installing 4th HDD

[storywizard]

hello. I am installing a 4th HDD. My mb is a Gigabyte GA-7DXR I am using the IDE drivers on the Promise Raid Function. I have a 3rd HDD running great, but when I boot the machine up after installing the 4th HDD the bios recognizes the 4th drive, but Windoze freezes at the C prompt. Any ideas??

[shadowhand]

make sure you configure the RAID controller correctly... other than that, i dont know much about RAID... so maybe someone else will be able to give you more info.

[storywizard]

ok, here are some more details....

I use Windows 98 se, I am about to install Suse 9 as a dual boot..

on the main IDE channel the master disc is a 20GB Fugitsu, as is the slave. On the second IDE channel I have a Plextor CDRW and a cd rom which I hardly ever use.

On the first channel of the Promise controller I have a 60GB Seagate and as its slave, the 4th HDD a 40 GB Seagate


I have all the latest updates on my MB Bios, the Bios is set to run the Promise on board controller in IDE mode, it sees the 4th drive, which I have set as a slave to the 3rd drive,leaving me with one free channel to play with.

I am assuming that as the bios is seeing the drive that the boot process is ok, its when Windows tries to load that the system freezes.

I have a new, 400w Zalman power supply, I hope that is big enough.

I have not set different spin up times for the discs, is that a good way to go?

Hope someone can help, maybe Im just trying to put to many drives on the MB....but I love playing with these things and would love to be able to figure this out.

thanks for your help...

[cudaman]

forgive the space, i am in lynx and I deleted part of my message because I didnt read your post carfully enough.
so 98 worked fine until you installed the other hdd to the raid card, but you could read the
3rd hdd fine from the raid chip before... hmmm does the controller recognizes both drives right?
if not something is wrong there, if so, try this(just a stab in the dark but, it might work):set both hdds to CS and put them on seperate channels on the raid chip

also did you flash the bios before or after 98 stopped working?
make sure other things you changed are not the culprit of this
weird happening.




hopefully ill beable to think of something for ya later, its time for some sleep
while kde compiles

[storywizard]

thanks for all the help, I have decided that I will go back to a simple 2HDD system, dual boot Win98se and Suse9, thanks again...

[cudaman]

another thing you could do, is take out that cdrom you dont use. if you've given up otherways

Oh, when i installed my rounded IDE cables they only worked one way i.e. board plugg on board plugg, not board plugg to primary ide, i used the second method when i had my drives in a different arrangement. they didnt work that way with the new cables.... maybe the cable is backwards?

[Toby B.]

If I am not mistaken when using RAID both hard drives need to be the exact same...(i.e. 2 x 40GB 5400RPM Seagate hard drives).

[cudaman]

from the post above he just wants to use it as a regular ide drive, and is not using the raid function on it, otherwise ya they need to be the same or simmilar