The time has come

"Kelly Humphries" <kpisces RemoveThis @speakeasy.org> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.58.0501232030210.29396@shell1.speakeasy.net...
 > for me to stop lurking and put together this bad boy!
 >
 > Abit IS-7

Chipset is 865PE + ICH5R

the ICH5R supports Raid0. If you want ultra-fast I/O, startup, and
shutdown,
consider adding another 160GB WD SATA disk.

Goto the Abit site and get the latest bios!

 > P4, 3.0C ghz, 800 FSB
this must be the Northwood core (because of the 'C')

 > 1GB Kingston DDR400 PC3200
you can turn on Dual channel by installing in RAM slots
(1+3) or (2+4)

 > 160GB WD SATA 7200.8 HD
 > NEC 3520A DVD+/-RW
 > WinXP Home
 >
 > and, a buncha other things, as appropriate... We'll talk.
 >
 > Which leads to my first question to the group: One of the other "things"
 > is my current 13GB EIDE WD hard drive, w/Win98, from which I hope to
 > transfer many GB of data which I find to be incredibly useful. Well,
 > except for some of that W98 stuff....
 >
 > I already know fully well when I'm installing the new HD I'm going to
 > press F6 to install the SATA drivers. What, you thought I was a n00b?
 >
 > What would be the best/easiest option for making sure the system
 > recognizes the old HD along with the new, and lets me start the data
 > transfer?
 >
 > I'm thinking that if I put the SATA drive in by its lonesome at first,
 > install/format, then put the old drive in (after shutting down and
 > unplugging, of course , there will be the least chance of conflict.
 > But you never know, do you? Or ... do you?! Would there be no problems
 > in already having a formatted W98 drive on the IDE cable while setting up
 > a new SATA/XP drive?

like PRIVATE1964 said, you will set the hard disk priority in the
Boot-order so that the SATA boots first.

Advanced Bios->
Hard Disk boot priority->
Bootable addin device->
OnChip SATA device (refers to ICH5R)

hth,
tlviewer
 >
 > Also please LMK of any conflicts I may have overlooked in the above
 > equipment ... but hopefully I did my homework and my next post to the NG
 > will be the one saying "Here we are!"<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

In news:alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit, "tlviewer"
<tlviewerSHRUB.RemoveThis@yahooCHENEY.com> posted on Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:41:20 GMT:

 > the ICH5R supports Raid0. If you want ultra-fast I/O, startup, and
 > shutdown,
 > consider adding another 160GB WD SATA disk.

Does nVidia's nForce3 support Raid0? I'd love faster startup and shutdown.

Damaeus
--
===========================================================================
 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 > Homebuilt PC - Antec SX1030B Case | OS - Microsoft Windows XP Home SP-1
 > Motherboard - Abit NF7 2.0 | Browser - Firefox 1.0
 > PSU - 500 watts | Browser (Backup) - IE 6.0 SP-1
 > 768 MB PC3200 DDR400 SD-RAM | HTML - Macromedia Studio MX 2004
 > 512 MB Infineon DDR400 | Dreamweaver MX 2004
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 > Slave - Maxtor 30GB ATA-66 | Media - WinAmp 5.01
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===========================================================================<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

"Kelly Humphries" wrote in message...
 > I already know fully well when I'm installing the new HD I'm going
 > to press F6 to install the SATA drivers. What, you thought I was
 > a n00b?

Nice to know your lurking has been productive. Don't forget to configure the
controller in RAID mode first tho.

 > What would be the best/easiest option for making sure the system
 > recognizes the old HD along with the new, and lets me start the data
 > transfer?

Variety of options. Only thing to make certain is that you get the boot
device priority right. What you could do, if you want to put the system
together one time and have done with it, is to connect the old drive to
IDE2, and then disable that branch of the controller in the BIOS until
you've got the OS installed, and done whatever else you plan to do. Then
just switch it back on, let the OS recognise it, and do your transferring.

 > I'm thinking that if I put the SATA drive in by its lonesome at first,
 > install/format, then put the old drive in (after shutting down and
 > unplugging, of course , there will be the least chance of conflict.

You don't have to muck about like that. The BIOS will allow you to configure
the drives and boot order however you want. All you need to do is learn how
the different settings interact with each other.

 > Would there be no problems in already having a formatted W98
 > drive on the IDE cable while setting up a new SATA/XP drive?

No, provided you get the boot devices and device priority right. If you find
that the old Win98 drive wants to be C: during WinXP setup, just do as
suggested further up and disable the branch of the controller you've
connected it to temporarily.

 > Also please LMK of any conflicts I may have overlooked in the
 > above equipment ...

No reason why it should be problematic. Bit of a shame you only got PC3200,
as that limits your overclocking options a bit, but beyond that, you've got
all the bits you need.

Is it a WD or a Seagate hard disk you got, BTW? "7200.8" is a Seagate model
number...
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dabs.com" target="_blank">www.dabs.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

"Richard Hopkins" <richh.RemoveThis@dsl.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:41f4e5e6$0$16589$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
 > "Kelly Humphries" wrote in message...
  >> I already know fully well when I'm installing the new HD I'm going
  >> to press F6 to install the SATA drivers. What, you thought I was
  >> a n00b?
 >
 > Nice to know your lurking has been productive. Don't forget to configure
 > the controller in RAID mode first tho.
 >

This is the second or third time here lately I have read advice to configure
a controller in RAID mode even though only one drive is connected. I was
under the impression a RAID array took at the very least two drives, so I
must be missing something in the translation. Could you please explain in
detail, and is this only peculiar to certain controllers?

Quixote<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005, Richard Hopkins wrote:

 > Variety of options. Only thing to make certain is that you get the boot
 > device priority right. What you could do, if you want to put the system
 > together one time and have done with it, is to connect the old drive to
 > IDE2, and then disable that branch of the controller in the BIOS until
 > you've got the OS installed, and done whatever else you plan to do. Then
 > just switch it back on, let the OS recognise it, and do your
 > transferring.

I'll give that a go and see what happens, and thanks all for the boot
priority reassurance.

 > Is it a WD or a Seagate hard disk you got, BTW? "7200.8" is a Seagate
 > model number...

Argh, my bad, I already blew a "."! How's the supply of !!!s doing,
anyway? I may need a few of those pretty soon.

What I meant to write is that it's a WD1600JDRTL, 7200 RPM w/8MB cache.
For 70 bucks (after rebates), how could I resist?

New OS just arrived at the door, time to plan a night of fun and
frolic.....<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

Quixote wrote:

 > "Richard Hopkins" <richh RemoveThis @dsl.nospam.com> wrote in message
 > news:41f4e5e6$0$16589$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
 >
  >>"Kelly Humphries" wrote in message...
  >>
   >>>I already know fully well when I'm installing the new HD I'm going
   >>>to press F6 to install the SATA drivers. What, you thought I was
   >>>a n00b?
  >>
  >>Nice to know your lurking has been productive. Don't forget to configure
  >>the controller in RAID mode first tho.
  >>
 >
 >
 > This is the second or third time here lately I have read advice to configure
 > a controller in RAID mode even though only one drive is connected. I was
 > under the impression a RAID array took at the very least two drives, so I
 > must be missing something in the translation. Could you please explain in
 > detail, and is this only peculiar to certain controllers?
 >
 > Quixote
 >
 >

People with one haddrive are using the "RAID" controllers without
actualy setting up RAID functions. It saves more room for other drives
on the IDE controllers. This is a crucial format for media junkies who
like to burn on the fly and use a range of storage types.

Fireclown<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

"Quixote" wrote in message...
 > This is the second or third time here lately I have read advice to
 > configure a controller in RAID mode even though only one drive
 > is connected. I was under the impression a RAID array took at the
 > very least two drives, so I must be missing something in the translation.

No, you're not missing anything in the translation, just not in full
possession of the facts.

You're right, a RAID array does require at least two drives. However,
configuring the controllers in RAID mode, even without actually creating an
array, can often have advantages. This is especially true of the Intel
ICH5R/ICH6 onchip controllers.

 > Could you please explain in detail, and is this only peculiar to certain
 > controllers?

Yes, it is controller specific. In the case of most controllers, you don't
have the option to enable/disable RAID mode - on most of the controllers
that have it, it's enabled by default and can't be turned "off".

As regards the Intel ICH5R controller at the centre of this thread, enabling
RAID mode separates the SATA connectors from the regular, parallel ATA
controller thus making boot device managment easier, and ultimately giving
more usable connectivity.

However, Fireclown only has half the story. The other significant advantage
with the ICH5R is that RAID mode also enables the controller's PCI bypass
feature, which does what it says on the tin, removing hard disk traffic from
the 133MB/sec PCI bus, increasing both hard disk and general system
performance at the same time.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dabs.com" target="_blank">www.dabs.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come 

I wrote:

 > hopefully I did my homework and my next post to the NG will be the one
 > saying "Here we are!"

Well ... here we are! Thank you all for the helpful and clear advice,
especially regarding the BIOS settings, SATA RAID ROM, and putting old and
new drives together into one machine.

tlviewer wrote:

 > like PRIVATE1964 said, you will set the hard disk priority in the
 > Boot-order so that the SATA boots first.
 >
 > Advanced Bios->
 > Hard Disk boot priority->
 > Bootable addin device->
 > OnChip SATA device (refers to ICH5R)

and Richard Hopkins wrote:

 > What you could do, if you want to put the system together one time and
 > have done with it, is to connect the old drive to IDE2, and then disable
 > that branch of the controller in the BIOS until you've got the OS
 > installed, and done whatever else you plan to do. Then just switch it
 > back on, let the OS recognise it, and do your transferring.

Both worked just as advertised. At first, I couldn't get WinXP to
recognize the new SATA HD, so I spent my time fruitlessly double-checking
the BIOS settings, as well as the cable connections, but no go. Reading
about the difficulties john.w.blair was having, I wondered if I would have
to try a PATA drive. Instead, I thought of one last-ditch approach -- I
removed the Western Digital SecureConnect SATA cable altogether, and
replaced it with the dual cables that came with the IS-7. Worked like a
charm, and installing/formatting was no problem after that. Of course, I
had to install the SATA drivers from ABIT's floppy yet again, since none
of the other attempts up to that point had done any good.

This is the first machine I've built myself, and it is such a huge upgrade
over my previous box that I really have no need to worry about
overclocking for now. But when I do, I know where to come for advice....<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: The time has come