Please help…!!

AIR

AIR

AIR

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Joined
1 Jun 2004
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91
Location
Manchester
Hi, I've just installed a new Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB which I intend to use as a data drive for streaming, however the PC won't boot with it plugged in, it just gets to the following Bios screen and stops (pressing Ctrl+S or F4 doesn't do anything):



If I plug the drive in when I'm already in Windows it works fine, I was able to format it this way, but the PC just won't boot with it plugged in!

My motherboard is an old ABIT AN7 Nforce 2, it uses the SIL 3112A SATA Raid 4.2.47 Controller. My boot drive is an old Maxtor SATA plugged into the SATA 1 socket, the new Samsung in plugged into the SATA 2 socket.

Any help would be much appreciated :)

Thanks
 
Well I guess the controllers BIOS is having problems with the fact it's a 1.5tb drive or because it's SATAII. Either way I'd be looking at the controller/motherboard BIOS and making sure you're running the latest revision. Failing that check up on how to set the Samsung drive at SATA1 speeds, that might help.
 
I've tried setting the drive to SATA1 speed but there don't appear to be any jumpers! Is that normal for SATA2 drives? The Samsung website has a bootable floppy that is supposed to be able to do it but I can't get the PC to boot from the floppy, despite setting it as the first boot device in the bios, it still just boots straight to the screen I posted above, strange and very frustrating..

My motherboard bios is up to date but not sure about the SATA controller. How do you update the SATA controller Bios? I've googled it but can't find anything definitive, or even an 'official' site to download it from..

Any suggestions?
 
It's usually part of the motherboards BIOS, unless you have a raid card plugged in.
Try setting up a usb flash drive to boot into DOS and run your utility from that. That's what I do, or I think Samsung had a bootable ISO image, burn that to cd and boot off that.
 
Hi, still having problems... I can't actually boot to CD or Floppy to run the Samsung tools because it just stops at the post screen I posted above, first boot device is set to CD in the bios, but it never gets far enough to initialise the CD..

So I need to run the tools that will hopefully enable the MB to see the drive properly, but because the MB can't see the drive properly it just hangs which is preventing me from being able to run the tools! So catch 22 really..

The frustrating thing is, if I plug the drive in when I'm already switched on Windows recognises it and it works fine, the PC just won't bloody boot with it plugged in..which is no good to me and a complete pain..

Anyone got any ideas on what to try next??
 
Defenestration said:
What mobo is it ?
Click to expand...

It's an Abit AN7 which is an N-Force 2 model...

Surely somebody has got this drive working on these boards? Everybody had N-Force 2's back in the day, there must be some left that people are successfully running SATA2 drives on?
 
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beefybarn said:
have you tried plugging just the samsung in and tried booting with just that.
Click to expand...

Yes, I just get to the below screen and it freezes, the booting from CD screen is after this one so it never makes it that far:



Pressing Ctrl+S or F4 do nothing either...

Just to clarify, I don't want to boot off this disk, its formatted to NTFS and completely empty, I just want to use it for storage. I just can't boot my PC with it plugged in.
 
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Defenestration said:
Is it possible to disable RAID completely in the BIOS ?
Click to expand...

All I can find is the below setting:



With this disabled I get DISK BOOT FAILURE. However I don't think its a setting to disable RAID, it's the closest I could find though so it appears that it's not possible to disable it..
 
Defenestration said:
As it stops just at the point it's about to display the size, it's obviously got some problem determining the size of the drive, due to it being so large.
Click to expand...

Yes that's what I was thinking... it just seems to crap out because in 2004 drives that size were years away...
 
CaptainCrash said:
I'm pretty sure you'll need to flash the controller BIOS to get it to see a drive that size - I had a quick google, and apparently it's a common problem.

You can get it here, version 4.2.84 appears to be the latest. :)
Click to expand...

Great work thanks! I'll give it a go & report back...
 
CaptainCrash said:
I'm pretty sure you'll need to flash the controller BIOS to get it to see a drive that size - I had a quick google, and apparently it's a common problem.

You can get it here, version 4.2.84 appears to be the latest. :)
Click to expand...

Looking at it, the description is quite daunting:

"This download includes IDE, SATARAID, and system BIOS. The r####.bin file is the SATARAID BIOS and the b####.bin is the IDE BIOS. The ####.bin is an abbreviated BIOS intended for integration into system BIOS. Do NOT flash system BIOS into an add-in card BIOS. Use the included IDE BIOS with with the latest driver(s): SiI3x12 1.3.70.0 32 bit and 1.2.15.0 64 bit IDE Windows driver. SATARAID BIOS supports RAID levels 0, 1, and 10. Use the included SATARAID BIOS with the latest RAID driver(s): SiI3x12 1.0.60.0 32 bit and 1.0.14.0 64 bit SATARAID Windows driver. Use the included system BIOS with the latest SATARAID Tool."

How do I know I meet all the requirements? I'm a bit reluctant to just flash it without really understanding the above.. is it safe to do?? What's the system bios it is on about? I already have the latest for my MB..
 
I thought this would be straightforward, but I have to agree with you that the instructions are as clear as mud.

According to the readme included with the download, you're *not* supposed to attempt flashing an onboard Sil3112 controller, only an add-in card is user-upgradeable and you should contact the mobo manufacturer for an onboard controller update. As Abit have gone the way of the dodo, I wouldn't give much for your chances...

There's a thread on nforcershq with a link to an updated AN7 BIOS, which (again if I've understood correctly) has the Sil3112 v4284 BIOS integrated - I guess you'd just use this in the normal way.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/sii3112-sataraid-bios-v4284-driver-v1-0-62-0-t70864.html

http://nf2.stuff.googlepages.com/AN7_19_84.zip

The usual warnings about possibly bricking your motherboard apply - if this is a simple mobo BIOS flash it should be reasonably safe, but if you don't want to take the risk, you might be better off just getting a cheap PCI SATA controller and attaching the Samsung to that.
 
It worked :) Just flashed it with the modded AN7 bios and it now recognises the Samsung and boots as it should!

Thanks for your help on this.. if I knew you I'd buy you a pint :cool: It is much appreciated as I was close to giving up and buying an enclosure..

So thanks a lot :)
 
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