Promise Ultra 100 TX2 installation

[dmiddl]

I ordered a Promise Ultra 100 TX2 controller card and they say it has been shipped so I should have it within a few days. I would appreciate it if some of you folks who have had experience installing TX2 cards would tell me if my planned installation procedure is correct and if it is not, tell me where and how to change it. My plan is based on what I have read in this forum and also on Western Digital instructions for installing the Ultra ATA TX2 Controller Card they ship with their larger hard drives; they don't say it is made by Promise but the TX2 makes me think that it probably is.

My OS is Win 98 SE, ASUS P5A mobo, Ultra DMA/33. I presently have a single WD 40 GB HDD installed which employs EZ-BIOS. The whole idea of installing an Ultra 100 controller card is to be able to get rid of EZ-BIOS and maybe improve performance. Here is my scheme:

1. Install the Ultra 100 drivers while the single 40 GB WD drive is still connected to the mobo. This is per the WD instructions.

2. Run WD Data Lifeguard and remove EZ-BIOS.

3. Shut down the computer and change the hard drive jumper to the standard Single setting (pins 4-6, or simply no jumper at all.)

4. Install the controller card in a PCI slot.

5. Unplug the HDD cable on the mobo Primary IDE and plug it into the Primary IDE on the controller card.

6. Leave the Plextor CD Writer on the mobo Secondary Master and the Sony CD-ROM on the mobo Secondary Slave.

7. Restart the computer.

8. Wait for the Add New Hardware Wizard to indicate that a "PCI Mass Storage Controller" has been found, then click Next.

9. Choose "Search for a better driver than the one your device is now using."

10. Click Next and Specify a location. Type in the location of the floppy disk drive.
(This part of the WD instructions is confusing to me. If I have already installed the Ultra 100 drivers on the hard drive in Step#1, why do I have to point to the floppy? I would expect the Wizard to automatically find them.)

11. Insert the Ultra ATA controller drivers diskette in the floppy disk drive.

12. Click Next and wait for a message informing that Windows has found the Win 9x-Me Ultra 100 TX@ IDE Controller.

13. Click Next, then Finish.

14. Click Yes when prompted to restart the computer to finish the driver installation.

15. Live happily ever after.

[glc]

That all looks good - and you should use the 80 wire IDE cable that comes with the controller card. If you use that, hook the blue end to the card and the black end to the drive - and jumper the drive to CS (cable select).

[dmiddl]

Thanks for looking over my post, glc, and I'm glad you mentioned CS. I hadn't planned to use it but now I will.

[dmiddl]

I just read on another board that installing a Ultra 100 TX2 controller card considerable time to the boot process because the controller card has its own BIOS and it will POST before the system POST so the drives on the controller card will be detected by the system BIOS. Makes me wonder if I'm just trading one annoyance for another. Comments, anyone?

[glc]

Yes, it will add to the bootup time (I'm guessing 20 seconds?), but once it's booted up the increased performance is well worth it.

[casey]

GLC is correct 15 to 25 seconds longer boot up time.

[Tuf]

Generally bios' will load in the order of:

1. Video, if card has one.
2. System Bios
3. ATA Controller Card or SCSI Card.

As far as the system bios is concerned it has no hard drives, if the only hard drives you have are hooked to the controller card. Mine add 4 - 6 seconds to boot time, but as stated the performance benefit is more than worth it.

[mike breck]

(This part of the WD instructions is confusing to me. If I have already installed the Ultra 100 drivers on the hard drive in Step#1, why do I have to point to the floppy? I would expect the Wizard to automatically find them.)

Hi dmiddl,

Promise just say this is the way to do it with an existing installation of NT/W2K/XP. For Win9x, you just use the floppy disk after the Controller card is installed.

However, if WD says you've got to do it with Win9x as well, then just follow their advice to the letter.

It certainly won't do any harm.

BTW Promise is making Controller cards for different companies. WD may be one.

[dmiddl]

Glad to hear that the increased boot time won't be too bad. Hope mine is like yours, Tuf, and only an extra few seconds.

Mike, the WD instructions I have are ultimately different for NT4x/2000/XP and Windows 9x.Me, but both start out by the same way: "IMPORTANT - If you want to move the boot drive of an existing OS to the controller card, load the Ultra ATA drivers on this drive while it is still connected to the existing hard drive controller on the system motherboard. Do not connect any hard drives to the controller card before completing this step." Granted the WD instructions are for bigger drives but why would they differ from the Promise instructions? Curious, isn't it. Anyway, as you suggest I will use the WD method.

Another post I read advised changing the CD burner and the CD -ROM drives from their present location as Master and Slave on the mobo Secondary to setting both up as Masters on the Primary and Secondary after the HDD has been moved to the controller card. This would make it possible to copy CD's directly from the source to the burner as opposed to having to write the info from CD to HD, then from HD to burner and make copying much faster.

[glc]

Yes, separating the CD and the burner would be a good idea.

[dmiddl]

The Promise Ultra 100 TX2 arrived a while ago and I finally got around to installing it last night. Loaded the drivers per WD method, removed EZ-BIOS, reset jumpers and fired it up. Everything works the way it should but no huge speed increase; maybe a little faster than it was with EZ- BIOS, which makes me believe a post I read somwhere to the effect that more speed increase comes from a faster rpm drive than from Ultra 100. No significant increase in boot time.

All in all I'm pleased with the controller, glad I installed it and happy that EZ-BIOS is gone.

Thanks to everyone for all the info and advice.
Dave

[glc]

If nothing else - the Promise card will give you a lot more stability than EZ-Bios - those overlays are easy to corrupt - all it takes is one boot sector virus and you have a mess on your hands.