I just installed a Promise Ultra100 controller and connected 2 drives to it - 40gig and 160gig. In windows everything is great - works like a charm, but at the startup the controller's bios keep saying that it's not detecting the drives. I read that you are supposed to activate the IDE controllers in BIOS somehow, but i dont see anything allowing me to do it in my AMIBios.
The BIOS on controller cards are dedicated to the IDE's only and do not provide any other functions, so basically they should be automatically detected anyway, so nthe fact your state that windows is reporting them etc, suggests it is functioning correctly........ Your main PC BIOS, will only hold data relative to the PCI slot it is connected to, just make sure that is set to 'auto', and the BIOS will assign that a suitable address/IRQ, for which the controllers ROM will use and therefore windows will aswell.
Serikbay -- I believe my mobo and bios has the same functionality. I will check it out this weekend and let you know. This is an SATA controller, correct?? Did you configure the drives in a Raid 0 or Raid 1 fashion?? I haven't set mine up yet using that controller. I have one SATA drive currently and one IDE. But, soon, I will configure RAID 0 when I get some more $$$$.
All i did was connect the two drives to the controller and turn on the PC. So i suppose i am running in IDE mode right now) Honestly, i will need to do some reading on what RAID is... My card is this: http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816102002 All of my drives are IDE i think - 40gig WD Caviar and 160gig Seagate.
ooops, my bad....... Correct, if there is a RAID option then you should be able to enable that function within the CMOS.
No - just wanted more space. I have a 120gig and 250gig connected to the motherboard... Kinda runnig out of space.. So not being able to boot from the drives on the controller is not a big deal since i can still use them as storage in windows.
My IDE card is hooked up to 2 of my optical drives. As far as I am aware my BIOS does not detect the drives connected to the card. My HDs are connected to my MOBO directly. I am not sure that you can boot up your system off a card driven HD, as opposed to an IDE driven HD. I would connect your optical drives to your card & your HDs to your MOBO direct, as I believe was suggested earlier.
