E000101F4 no hard drives found - SATA

TI 9 build 3633, in Windows XP SP2.

I moved my two internal SATA drives from my Gigabyte GA-7N400S-L motherboard to a SIIG HD Controller SA0012-S1 PCI today, to try to resolve problems I've been having recognizing an external SATA drive.

Although I can boot to Windows, and run TI full version and Disk Director 10 from BOOT mode, neither program can recognize my SATA hard drives from the Linux Kernal Boot Recovery Mode.

"E000101F4 TI has not found any hard drives"

I've tried the F11 at boot up to enter the "quiet acpi=off no apic" command. Still no hard drives found.

The SIIG SATA Controller did a fine job of recognizing my Samsung 250 GB SATA hard drives, and I thought that I might do better running them from the SIIG card, and using the mobo SATA ports to run my Plextor DVD+R and external SATA HD. Trying to configure the SATA external earlier, via the SIIG card would result in Windows bogging down, 100% CPU useage, no USB mouse, and other challenges. TI helped me restore several times, but each new effort to run the external SATA HD failed. (Also a Samsung 250 GB, which runs fine under USB II).

I've run MemTest, overnight, and have no apparent memory issues. Seems to be the TI Linux mode drivers, or lack thereof.

Would uninstalling all Acronis products and re-installing them help get the correct system drivers to work in the Boot mode of the programs? If so, can I do the automatic un-install via Add/Remove Programs, or must I also delete Registry Keys, set permissions, and so on?

I also tried re-activating the Recovery Manager, which was suggested in another thread, but, no still have had no luck loading new Linux boot drivers, so no hard drive are detected by TI or DD.

The SIIG SATA card runs the SATA hard drives in XP fine, they show up as SCSI 0 and 1 in Device Manager.

Though I've been through a lot trying to get Acronis to work smoothly on my system, I'm still pleased to have gone with Acronis, and these forums are a major reason. I also think that if the Linux mode can work as it did until I moved the HD's to the controller SATA ports today, it's a great feature.

I would prefer that there were options to rewrite the proper drivers and system settings from within an Acronis program [and, this added later, Linux drivers available to recognize hard drives running from controller cards]. I'd like to keep my backup protection running, and current, while I sort out hardware issues. With many mobos only supporting 2 SATA drives, won't many choose to add SATA drives for backups, and need to use controller cards to do so?

I've also had problems writing Image files to the same external drive via USB II, and have only had success doing so in TI Boot mode. Images written from TI in WinXP wouldn't validate, but thanks to the Linux Boot mode USB drivers, (or better error-checking?), Images wrote, validated and restored fine from TI Boot Mode.

Thought I was in the clear, until today, when Boot Mode became the weaker link in the chain. I'm still trying to get all 3 drives running in SATA, which I hope will make backups reliable. I suppose that, since I can make backups in Windows, I could swap the drives back to the MOBO SATA ports if I had a system crash, and restore from there. But, other threads seem to indicate that even that could be problematic, as restoring to new locations can present problems. I have had MBR errors during these experiments, and some indication that changing configurations to restore might not work smoothly.

Thanks.

 

There was something, that Acronis Rescue Environment only comes with drivers for real hardware controllers. so called "software raid" or controller cards relying on drivers to implement basic functions, are not supported IIRC.

 

Thanks. Seems as though I won't have much luck, then, running any drive from the SiiG controller card, at least not a drive I want to use with TI. Too bad, as SATA seemed like a good way to go. Might not be.

Does anyone have what they think is an unbeatable reliable backup setup? Should I add an IDE hard drive just for backups, and forget the speed? I do have IDE available, but, since years ago I went with Ultra-Wide SCSI, and do lots of photo-editing, that I'd go with SATA as it seemed to be a wise choice. I'm only running SATA I -- and not RAID, as that seemed to open up a whole new can of worms, once I learned about the NVIDIA chipset troubles.

Is there a proven system that works with Acronis? So backups can be made, and restored, reliably?

Thanks.

 

i forgot to mention, that there is a workaround. Since you obviously will need the drivers for your card (it is definitely a software controller) you can try to use either Acronis or Mustang's Plugin for BartPE.

This way, you can use the Windows driver provided by the vendor of your card.

If you don't know already, BartPE is CD-bootable Windows. Plugins provide you with the programs or applications you want to use.

There should be some threads about BartPE in this forum already.

More info:
BartPE Homepage
Mustangs Plugins

 

Christopher_NC,

Got the message. I hope your HDs will be visible shortly.

I use Mustang's plugin from ReatogoXPE to restore images. Mustang makes great plugins. I prefer ReatogoXPE to the Acronis environment but it certainly takes longer to load.

 

QUOTE=Brian K]I used to load drivers from F6 until I discovered the SC

Again, thanks for the great suggestions. I am including this quote from a previous thread in which I asked my questions, though I did take the conversation off thread -- sorry.

So, I will try using the Reatogo autoDriver and see if that is able to recognize the drivers for my SiiG PCI SATA controller card.

I realize, now, that part of my problem stems from having purchased a card that uses drivers - software -- rather than chipset based instructions to run the SATA drives. I thought, of course!, when I realized this...I knew better years ago, and have a very nice Adaptec Ultra Wide SCSI card in my old Win98SE PC. Since the point in using the SiiG card was to try to work around the weak chipset on my motherboard -- many post on other boards address the NVIDIA chipset driver issues with SATA --

Perhaps I would be wise to purchase a Promise SATA controller card, which, from what I've read, is a robust, clean system for running up to four SATA devices (my DVD drive, and 3 SATA hard drives). Well, on further investigation, the Promise Sata300 TX4 reviews at NewEgg tell a different story...difficult to run under Linux, with driver mods needed...so, it seems that all controller cards need drivers...is this so?

Might put me back in the same place. Anyone know of a good way to run 4 SATA devices, that will work with Linux based recovery programs like True Image and Disk Director?

Hate to consider a new motherboard...just rebuilt this system last fall, but, I want to figure out how to do this, and welcome any suggestions.

I'll let you know how ReatogoXPE does with the SiiG controller card.

By the way, could using the jumper (to limit the drives to SATA I) on the SATA II hard drives, or not, have an effect on the errors I've run into? The Samsung drives run fine, or so it seems, on my mobo, without jumpers, so, I have continued to use them that way. Could the write errors to USB (SATA drive in external enclosure, via USB II to onboard USB on mobo, front or rear ports) using TI 9.3633 in WinXP be a result of not jumping the drives to SATA I? Since the errors only occur with large files (5-8 GB image files) vs. smaller files -- 6 MB photos don't tax the I/O system, perhaps I need to jump the drives.

I'll test that later, too. But, someone might know and set me straight.


Thanks

 

Longer to load, with my hard drives visible, sounds great! Thanks for joining me here. Say, nice part of the world you hail from!

 

That’s great news. Now you can start experimenting with ReatogoXPE and the various plugins. I use a CD-RW disc as I update my build every week or so with a new plugin. My CD contains both the TI and Disk Director plugins.

I tried using and not using the jumper with a previous computer and it made no difference.

Have you tried using this drive in SATA mode rather than USB? You could also try writing your TI images from ReatogoXPE instead of Windows but this is a bit of a pain as you have to shutdown, load ReatogoXPE etc. But worth trying as a test.

 

Thanks. I looked for the Disk Director plugin, but just remembered that I chose not to install that, thinking that I had already done so when I installed TI and selected the BartPE Plugin. Didn't realize at the time that that was the Plugin vs. BartBuilder. Learning fast, if slowly.

Well, I tried using the jumper on the SATA drive in my external enclosure today (meaning adding the jumper to restrict the SATA 3.0 drive to SATA I which I hadn't needed to do when running on the mobo), connected it via USB, and WIN XP bogged down to a crawl and then hung. This with the two identical internal Samsung SP2504C 250GB SATA drives on the SIIG PCI controller. Windows saw the USB drive, assigned letters to all the visible partitions, and then slowed to a crawl...now familiar, but without a way to return. Had to restart via reset button. No shut down options available in Windows, it just goes into overdrive, and becomes unresponsive. It seems that some conflict is occurring between my mobo chipset and the SATA controller card, and even the USB controllers. Like two kids trying to play with the same ball on the playground, and neither of them will give an inch, and they just lock up.

Hence, I'm about to return the internal hard drives to the SATA mobo ports. Likely tomorrow. Might try ReaTogo first, just in case, but, I have such little faith in this configuration, or the controller card ever playing fair with my mobo chipsets, that I may as well go back to a hard drive configuration that works with TI and DD. Two hard drives, that is. Still no third SATA HD able to co-exist yet.

Yes, I did try using the drive as a SATA drive in the external enclosure, but was never able to get it running. Each time I tried, the system would bog down, CPU running at 100%, I lost my USB mouse, and could only reboot, and then go thru various stages to recover. The SATA drive itself works fine - it was my main internal drive until recently. But, from what I've read, controller cards are challenging, and finding a good match between my mobo's ( GA7N400S-L ) reputedly difficult NVidia SATA chipset, and a PCI SATA controller card -- using drivers, may not be easy. The card I have now is a SIIG|SC-SA0012-S1 PCI SATA, It works fine with my Plextor SATA DVD+R drive, but I can't use it to run a SATA HD to date. At least not in the external enclosure. I should test the drive directly connected to the SIIG card, though, I doubt that will work. I have hidden the Windows partition on the external drive, so that is not the problem - in case someone reading this suggests that. I did resolve that issue early on, after thrilling experiments and rides thru MBR-land.

Someone else in these forums suggested a useful discussion forum at Tom's Hardware, and I found this useful thread today about running SATA natively or via USB:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/hotswapping-ftopict181710.html

Here's an excerpt from cbc700, whose posts I found very helpful:

"On those ViPower units (SATA/SATA vs SATA/USB2)
The 2 ViPower units I have use small sliding latches, not keys. I think this is preferable. I had tried their SATA to USB2 and IDE to USB2 and had enormous trouble with large USB transfers on one of my machine. A large transfer would begin (like a backup or copy), but after a short while would fail. I tried lots of different controllers (like 4 or 5), could never get past it. I have forever given up on driving hard drives with USB. And -- those ViPower units (and others like it) had a SATA/IDE to USB2 bridge right on the unit. Once in a while, it would just not work. But then I discovered their Direct Link stuff. Using their SATA direct link is technically identical to plugging the drive in to the SATA connector directly -- no room for mis-anything. "

Christopher_NC continues:

So, I plan to return the Athena Power external USB/SATA enclosure to NewEgg, and consider a better external option -- direct SATA seems like the most reliable option. Or, I may just mount and run the drive internally. Does anyone an opinion about the merits, or cons, of sticking with external vs. internal drives for backup? If trading drives is inevitable after a HD failure, is the external option really that much better, unless portability is desired? If this should be directed to another thread, please suggest one...

Brian, ( or anyone else ) have you had luck with SATA drives running in an external enclosure, via USB, with TI sized backups? I 've read other threads in these forums that seem to contradict, as to whether or not USB is a reliable BU option. But, my early tests, with corrupted Images resulting, certainly don't give me confidence in that data path, and, I don't want to depend on USB I/O errors if I need a clean Image to restore. Although, perhaps, once written, the drive could be moved to an internal port should a critical restore be needed. But, then, why bother with external USB at all? Perhaps newer mobos have worked out the USB I/O errors? But, working most of the time doesn't sound reliable. So, I think I'll skip USB. Works great for downloading 6 MB photographs from my digital SLR. Just doesn't seem to work reliably with multiple gigabyte Image files. At least for some of us. And, to be fair, the USB I/O errors did occur copying Image size files from Windows, so I am not suggesting that TI is at fault. Just that there are faults. And, apparently, faults in Images don't fly on Restore. Yes, there is Validate. But, only if that works, and, validate doesn't check the whole file, just runs CheckSums to verify. Might still corrupt.

I haven't yet tried the ReatogoXPE, though I do have hopes that it will work with my mobo and SATA controller card (this one, or another). Have you used BartPE / ReatogoXPE long enough to have faith in it as a reliable boot system, so that you don't bother with TI boot mode any longer?

Now for a mini-complaint session...after all, this has been a long process...edited for respectability...

While I appreciate the challenges writing programs to run in this morass of PC hardware configurations, I was, perhaps naively, thinking that Acronis had figured out ways to work well with most configurations, at least as well as, if not better than Windows itself. Didn't think backups to and from external drives would be such a challenge. Suppose it could be my hardware. But, the mobo has decent reviews, and, so did the hard drive enclosure I tried. SiiG card seemed to be a good one. How good do our systems have to be to back-up our data reliably? Would it be possible to build in a system check feature to TI so that it could help at least profile our weak links, or test I/O capacity before writing Images that won't restore? Or some way to place limits on write/read speeds, or on archive file size to suit the data channel being used, once properly assessed by Acronis? I/O error checking? Maybe this is asking for more than is possible, but, hey, why not ask? (This may best be added to the wish list).

I understand Plextor offers an error checking utility that may at least help verify that DVD images are being written within acceptable error rates. Perhaps Acronis could incorporate such a monitor into its programs, so that we might know that our hardware isn't doing its job, and make corrections before we need a clean backup. This ties into the thread about DVD errors -- able to write Images, but they corrupt later, even during Restore. Sorry, I'm not trying to flame here, just seems to be relevant to this disscussion about how to best create reliable, error free backups.

A question:

Does anyone know of a SATA PCI controller card that has excellent Linux mode drivers? That seems to be a key missing ingredient in my system. I'm looking for a great card, and would even consider buying a 4 port SATA card, and moving SATA off the mobo completely, IF True Image and Disk Director can recognize and work with the HD's it controls, both in Windows and Linux Boot Mode. The Promise SATA 150 TX4 card sounds like a great card, but when I read the reviews, it doesn't run well under Linux -- so, I wonder if TI can see drives on it? (Promise and Adaptec are on my short list).

Another question -- some suggest not using Secure Zone or Recovery Manager. Any thoughts on using them? Again, I'm looking to go for reliability over speed, since I've already found quite a few ways not to have reliable backups available. Best to favor stability. And, redundancy, if that is possible. I considered RAID, but found out that that had its own challenges.

That's why I purchased the 3rd identical SATA hard drive in the first place. Sort of backing into this backup thing, but, I imagine, I'm not alone. That ide hard drive failure a few weeks ago woke me up. And, all it had were a few boot files to load Windows, enough to take down Windows. In those days before I had Acronis. So restoring could be simple, easy, reliable. Still aiming for that.


Now, if I can just figure out how to configure...

Thanks.

 

Christopher_NC,

Regarding external SATA HDs.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=134867

As you can see, we got off topic too. It demonstrates that an external HD can work well on certain hardware and badly on other hardware.

I have two internal SATA HDs and I write all of my images to the second HD. It's done daily on a scheduled basis. Weekly or so, I copy the latest image to my external HD as a backup of a backup. Every few months I'd copy an image to a DVD but I've never had to use a DVD for a restore and I don't want to do that. I've actually done it as a test and it was a pain. Although it can happen, a dual HD failure must be a rare event and imaging to a second HD is effortless if scheduled. I have a low threshold for restoring an image and have probably restored over 100. This morning I upgraded my nVidia drivers. It didn't work out as planned so I restored last night's image. Problem fixed faster than trying to sort out what went wrong with the drivers.

I've been using BartPE/ReatogoXPE for the last few years and I have no concerns about restoring Acronis or Ghost images from the BartPE.

I'm not familiar with your hardware so I can't comment.

 

Hello Christopher,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay with the response.

First of all, please note that as b_k has already mentioned above, the current version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home supports only hardware based SATA\RAID controllers when it is running in Linux based Acronis Rescue Mode. It does not support software RAIDs and the alike.

If you use hardware based SATA\RAID controller and Acronis True Image 9.0 Home fails to recognize your hard drive(s) when your computer is booted from Bootable Rescue CD then, firstly, please make sure that you use the latest build (3666) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home which is available in the Product Updates section of your account at Acronis web site.

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

To get access to updates you should create an account then log in and use your serial number to register the software.

Please uninstall any previously installed build by following Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Acronis True Image, prior to installing build 3666.

Please create new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update, boot your PC from this CD and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem persists with Bootable Rescue CD create using the latest build (3666) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home then please try booting with "acpi=off noapic" parameter as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

If your hard drive(s) are still not recognized then the problem is most likely caused by the lack of the appropriate drivers for your particular hardware devices. In this case, please provide us with the following information:

- Create Acronis Report and Linux system information (sysinfo.txt) as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

Note that sometimes the sysinfo.txt file is not readable from under Windows. In this case please try entering the file name using capital letters (SYSINFO.TXT) or follow the instructions provided in this previous post of mine.

If you do not have a floppy drive then please take a look at this previous post of mine explaining how to save the sysinfo.txt file to USB flash drive.

- Let us know the exact vendors and models of both your hard drive(s) and controller.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the most suitable solution as soon as possible.

Please note that a possible workaround is to use Bart PE based CD containing Acronis True Image plug-in. This CD allows you to boot your computer into a Windows like environment adding the appropriate drivers for your hardware. There should not be any problems recognizing your hard drives in case of using Bart PE based CD. However, there are no official plug-in for Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 yet. Only Mustang's plug-in mentioned above by b_k is available at the moment.

As for the problem with Acronis True Image 9.0 Home creating corrupt backups on your external USB hard drive when it is operating from within Windows, such problems are usualy caused by the faulty hardware, e.g. "bad" USB port, faulty memory module, drivers for this particular USB device, etc.

Please try the following tips to solve the problem you experience:

- Check each partition of your external USB hard drive by Windows utility: use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command "chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every partition of your hard drive;

- Download the latest version of Acronis drivers and install it with disabled logging;

- Try temporarily disabling or even uninstalling any other software that requires an exclusive access to the hard drives, i.e. any other backups software, disk and partition managing software, anti virus and anti spyware applications, etc.;

- Try updating the drivers for your external USB hard drive, if any, to the latest version available at the vendor official web site;

- If your external USB hard drive is connected to the computer through a HUB then try connecting it directly;

- Try using another USB port(s).

If nothing of the above helps then please try moving\copying large files, e.g. disk\partition images themselves, using Windows Explorer or any other file manager from\to your external USB hard drive and comparing their checksums calculated using eXpress CheckSum Calculator before and after the files were moved\copied.

If the checksums calculated are different, I'm afraid we can do nothing other to solve this problem than recommend you contact nearest service center or save backups to any other location.

In case checksums calculated are identical, this issue requires a deeper investigation. Could you please provide us with the following information?

- Create Acronis Report and Windows System Information as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

Please keep your external USB hard drive connected while creating Acronis Report and Windows System Information.

- Let us know the exact vendor and model of your external USB hard drive.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Although my SATA drive problems were differenct from yours, I solved them with an Adaptec 1205SA PCI-SATA card. All my drives and partitions are seen by TI, both during normal operation and in a restore situation. The rescue CD also has no problems.

I believe you mentioned NewEgg, I found these cards there under Hard Drives-HDD Controller/Raid.

 

QUOTE by novak614:

Although my SATA drive problems were differenct from yours, I solved them with an Adaptec 1205SA PCI-SATA card. All my drives and partitions are seen by TI, both during normal operation and in a restore situation. The rescue CD also has no problems.

That's wonderful news! I suspected that the problem might well be with the SIIG SR0012-S1 PCI SATA controller, and purchased an Adaptec 1205SA PCI-SATA card last night, from a local computer store. I have always had excellent luck with Adaptec contollers, and once I realized just how thorny the path to SATA was, decided I should spend the money for a quality card. SIIG may do the job with other mobos, but not mine, a Gigabyte GA 7N400S-L.

If Acronis Boot mode supports this card, that will be fantastic!

I'll let you know how it goes!

 

I hope your installation works as well as mine did. After installation of the Adeptec card, I went to this site, http://www.siliconimage.com/support/index.aspx,
to upgrade my driver. The product number for the card on this site is SiI 3112, I'm using WinXP, with a non-RAID configuation, and updated to driver 1.2.0.57.

After updating the driver, the Windows Control Panel will have a selection for Silicone Image ATA Controler, which will now have a Flash BIOS option that wasn't there before the driver upgrade. With my configuration I used BIOS version 4.2.70 for this card.

 

Thanks again. Could you explain the difference between their Base Bios and their IDE Bios?

Not sure which I need.

About to do the install. Seems like I would be wise to remove the current SIIG SATA controller in Device manager, then, perhaps, restart, so that I have taken it out of the loop?

And, while I may not run into this conflict (fingers crossed), just in case, do you know anything more about this: I want to run 4 SATA devices (3 HD's & 1 DVD drive) and understand that there may be conflicts running this Adeptec card at the same time as I run SATA devices on the Motherboard.

From what I've read, there are no formal fixes available, at least none that will update the mobo SATA chipset bios. Even the mobo bios updates from Gigabyte, from what I've read on other forums, don't address the built-in deficiencies. Some modded Bios's may do the trick.

But, before I mess with flashing SATA bios, I might want to know how they will interact with that on my mobo.

Or, just test and see? Would love to keep this PC running...not currently on-line but for this PC.

 

Christopher_NC,

Any progress with ReatogoXPE?

 

No. I put that on hold, since my SATA conflicts have still been top priority. Turned out that even running 3 SATA HD's internally, under WinXP, I still had major conflicts. So, no point setting up a Boot Environment if my hardware isn't running well.

I'm about to install an Adapec SATA controller -- see recent post in this thread -- and, since the last few weeks have taught me to me expect the unexpected, I'm checking out possible conflicts, before I shut down and try it out. Anytime bios updates are mentioned, I get a bit nervous.

Once I get SATA hard drives to work, I plan to get Reatogo all configured, as it looks like a great option for recovery.

Sounds like, at least in some configurations, that TI supports and recognizes HDs running on the Adaptec 1205SA SATA controller, even in Linux Boot Mode. Which would be ideal, since I'd love to have options.

Of course, I have yet to see if this Adaptec card will get along with my mobo.

Thanks for checking in.

 

Good thinking. If you have problems in Windows then you will likely see the same problems in ReatogoXPE.

 

Yes, I am now running 3 SATA hard drives, and a SATA DVD drive. TI & DD Boot Mode even recognize all 3 hard drives! Adaptec saves the day! Such a fine card, compared to the others I tried, or looked at closely. Worth every dollar I spent. I'll stick with Adaptec.

I did try your suggestion and attempted to install the Adaptec 1205SA PCI-SATA card using the Silicone Image 1.2.0.57 driver -- but, that didn't work. The device failed. So, I removed it from device manager, rebooted, and installed the Adaptec drivers from CD. That worked, though, there is no option to update the bios in the current driver, 1.0.0.41. I wonder if different releases of this card might accept different Sil Image drivers?

Or, perhaps, now that I have the Adaptec driver installed, I might be able to update the driver to the Sil Image 3112 driver? Maybe the driver framework was needed, for an upgrade to take? Seems that the bios you suggested will work with this card, but, Sil Image didn't have any bios for the card when I looked it up via their support download option.

I also flashed the Gigabyte motherboard bios to F5 before installing the new SATA controller, which Adaptec suggested doing.

Not sure that I have the best drivers, yet. But, just being able to run 4 SATA devices concurrently is grand. I tested 8 GB image file copies in Windows -- success. TI backup archive -- success. I'll test one of the HDs tomorrow in an external enclosure SATA and USB -- maybe that will work, too.

Might also have to update my Plextor PX-716SA DVD drivers, as Acronis isn't booting from the SATA DVD drive in this configuration -- which it has previously. Maybe updating the controller card driver will enable that, too.

Thanks to everyone for your invaluable assistence. Thanks, Acronis support, for your thorough reply. More to follow-up on, and I do appreciate the assistence available with Acronis products. Glad to be onboard.

I'll try creating a ReaTogo boot disc, too. Now that my hardware is working together. Though, before I count all my chickens, I'll run a number of tests. Menorcaman has shown me just how valuable testing all the options are.

Sure have learned my way around in Acronis TI, OS selector, and DD. Very nice products to have. Sure beats the days of tedious reinstalling after drivers didn't take. Linux mode Boot discs alone are worth the investment.

 

Sorry, I could have been more precise.

My experience on the 1205SA was once I'd installed the Adaptec driver, I was able to upgrade to the 1.2.0.57 from Silicone, at which time the Flash BIOS appeared. After the driver and BIOS upgrade, I experienced quicker boot time and faster gereral operation. I'm glad this card worked for you as well. I'ts hard to go wrong with Adaptec cards, in my opinion.

 

No worries. I'm still learning the ropes -- didn't yet understand which steps establish the driver framework, and which steps update the specific elements. I'll upgrade both today.

Wonder why Adaptec didn't suggest the same path? Perhaps everyone is guarding their specialties, and don't want to admit that another vendor, even the chipset maker itself, has better drivers for Adaptec cards than Adaptec offers.

Well, thanks to your help, and that of so many others on these forums, we are often able to get the inside story, and with perseverence, set up our systems for optimal performance.

Do you also keep an eye on Silicone Image driver and bios releases? Or, leave well enough alone?

I concur...even their build quality is so much nicer than the other SATA controller cards I tested or or examined. Not to say that there aren't other high end cards (I understand Promise makes nice controllers). Adaptec is also one of the few that offer Linux drivers -- likely part of why TI boot mode supports drives connected to Adaptec, and not to the SIIG SATA card I just pulled. Having replaced a main board last fall with leaking caps, I appreciate that Adaptec has no capacitors on this card -- $20 more for quality, and compatibility -- has my

 

Well, I may have spoken too soon. Prior to updating to the Sil Image driver, I was checking partitions for file errors on my 3rd hard drive, and, boom, WinXp crashed -- just instantaneously rebooted. Win error reporting said it was due to an unknown device driver...now a familiar report. So, at least with the earlier Adaptec 1.0.0.41 driver, my system is still unstable with HD's on the mobo and via a PCI controller card.

So, I updated the driver to the Sil Image 3112 driver 1.2.0.57, and had to do so manually, as Windows said the driver was incompatible with my hardware. Well, so is Windows, for that matter. May as well try a better controller card driver. It worked for you. [By the way, what configuration are you using? HD's on mobo SATA and PCI SATA ? Which mobo? What did you eat for lunch today (it all seems to matter) .

All that done, and a few reboots...SATA bios is still seeing Plextor DVD and SATA HD on boot screen... But, using the Sil Image ATA controllers application in Control Panel, when I get to the Flash Bios tab, Unknown shows up in the top two fields (Flash Part Info and Bios Info) and the Program Flash fields have both Browse and Program Flash greyed -- inactive.

I did a reboot, just in case, same inactive and unknown.

So, it seems that my card is not sending info to this utility. Nor able to be flashed.

I might try putting the card in another PCI slot. Adaptec says that the PCI slots must be Bus Mastering, and above revision 2.1 -- mine are all PCI revision 2.2, and I couldn't find any designated bus mastering PCI...

Ah, the joys of configuring.

Any ideas?

 

Latest update:

Adaptec says that this 1205SA controller card does not have flash bios capability. Seems that they changed from flashable chips, to ROM -- perhaps once they got the bios working, or, decided not to keep supporting bios upgrades on this card. The bios update I would have flashed is dated October 2005 -- perhaps, by now, all shipping versions of this card have that recent a bios incorporated. Which precludes using newer mods, or Sil Image Bios, but, then, maybe the drivers are all that is needed. If only I could see what was really going on in there.

So, I could go to a higher priced Adaptec, or Promise, SATA controller card. Or, just buy a new motherboard, which is now sounding like a wise choice. Since this Gigabyte GA 7N400S-L seems to have problems with its SATA controller subsystem, and, perhaps, the USB subsystem, I suspect that even if I solve this now, I may find troubles down the road.

I learned another surprising fact at the Adaptec site today -- their FAQ's state:

So, while my Plextor PX 716SA has run on both the Adaptec and the SIIG SATA controller cards, and from the mobo SATA, I won't continue using Adaptec's controller to run it. I've just moved both hard drives over to the Adaptec card, told OS Selector and Bios to boot to the correct drives, and, so far, all's well. Tests yet to perform. Anyone know the best test to stress these chipset subsystems? Besides creating and validating Backup Images in TI, which has seemed to give them a workout.

The tricky part of these controller chip conflicts seems to be that conflicts occur intermittently, or, under load, or, after a light entre'. If they could only talk, before they toss the OS across the room, and spit up.

Anyone know of a great mobo that works with DDR 2100 memory, has four reliable onboard SATA ports, talks to Acronis products in boot mode, and, has amazing build quality and reliability? Socket A might be nice, too, though, I suppose I'll have to buy a new processor while I'm at it.

And, while I can now appreciate that this discussion may well belong on another forum, a hardware forum, I might never have gotten this far but for all your generous support.