Hard Drive Inaccessible

[Coach3K]

Well, I've spent the last 4 hours poring through documents and problem-solving through tweaking to see if I could solve this problem on my own, and I need sleep so I'm giving up and asking for help.

I built my own computer back in December/January with an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe and put 2 Raptors in Raid 0 along with a 40GB hard drive (133) for miscellaneous storage. In addition, I brought over a 20 GB hard drive from an old computer I had so I could just transfer files over internally.

My setup was basically:

2 x Raptors in Raid 0 using the Intel ICH5R chipset via the SATA1 and SATA2 connectors.

1 x 20 GB (Old Drive) on Primary IDE connector.

1 x 40 GB (133) on the onboard Promise Raid controller.

When I set it all up, I did it all from scratch, and everything worked smoothly.

I was able to get the 2 raptors set up in the raid, as well as having complete access to both of the other drives, including the single 133 IDE drive that was on the Promise Raid controller but wasn't actually in a raid setup. I wanted it that way to take advantage of the faster 133 connection on that connector whereas the Primary IDE was limited in speed. (Yes, I realize it's highly unlikely I'd even maximize throughput on that connector with the 133 drive anyway...but that's another issue).

My problem came tonight when I was doing miscellaneous updating on my computer and decided to update my Bios using EZ Flash. I downloaded the newest version and put it on disk, etc., following the instructions, and the BIOS successfully updated itself to the newest version.

Great! Then I realized all my BIOS settings had to be re-entered. No big deal - I remembered them all.

But when I booted XP up, I noticed that my Drive I (the 40 GB Hard Drive on the Promise Controller) was inaccessible. Programs installed onto that drive weren't able to start, etc.

That's what I spent the last several hours trying to do...to get the system to recognize that I still have that hard drive hooked up and get it to read from it.

Due to Word being installed on the I drive, I was unable to read some of the Help files, though the manual has some sparse instructions about the Fast Track 378 driver.

In any case, I am unable to get any of the BIOS settings arranged so that the Promise controller will show me my IDE drive that's connected to it like I could earlier this evening before the BIOS update.

Endstate I want: I just want to be able to access all my drives like I could earlier (and have them where they were originally - I don't want to have to move my ATA-133 to the Primary IDE just to access it) but have the BIOS updated like I meant to. I just can't get this stupid Promise controller to see what's there.

Is there an obvious step I'm missing to get this fixed? I honestly tried every combination in the BIOS settings possible to get it to recognize it - it won't even show up as a possible drive for boot-order.

I did the "Boot from XP disk and hit F6, then S to load the Promise Controller drivers" thing, but I aborted before I let Windows fully reinstall itself since I felt that was just too much to do before asking. Do I need to just go ahead and let it reinstall? As it stands now, I don't even see the "Promise Raid Controller" in my Device Manager, though the Intel Raid controller IS listed.

Sorry for the long post - I'm frustrated and tired - any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the great tips!

[glc]

No, don't reinstall the Promise drivers using F6, that's for installing the drivers for the boot controller.

Temporarily move the drive to the standard IDE controller so you can access it till you get this sorted. You may have to adjust the drive letter assignments in disk management.

The problem lies in the fact that device manager does not see the Promise controller. If the drivers were blown out, plug and play *should* see new hardware and ask you for the drivers, so this is a bit puzzling. I'd leave the drive on the standard IDE till you get a properly seen Promise in device manager. If you try to reinstall the drivers, it should be done in Windows.

[Coach3K]

I tried installing the Promise controller through windows last night.

I went into the Device Manager and selected all the options to manually select "Promise 378 Raid Controller...etc." from the list of those already in Windows and then installed the driver for it from the disk I had made from the download from Asus' site.

It did it fine but when it got done it told me the device wasn't working.

All my documentation mentions hitting Ctrl - F when the system boots up, but it seems my BIOS doesn't even have that as an option as that does nothing when I try it during boot.

I THINK that drive is active and actually has something moving inside it during operation - when I reach in I can feel a bit of a hum.

Nothing changed between it working and not working except me updating the bios.

I'll fiddle with it some more.

Thanks!

[Coach3K]

The error I get when manually trying to install the driver in from the database information is something like:

The device is now installed but may not be working properly.

The device will not start. (Code 10)

Any idea?

[glc]

There's probably some kind of resource conflict, possibly due to the new bios code. Have you tried reflashing the bios back to the original version?

You may want to contact Asus support and see if this might be a known issue and if there is a workaround or a solution.

Have you tried clearing the whole cmos with the jumper, loading setup defaults, then recustomizing your bios settings?

[Coach3K]

Those were on my list of things to do today. I did flash back to the original (August 2003 I think) Bios version, and my disk is back where I want it and completely accessible.

Only now, with the bios that came on the diskette, I'm getting Bios error beeps on boot up (2 quick, higher pitched beeps, pause about half a second, then 2 more lower pitched beeps)...they aren't there when I flash back to the February 2004 Bios version. But of course, my disk doesn't show up either in the newer Bios.

I'm currently on the old bios version and checked Device manager out of curiousity. The same exact WinXP Sata Promise 378(tm) IDE controller that gave me the "Code 10" error above when I booted using the newest Bios actually showed up in the device list on its own.

I'm going to see if I can find a Bios midway between the old ones and new ones and troubleshoot a bit more.

I'll probalby also clear the CMOS to see if I can get the BIOS error beeps to go away with the old bios.

If nothing else, I'll check with tech support like you mentioned, as this is an easily replicatable problem.

Thanks for the input and if anyone else has had problems with the Feb 2004 Asus P4C800-E Deluxe BIOS, post if you found a solution.

[Coach3K]

Well, reading a bit more on the website and I think I just got caught in a desire to cut a corner.

I basically just used the "Asus EZ Flash" method, along with just the most recent BIOS .ROM file from the ASUS site to do the flash.

The information with the most recent update, though, says:

"Do not use old version Afudos.exe to flash BIOS.Must use new Afudos
(2.07) to flash BIOS."

So I'm thinking that's the problem - I'll need to go through a few more steps to update everything and not just use the EZ Flash method.

Hoping this works.

[Coach3K]

Yep. That worked.

Though I was a little agitated when things didn't work out like I hoped before I realized I was using an older version of AFUDOS (it was linked directly via a walk-through on ASUS site so I assumed it was the 2.07 version).

I went out and made SURE I had the 2.07 version and the same .ROM file that wasn't working earlier worked fine. Thanks for the input!
Lesson learned yet again: RTFM!