Using RAID Channels for extra devices

air

Hi,
I've got an ABIT KG7-RAID motherboard which I bought because it has 4 rather than the normal 2 ide channels.
I usually have around 6 ide devices in my box & in my previous box I just used a nice pci ide controller to do the job.

Now I know how to configure arrays for spanning / mirroring/ jbod etc, but I dont need raid & just want to use the extra channels for connecting devices.

I've tried connecting things to the channels - cd drives, ls120 - hard disk & they all work, however 2000 takes about 5 minutes to boot (second progress bar stalls half way).
I'm guessing that windows is trying to find other devices on the ide channel or something & thats what causing the delay.

So can I just use the raid channels for connecting extra devices without experiencing the problems I have.

Thanks in advance,
Air.

Cake Fiend

That's weird, I use an Abit BX133-RAID with 2K and XP, I can plug whatever I like into any IDE channel and I've never had any problems.

Dizz

Have a look at http://www.lumberjacker.de - he has a fair few moddified BIOS's

Dizz

Gerry

The extra channels are not intended for use with anything besides hard drives. So don't put cd or zip drives on the extra channels. Make sure you have the latest drivers for the highpoint controller ( www.highpoint-tech.com ). Slap on the latest offficial bios for your board ( www.abit.nl ). Then you should have no problems. Leave the modified bios's alone unless you are still having wierd problems after that.

Windows should not take any longer to boot up, I use an abit be6-2 raid ( slot 1 version of sico's board ) with win2k, and theres no delay booting up.

zAbbo

I boot off a RAID HDD, no probs. You can put zip drives and cd roms on a RAID channel, but its slow(u cant burn either)

Get the latest mobo RAID drivers, or if you want get the card RAID drivers.

air

cheers lads, will give that a go & see how I get on.
I think it was ok when I had my hard disk connected to the channel all right.