A7N8X S-ATA questions

[NRG = mc²]

Hi,

I'm wondering how to boot off the Silicon Image S-ATA controller on the A7N8X deluxe. There is no option either in the system BIOS or the S-ATA BIOS which seems to concentrate on creating RAID arrays only.

Any ideas? Manual says nothing about it.

Thanks

 

[NRG = mc²]

One more thing... would it support ATAPI devices? I'm using the Asus Dongle (converter) which I purchased separately.... no relevant info on that either (both manual and asus site)

Thanks

 

[blakerwry]

i would try a "boot other" or "boot future"... or last but not least "boot SCSI" in the boot order...

Don't know if all (or any) of Silicon Images controllers support ATAPI because I really have no experience with them... however, it never hurts to try. My guess is that it will work, but why would you want to?

 

[NRG = mc²]

Hi,

I didn't try boot from SCSI which I guess is pretty obvious but hey I'm tired

The reason I want to use my writer on the S-ATA channel is because:

a) It now shares a cable with a hard drive, which causes the burnproof to kick in if I want to do something "heavy" on the drive it shares a cable with

b) I don't trust the Silicon Image or other add on chips, or the S-ATA to P-ATA converter for that matter either - I'd rather have it on my CDRW rather than trash the data on my hard drive.

c) The CDRW is at the top of my tower and that means I have a fat P-ATA cable going all the way up there and its pretty messy.

I hooked up the CDRW but it doesn't work, not recognised by the BIOS of the S-ATA controller, but I don't know if this is the fault of the controller ot the converter.

Thanks for your help.

 

[CityK]

NRG: attach your disk to the SIIG controller and then create an array of 1 disk ... have seen this reported on several user boards.

CK

 

[NRG = mc²]

CityK,

Thanks, I tried that when I was checking out all the options, IIRC there are three options, create, delete and resolve conflicts. Because I only have one drive hooked up it won't let me into the submenu of any of the options...

But I'm more concerned about getting the CDRW on there as its the cable snaking up the tower that annoys me, and I don't really trust add on chips that much after some bad experiences with HighPoint...

I guess the S-ATA convertor just doesn't support ATAPI devices... because the mobo manual states that the Silicon Image chip will work with CDROM drives...

Funny that Asus cannot even provide a manual or short note on the box saying what it does and what it doesn't... :roll:

 

[CityK]

NRG,

If you haven't already, check the Asus user threads at Amdmb and NforcersHQ.....there's volumes of posts at both of those sites, so I'm sure what your seeking has been discussed before...hopefully you can track down a solution. Good luck.

CK

 

[blakerwry]

btw, the controller doesnt need to recognize an ATAPI drive for it to work in windows...

if you were letting something like that keep you from trying, then I'd say give it another shot and see if windows can detect the drive...

 

[NRG = mc²]

I tried that, it won't see it in Windows or the BIOS. Device manager reports nothing also... latest drivers are installed.

I will check the Amdmb forums, thanks.