This controller have drivers for windows 98, but i don't think the setup can accept them with something like NT's F6 floppy, so fdisk & co. only see the IDE disks connected on the motherboard and the ones connected to the IDE channel on the VIA controller.
However, since DOS/Windows 9x boots on almost every controller, i thought "nevermind, i'll just install it on a ide disk, install the via drivers and then use acronis or dd to clone the install on the sata disk". But I've thought wrong: it hangs after the motherboard BIOS has loaded the controller bios, just after the second screen of an award bios post (where there is a table that makes a simple list of the hardware, the bios lists all the used IRQs and check the cdrom drive for a bootable media). the bios is set to boot from CDROM, SCSI, A
Via Vt6421a Serial Raid Controller Driver For Mac
Now after windows has been installed, and after you've installed the drivers for the motherboard and video card, you will install the drivers for the SATA controller (or - that might be done as part of the motherboard driver installation). If you've set the SATA mode correctly in the bios, your SATA controller should be detected as a "SCSI" controller by win-98 (or - it will appear as a SCSI controller in Device Manager).
NT-based operating systems are not capable of accessing SATA drives using BIOS int13 calls, so it is required that you feed them the SATA driver during installation, or you set the SATA controller to IDE-compatible mode in the bios before you start the installation. Operating systems like Vista and / or Seven probably have SATA drivers built into them. Windows NT, 2000 and XP did not have them.
If I read that correctly, your controller card might have both SATA and PATA (IDE) connectors on it. Does it? If so, the drivers you have might also come with an LBA-48 driver that overcomes the problem with Microsoft's native IDE driver (esdi_506.pdr). Such a driver would be a complete substitute for Rlowe's driver, and it would allow you to use your SATA drive in any mode (SATA or IDE compatible), and it would allow you to connect any size IDE hard drive to your system.
You WILL have an LBA-48 problem if you want to use that entire drive under windows 98 AND the controller is set in the bios to be in IDE-compatibility mode. The lba-48 problem will not be because of the drive or the controller or the motherboard - it will be because of Win-98's native IDE driver (ESDI_506.pdr). If Windows-98 is using it's native IDE driver to access ANY IDE drive, that drive must be physically smaller than 128 gb. Doesn't matter how it's partitioned. Only the first 128 gb of any IDE drive is usable under win-98. You must not create any partitions or volumes on an IDE drive that in total reach over the 128 gb point on the drive or use more than the first 128 gb.
If the SATA controller is told to NOT show a SATA drive as an IDE drive, then Win-98 will ask you for a SATA driver or it will use DOS-compatibility mode to access the drive (which is slower, but it will work). But there will be no problem using large SATA drives (larger than 128 gb) in that case.
Events such malware or virus infection, power surge or abrupt shutdown, device driver issues, metadata conflicts, etc. can lead to errors where RAID controller may stop detecting or recognizing RAID drives.
Optionally, on top of drivers/ide block-device (generic mass storage access) drivers, one can load drivers to provide software-level suport for BIOS services enabling various types of manufacturer-specific software RAID (called "fakeraid", below):
For 2.4 kernels, Linux's software-RAID (fakeraid) driver collection is called "ataraid", which has subdrivers for the various manufacturers' different software RAID schemes. Using ataraid results in your partitions being addressed using a /dev/ataraid/d0p1 (etc.) device-naming convention. Note: Support greatly improved circa-2.4.23.
For 2.6 kernels, Linux's software-RAID (fakeraid) driver collection is called "dmraid" (Device Mapper RAID). So far (Sept 2004), Promise Fasttrack, HighPoint 37X, Intel ICH5/6, LSI, and SiI 3112A/Medley are supported: gerte/gen2dmraid/ I'm pretty sure manufacturers' proprietary drivers, where available, are designed to fit the above framework.
Intel ICH5-R, ICH6-R, and perhaps some others perform RAID0 disk-spanning via a BIOS trick, which is thus OS-independent. That mode of Intel fakeraid (Intel Software RAID) can be supported in 2.4.x on ICH5/6 with ataraid subdriver iswraid atop libata's ata_piix (not atop drivers/ide): -traffic/kt20031201_243.html#16, -traffic/kt20040331_255.html#16. (The iswraid patch will be merged into kernel 2.4.28; it and related patches/info are available at )
An i386 binary (ataraid?) subdriver (megaide) for this fakeraid ("IDEal RAID") scheme can be retrieved from Steve Hardy's Web site, from , or from LSI Logic. The driver is a GPLed wrapper around proprietary library megaide_lib.o. I'd recommend using (instead) Linux's own open-source "md" software-RAID driver, unless/until LSI Logic (like HighPoint, Nvidia, Promise, and VIA) gets a clue about open source.
I am still trying to untangle references to SiI's model numbers.Strings within Silicon Image's proprietary drivers suggest that that 3112, 3114,3512, 3514, 434e, and 4e4e are chipset model numbers with the following"subdevice" numbers in their respective families. 3112: 3423, 6112.3114: 3424, 6114. 3512: 3422, 3423, 6512. 3514: 3424 (note duplicate),6514. That driver purports to be for "SiI SATA RAID Controllers 3x and6x Series" and shows the identification string "SiI6514 (3112 to 6514)SATA RAID controller".
ataraid support for SiI's Medley fakeraid is available from 2.4.21 or later's silraid (Arjan van de Ven's) subdriver or its superior 2.4.26 and later replacement, medley (by Thomas Horsten). Note: So far, medley supports only Medley's RAID0 "striped" mode, and not its RAID1 "mirrored" or RAID1+0 (AKA "RAID10") modes. Alternatively, you can use Linux's "md" software-RAID driver.
Linux often cannot read existing fakeraid volumes on such host adapters, unless you're willing to use proprietary fakeraid drivers (where available). But unless you're dual-booting MS-Windows, you shouldn't care, because Linux's software RAID (kernel "md" driver) is much faster and more reliable. You're advised to blow away fakeraid volumes, use SATA drives as straight block devices, and enable Linux software RAID instead, during Linux installation.
I gather that libata is the only way to support SATA drives larger than 133GB. (libata supports the necessary "lba48" ATA addressing extension starting with kernel revision 2.6.5-rc2.) Also, Garzik has hotplug, random taskfile submission (thus enabling SMART support, previously unavailable under libata), and ATAPI under development for libata as of 2004-04-24. Last, Garzik has drivers for SATA-2 controllers under development as of 2004-03-30.
Debian installation using Scott Kveton's unofficialDebian 3.0 woody 5 MB netinst image: This image uses a 2.4.23kernel, meaning it's useful for owners of Intel ICH5 chipsets (standardATA driver), Adaptec AAR 24x0 chipsets (aacraid driver), LSI LogicMegaRAID 150-4/150-6 SATA chipsets (megaraid2 driver), and the SiS964 South Bridge. (Please let me know. My thanks to Martin McClure for confirming SiS 964 support.) And of course 3Ware card owners can use almost any 2.4.x-based installer. Kveton's image does not include Garzik's libata set, andso doesn't cover other SATA chipsets. However, Kveton's instructions pagealso details how you can create your own custom netinst, e.g., one with 2.4.27 (and later) or a 2.6 kernel (either of which includes libata): kveton/debian/ or -netinst/kveton/
Follow-on to the prior entry, this time addressing Debian3.1 "sarge" installation onto any SATA controller, avoiding usingfakeraid features and instead detailing how to set up "md" software RAIDmirroring. Article also makes the point that the Debian 4.0 "etch"installer makes the steps he details unnecessary, taking care of theprocess automatically:
NOTE: The majority of this section is very outdated, and in general if you are shopping for a new card, you should avoid anything with a Marvell controller for Unraid versions 6.X.LSI based SAS controllers are recommended with the latest IT firmware flashed, and for 2 SATA port models AsMedia are ok. AsMedia based cards with more than 2 ports typically have SATA port multipliers, which can be problematic.JMB585 based cards seem to be ok, and include some 5 SATA port models that utilize an M.2 NVME interface which can be a good option to add ports without using a PCIe slot.This section includes both PCI, PCI-X, and PCI Express (PCIe) controllersWhen choosing to go with an outdated PCI or PCI-X card, check the available bandwidth of the respective interface!Modern drives provide data rates > 100 MByte/s. Avoid plugging multiple drives to a PCI Bus bottleneck!e.g. PCI Bus 2ff7e9595c
Comments