[Mauser]

I recently obtained a Belkin IDE raid card (Belkin F5U098) and decided to try and raid a bunch of old drives I have sitting around just for fun and maybe get some nice load speeds on particular programs.

I'll start with what I've done, I have a mix match of four different drives ranging from 13 gigs up to 80, from a variety of manufacturers. So I take all of these stick the card in, plug in the hard drives and all that, then I boot up and go into the card's bios, and I look and none of the drives are recognized, so I power down and this time I plug in only one drive per cable, boot up and both drives are recognized; however, when I try again to run all four, none of them show up.

I have all jumpers set to cable select, and all of them are running fine.

Any ideas?

 

[compuman145]

take it off of cable select and then set your masters and your slaves.

Cable select sucks monkey nuts completely I only ever had problems when I used it.

 

[Mauser]

I have tried that already, and I get the same issue.

 

[compuman145]

So when you put a single drive on the cable it works, but with 2 it doesn't.

Have you tried both ports on the cable to make sure they aren't faulty?

Have you tried all the drives in a single drive configuration to make sure they all work?

Cheers

Comps

 

[Mauser]

I've tried multiple cables, they aren't at fault

I have tried them all individually, and they all work.

 

[compuman145]

Well, i'm not sure then, maybe its a configuration on the card itself rather than a hardware issue.

Is the card capable of supporting 2 drives per IDE channel?

EDIT, yes they do.

 

[Mauser]

I've seen no other configuration options other then to create/delete raid, theres a resolve issues option, but that's never done anything, there's nothing in there that I think could affect this.

 

[ComGuards]

When you tested the one / two drive combination, did you test with the other drives with the power-connector still plugged in?

Just wondering if it might be your power supply - i.e. it can't handle 4 drives powering up all at once...

 

[compuman145]

He's running a corsair 750tx, its defo up to the job

 

[ComGuards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by compuman145 He's running a corsair 750tx, its defo up to the job

Well he didn't explicitly say he was testing this on his signature rig... and I didn't want to assume as such.... could have been an old system he had lying around...

 

[Mauser]

Tested on both my sig rig and on old one lying around, same issue.

 

[the_beast]

Are you using 80-conductor cables? My 3Ware 7506 throws a fit if you use old 40-conductor crap instead.

Also do you have your Master & Slave drives set the correct way for your cables, and are you using the cables the right way around? You should be able to use Cable Select without issue (personally I have never had a problem, and find it much easier than messing with Master-Slave settings), but if you do go this route you should still have the Master on the end of the cable, and the Slave in the middle. The Blue connector should plug into the mobo also - 80-conductor cables are directional, and if you use them the wrong way around then you can have problems.

 

[Mauser]

you're going to have to enlighten me, what do you mean by 80 conductor and 40 conductor?

which drive is master and which is slave really doesn't matter in this situation, there's not one that has to have priority of the other.

 

[ComGuards]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauser you're going to have to enlighten me, what do you mean by 80 conductor and 40 conductor? which drive is master and which is slave really doesn't matter in this situation, there's not one that has to have priority of the other.

The master/slave question isn't the issue.

Are you using the cables that came with the adapter card?

 

[Mauser]

I don't have the cables that came with the card, or I don't know if I do, I picked these up off of my school who was getting rid of them, and they sent some cables with it, but idk if they're the ones that came with the card.

 

[the_beast]

an 80 conductor cable has very thin wires in it, and feels stiff and thin. In a 40-conductor cable it's much easier to see the different wires and they are more flexible.

Oh yeah - in a 40 conductor cable there are 40 wires...

And it's not about which drive is which for master & slave, it's about getting the settings right so each drive knows which role it is supposed to take. If they both think they are Master then nothing will work.

 

[Mauser]

looking through all my ide I see the difference now, I'll try those and see if they work.

 

[Mauser]

Just tried it using the 80 pin cables, same problem.

 

[the_beast]

did you have the cables the correct way round (blue connector into the controller card, drives all set the CS)?

What happens when you try 2 drives only, both on 1 cable?

 

[Mauser]

Cables are the right way, 2 drives on one cable gives me the same problem. I've now tried 2 of these cards, and it's the same problem on both of them.