Can't access SATA Drives...

Also the VIA RAID controller picks up the Drives as well as the Device manager however I'm still unable to use them.

Are you normally supposed to be able to access SATA drives just like IDE drives which are located in the "Hard Drives" section of the "My computer" folder.

I'm ready to body slam my monitor out of blind rage...

Did you use the DISK or DRIVE MANAGEMENT (it's in Start, Help and Support) tool to prepare the drives?

Did you install the drivers for the SATA or motherboard?

None of this is automatic and as such, the answer is no.

Bob

In many BIOS's the SATA drives ARE identified as IDE drives [in two that I have built]. That's because they ARE IDE [Integrated Drive Electronics] drives, which simply means that the drive controller is on a circuit card in the drive case itself. The mobo's IDE controller is a complete misnomer, it's note the controller. LOL. The only terminology that is different is SATA and ATA.

Yes you need the mobo's SATA drivers to be installed and the drives must be formatted to be seen by XP.

In my computer at work the SATA drive does NOT show on the same boot screen that the ATA IDE drives are seen. It has it's own section of the boot, just as SCSI can have. But in the most recent two that I built the SATA drives show as IDE in the regular boot screen.

Ray,

Just read your post and I am now concerned about what I planned to do, looking for some advice, I just bought a E-Machines T 6212, it has four SATA connections on the MOBO which is a MSI 480M2-IL, aka MS-7093. It comes from emachines with an IDE HD. I would like to put in 2 Raptor drives and run Raid 0 configuration. I know the MOBO supports it, and E-Machines said that it will work, what are the issues I need to be aware of before I do this one?

Thanks,

I also don't know how well the emachine manuals are written. If they are any good, I would think that you would have a minumum of problems.

People such as Robert Proffitt would be better to ask.

I read about these things, have made systems that would support RAID, but never have had any interest in actually setting a RAID array up. Frankly, I'm not even sure it is worth it, but that's just MHO.

Those Raptor drives seem to be a lot of money for such little storge, but they must make some people happy. LOL

I don't think that I said anything in my post that should scare you or anyone, just clarified that SATA drives are also IDE drives and in a gigabyte mobo that I used they showed up in the IDE section of the BIOS, as IDE but with the part number shown that was that of the SATA drive. Usually the RAID section has its own section of the BIOS and shows on the boot screen after the IDE screen is displayed. Possibly you meant your post to be to one of the others.

Robert, I am new at this but I do look forward to any feedback that you may have,

Chuckster

I'm unsure if you (Chuckster) needed help. But starting in the middle of someone else's discussion can be confusing.

Try making your own thread or new post or new discussion.

As to your setup, while the software angle (drivers) is always fun, I always am concerned about power. Each drive is 20 some Watts and Emachines (others too) will fit a just big enough supply.

Bob