Multiple controller cards problem

yutani · Post by **yutani** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:02 am

Hi, i'll try to keep it short an sweet.

The problem is a follows:

I have two additional controllers in my bp6
One is scsi an the other one is promise ide.

As the system should be installed on the scsi disks
they need to be detected before the ide disks are.
That's where the problem arises. Bios on the promise cards
(i've tried several combinations of scsi & ide cars) always runs
first thus registering those disks as the first few ones.
Scsi in the boot order of the bp6 setup is useless as from that
standpoint both cards are treated as the same class.
This makes it impossible to install properly (i.e. without placing
boot record and some system files on the first ide disk).

I've tried switching slots, it doesn't make a differance.

What i really wan't is a solution (i'm prepared to hack!) to
run the bios from the scsi card first.

Can the bios of the bp6/ide/scsi card be altered in such a manner if
no other solution is available.

Thanks.

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:26 am

What is the boot sequence in the BIOS?

yutani · Post by **yutani** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:28 pm

Whatever the sequence is, it's the same.
Award bios can't distinguish between multiple external boot cards
they are all nemed "scsi".

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:37 pm

I have SCSI in my BP6. The standard IDE controller boots first, then the SCSI controller with the HPT366 controller following last. If you want your system to boot from SCSI, have you tried installing the OS with only SCSI controller in the BP6 and then adding the PCI controller after the installation?

yutani · Post by **yutani** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:14 pm

Your logic is sound.
However once you add the controller and it has disks attached
the scsi disk with the system on it is no longer the first disk
as in the moment you installed windows, and it hangs.

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:17 pm

What happens if the Hdisk(s) on the Promise card are set with FDSIK to be not bootable & the SCSI disk to be bootable? I've forgotten to make a drive bootable & then the error comes up "No boot device.." Doesn't the the BP6 continue to look further & find the SCSI boot drive? Or, is the SCSi card BIOS just never geting loaded?

Some SCSI cards allow the BIOS address footprint to be relocated in the memory space. This could let you jump it ahead of the Promise. I don't think the Promise BIOS address range can be shifter this way.

Can you place the Hdisks of the Promise card on only the Slave locations or secondary channels? Will this not ensure the O/S skips those disks.

yutani · Post by **yutani** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 5:52 am

Heh, you are correct, but award bioses are so braindead that they won't
continue to the next controller in search for the bootable devices.
And even if it did, the promise controller is a Raid 5 serial ata model
so nothing to change there.

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 12:44 pm

yutani,
Hey, I just got the Promise S150-SX4 controller with (3) maxtor SATA 160GB drives too! I'm trying to get it to work in a Dell 600SC server.

I will be running Win2K3 Sm. Business server on it, but I decided to first test the H/W with a Win-XP/Pro install.

So far, my disk performance results are HORRIBLE with the RAID5-3disk setup. I've been on the phone with Dell & Promise and neither can help.

The throughput is comparable to a single ATA-100 2MB cache drive.
Promise just sent me the new MS certified driver & I hope it helps.

Dell says they only support the LSI SATA raid5 controller on this server & they don't support WinXP at all. I'm skeptical about doing the Win2k3 install on the Promise setup with it running so poorly under WinXP.

What has been your experience with the Promise SATA Raid5 card??

RRLedford · Post by **RRLedford** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 10:04 pm

yutani wrote:Heh, you are correct, but award bioses are so braindead that they won't
continue to the next controller in search for the bootable devices.
And even if it did, the promise controller is a Raid 5 serial ata model
so nothing to change there.

Well, the Promise driver with MS WHQL certification arrived and it is the same as i'm already using. SiSoft Sandra rates the RAID5 setup at only 104MB/s so I an going to return it for an LSI from Dell.

What is the point of a controller with 64-256 cache if it does not seriously improve the performance over a single drive setup??

yutani · Post by **yutani** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 12:05 pm

Well performance seems alright coenchmansidering the buggines of bp6
when it comes to issues like this.
The truth is i haven't tried a benchmark yet.
I'll give it a shot and post the results so you can compare.
Overall the card seems functional and economic if you disregard the
crappy pam utility that has a nasty looking and organised gui.

yutani · Post by **yutani** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 12:06 pm

Well performance seems alright considering the buggines of bp6
when it comes to issues like this.
The truth is i haven't tried a benchmark yet.
I'll give it a shot and post the results so you can compare.
Overall the card seems functional and economic if you disregard the
crappy pam utility that has a nasty looking and organised gui.