Asus P4PE RAID config nightmare

[Pluto]

OK, I'm ticked off with the RAID implementation on the Asus P4PE. I played with it for about an hour before I found the note in the manual that you can only have a single master drive hooked to the (single) standard Parallel IDE RAID controlled port (no slave drive). How stupid is that. So now I have to buy a serial ATA adapter which isn't even available locally yet to hook my other drive to the RAID controller and create a striped array. arghh

Asus sure doesn't make this very clear on their web page for the P4PE

I thought having the onboard Serial ATA would be a benefit for the future when new drives are coming in that format but instead its turned out to be a curse.

Is this a limitiation of all boards featuring Serial ATA and RAID or just the Asus?

 

[LouPoir]

You can buy a serialATA to 80pin adapter and use a standard hard drive on the serialATA channel.

Lou

 

[Pluto]

I know, but no stores around here sell them yet. Plus it means spending more $$ I was told $30 usd each.

 

[ShinKen]

I am going thru the same thing. I have spent about an hour trying to get the RAID setup to work. This is the stupidest thing! They should have at least provided an adapter with the board. Grrrrrr....

 

[Ketchup]

I agree this is a really dumb move on the part of motherboard manufacturers, and very sneaky of Asus since they don't say anything about this on their site. The new PE board from Albatron has the same RAID configuration, but at least they are nice enough to mention it on their site.

Even if Serial ATA drives were out, I still don't know why the controller is configured this way since you would still have to buy a new hard drive to make RAID work. Since we don't have Serial ATA, I guess there is nothing do to right now short of buying a RAID card.

I would really like to hear from Asus and Promise their reasoning behind this cooky configuration.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: ketchup79
I agree this is a really dumb move on the part of motherboard manufacturers, and very sneaky of Asus since they don't say anything about this on their site. The new PE board from Albatron has the same RAID configuration, but at least they are nice enough to mention it on their site.

Even if Serial ATA drives were out, I still don't know why the controller is configured this way since you would still have to buy a new hard drive to make RAID work. Since we don't have Serial ATA, I guess there is nothing do to right now short of buying a RAID card.

I would really like to hear from Asus and Promise their reasoning behind this cooky configuration.

I knew about this issue before I bought the board. That's because I d/led the manual from their site first. The info is there, just not on the sugar coated ad pages.

 

[Bing]

Originally posted by: Pluto
OK, I'm ticked off with the RAID implementation on the Asus P4PE. I played with it for about an hour before I found the note in the manual that you can only have a single master drive hooked to the (single) standard Parallel IDE RAID controlled port (no slave drive). How stupid is that. So now I have to buy a serial ATA adapter which isn't even available locally yet to hook my other drive to the RAID controller and create a striped array. arghh

Asus sure doesn't make this very clear on their web page for the P4PE

I thought having the onboard Serial ATA would be a benefit for the future when new drives are coming in that format but instead its turned out to be a curse.

Is this a limitiation of all boards featuring Serial ATA and RAID or just the Asus?

Damn I wish I read/saw this thread sooner! I have the Albatron PX845PE Pro II and it comes with a Promise FastTrak 376 Raid Controller. I bought two Special Edition WD HDs each is 40GB w/ 8MB cache each and I was hoping to use it for Raid 0 Stripe. But then I dug into the stupid manual and it says for Raid 0, you are allow ONE Parallel or 2 Serial ATA. (Raid 1 is ok for two parallel ... go figure!) .... Now I either have to buy a ATA/133 Raid Controller Card, or get an Serial ATA to Parallel Converter Card. I've found two manufacturers (other than Abit) who makes these and they are HighPoint and 3Ware. But HighPoint convert comes ships with their Serial ATA Card, and I dont know if they will sell the converter separately or not.

I will try to find someone locally who has it ... but I highly doubt it. Let me know what you end up doing Pluto.

 

[Skypix7]

A more basic question:

I have a third IDE drive...can I run it on the blue Raid connector on the P4PE or do I have to set up RAID? IF I can, I assume the drive would be set up as a master, but can I use it as a data drive (not as boot drive?)

thanks

 

[Ketchup]

Yes, you can use one drive on the Parallel connector that is part of the RAID controller. You will have to enable the RAID in either the BIOS or on the board via dipswitches. The computer will not boot from this device unless you specify that in the BIOS.

 

[Skypix7]

thanks Ketchup! I'll give it a go.

 

[DevilCooling]

Now I have both of these drives hooked up In raid and one is on the Pri. IDE and the other is on the Sec. IDE.

It is possible ask me if you want to do it.