PC Hardware

Guest · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:04 am Post subject: IDE Controller Cards

Hi,

I'm trying to build a custom CD server system with 8-9 DVD-Roms.
Here's the system specs, and here's what's happening. Any suggestions
that you can give me to help me fix the problem. I need a response
within 24 hours please. Thank you!

System Specs:
Intel P4 3.0GHz HTT Processor
Gigabyte 1I915PL-G Motherboard
Hitachi 40GB SATA Hard Drive (Connected on SATA0)
Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHZ Memory
Sabrent Firewire PCI Controller Card
Sabrent Ultra ATA 100-133 IDE RAID Controller Card (x2)

System Configuration:
Top 2 IDE DVD-Roms Connected Via IDE1 on Motherboard
IDE 2 & IDE 3 on Motherboard is empty
2-4 IDE DVD-Roms Connected Via IDE0 on IDE Controller Card 1

The system recognizes these drives just fine, but I can not get the
system to boot to the hard drive no matter what BIOS settings I set,
and no matter what jumper settings are set on the DVD-Roms.

I have the DVD-Roms set as, Master, Slave, Master, Slave, Master, Slave
all the way from the top to the bottom.

The error I'm receiving is something like:
INVALID BOOT DISK, INSERT SYSTEM DISK, PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE

Is there anything that you can suggest for me, as I have been working
on this machine for 1 1/2 weeks and can not seem to get it fixed.
Please help!

Thank you,
Larry Braziel Jr.
Owner, West Central Web Design

Dan G · Guest

1st, never use RAID cards for optical drives. There are very few PCI cards
that will actually support ATAPI devices.
2nd, your MB is trying to boot to the RAID cards because of their BIOS being
enabled for booting. If your MB BIOS does not offer settings for HD boot
priority, you are screwed.

There's a whole thread on IDE cards here:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=90930

Suggest you read the whole thing.

So you have more than one problem brewing here, one is booting to SATA with
a PCI card installed, and the other issue is putting optical drives on a PCI
card. One work-around for problem 1 is to install an IDE HD for booting to.
With the MB set to boot to the IDE, you can even still install the OS to the
SATA leaving just the boot files on the IDE.

Read the above linked thread for suggestions on appropriate PCI cards for
optical drives. But until you solve problem 1, you won't be able to boot to
SATA with a PCI controller installed.

<lbraziel@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128902654.569287.141920@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

XP · Guest

On 9 Oct 2005 17:04:14 -0700, lbraziel@gmail.com wrote:

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