"Paul" <nospam@needed.com> wrote in message news:g4j4md$slv$1@aioe.org...
> davesurrey wrote:
>> Have been using XP Pro with an AsRock ConroeXFire-eSata2 mobo and two
>> sata HDDs and it' s been nice and stable.
>> Now trying to add a third SATA drive but although the BIOS sees the third
>> drive it doesn't show in XP (neither an icon in my computer nor in Disk
>> Management.)
>> I formatted this third drive by disconnecting the second one temporarily
>> so windows would recognise it and then format and make active in Disk
>> Management.
>> But reconnecting back all 3 disks I can only see two again, except in the
>> BIOS.
>> Bios is AMI P1.40 09/06/2006.
>> To me this looks like a Windows and/or driver issue and not BIOS as the
>> bios sees the three drives. But I could be wrong.
>> Help please.
>> Thanks
>
> Verify how the Southbridge ports are set up.
>
> The ICH7 has four SATA and an IDE connector, capable of handling six
> disks.
> Intel splits these up as three groups of two, for the purposes of this
> discussion. Two SATA behave like an old ribbon cable, so that is why
> I think of them as working in pairs.
>
> If a person wanted to install Win98, Win98 expects command and control
> addresses in the I/O space, and the disks to be at IRQ14 and IRQ15. Intel
> set up a mode, called the "legacy" mode, where any four disks could be
> mapped to look like that. But the four disks would be arranged in pairs.
> For example, if in "legacy" mode, the four SATA could work as if they
> were two ribbon cables, but that would leave the IDE port disabled.
> Or, you could use a pair of SATA, the second pair of SATA would be
> disabled, and the IDE port would work. Legacy supports four of six
> potential drive spots.
>
> Your symptoms sound like the system was installed, while the chipset
> was in legacy mode.
>
> In Native mode, all six disks can be used at the same time. All disks
> are mapped into the PCI address space. (Command and control registers
> are an offset to the PCI Base Address Register or BAR.) Win2K and
> WinXP have native mode drivers that understand this PCI mapping, when
> a certain minimum Service Pack is being used.
>
> Looking in the manual, the BIOS default appears to be Enhanced. So if you
> hadn't touched the settings, all would be fine. (I've seen
> at least one product, that uses a Legacy setting as the default.) I'm
> looking at PDF page 50. Enhanced is the one I'd use. "Compatible"
> is the Legacy operating option, and will limit the number of working
> ports to four of six.
>
> http://download.asrock.com/manual/Co...ire-eSATA2.pdf
>
> So the question is, what would happen if you change the BIOS setting,
> while an existing OS is installed ?
>
> Maybe someone else knows the answer to that. I'm not going to guess.
>
> Generally, you want to select the exactly right settings on page 50,
> before installing any OS, because the consequences of a mistake, mean
> lots of cleanup work later. For example, on Intel chipsets, moving
> between RAID for boot, and non-RAID for boot, in terms of drivers,
> is a PITA.
>
> For some background on Native versus Legacy, Intel has this document.
> It doesn't explain everything, but will give a few hints about how it
> works.
>
> (SATA Programmers Reference Manual - PDF page 11 is best)
>
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/manuals/252671.htm
>
> Paul
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your very comprehensive reply. However (although you were not to
know) I knew the bulk of that already.
My set-up uses Extended mode already and this was set-up prior to WinXP
install.
I have read elsewhere that trying to change to AHCI mode may help (but there
again no-one has confirmed this) but changing it may well cause WinXP to
freeze. Guess what? I can confirm it does.
Where do I go from here?
Does this look like a WinXp issue or the BIOS of what?
Thanks