code 00000000) Two 1000 GB or 1TB Hitachi_HDD

 

[Magic Fingers]

this is the Windows Vista Configuration with the dynamic (or foreign discs migrated to the windows 7 configuration.)

More details about my computer


Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 5.0 5.0
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB 5.4
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5450 5.1
Gaming graphics 2367 MB Total available graphics memory 5.3
Primary hard disk 82GB Free (233GB Total) 5.4
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC
Model P5W DH Deluxe
Total amount of system memory 6.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 1360 GB
Disk partition (C 82 GB Free (233 GB Total)
Disk partition (D 94 GB Free (149 GB Total)
Disk partition (E 89 GB Free (279 GB Total)
Disk partition (F 138 GB Free (233 GB Total)
Media drive (H CD/DVD
Media drive (I CD/DVDCD/DVD
Media drive (J CD/DVDCD/DVDCD/DVD
Media drive (K CD/DVDCD/DVDCD/DVDCD/DVD
(Disk partition (L 830 GB Free (1863 GB Total) )(Imported to Windows 7*)
Disk partition (M 449 GB Free (466 GB Total)

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 5450
Total available graphics memory 2367 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1343 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.930.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1280x1024
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11b/g 54Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter
Network Adapter Virtual Machine Network Services Driver
Network Adapter Virtual Machine Network Services Driver
Network Adapter Virtual Machine Network Services Driver



**Note that with this configuration (with two physical not virtual partitions, the dynamic discs are not present in both OS's and have to be imported. (original dynamic disc configuration is not altered during importation)

***virtual configuration (ie. dual boot on the same physical hard drive) should not require importation of dynamic drives.

 

[Magic Fingers]

After the success of this installation.......I am considering a triple boot system using this same motherboard and possible physical partitions and on the third partition install x86 mac running Leopard OS X. I am still in the beginning stages of deployment so it will likely take some time. Don't look for any updates in that regard very soon. Unless of course I get a bout of undaunted inspiration.....lol.......in the meantime, I am still researching the necessary software to make the vision a reality.. Thanks for any input.

 

[Magic Fingers]

Check out my post on Facebook....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Exabyte-Computer-Services/154046704698810

I have triple booted the system using Windows 8 Beta........more info on Facebook