View Full Version : Raid problem on DFI NF4
I've tried searching but I've drawn a blank, maybe I was using the wrong terms:wth:
I've made a Raid 0 array on my DFI Ultra D today using a Hitachi 80GB Deskstar 7K80 and a Excelstor 80GB Deskstar 7K80 Hard Drive (Excelstor makes Hdds for Hitatchi so they are essentially the same drives). Both these drives are SATA2 capable, but when I checked my Nforce4 Sata Controller in device manager it peorts the drives as running in SATA1 (1.5G) mode.
Whats going on here? Has anyone else encountered and solved this problem. The drives are mighty fast as they are, but I'm feeling a little ripped off here in that I may be losing some performance.:(
sierra_bound
12-29-2005, 04:00 PM
You need to use Hitachi's Feature Tool to enable SATA II.
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
Just stick it on a floppy, reboot and follow the instructions in DOS mode.
Thanks s_b, I appreciate it!! :)
Doh! The utility will not alter settings on the Excelstor drive, I need to find a way to flash the firmware from the hitachi drive to the Excelstor drive to get this to work, any ideas?
sierra_bound
12-29-2005, 05:07 PM
ExcelStor also has a feature tool. See if this works.
Link (http://www.mce.de/downloads/excelstor/esfeat_100.zip)
There's also something called the SATA Tool (http://www.mce.de/downloads/excelstor/satatool.zip)
http://www.mce.de/d/frame/index_d.html?/d/service/download/download.html
Thanks for giving me the links, but the excelstor utility is useless in that the only drive it sees is the floppy I booted it from! I'll have a few more tries and then I'll have another look at the firmware route.
sierra_bound
12-29-2005, 05:52 PM
Good luck. Sorry that Excelstor utility didn't work for you. I have a Hitachi SATA II drive, so I know the routine. I also have a Seagate drive that has SATA II enabled by default. Needless to say I like the Seagate drive better.
Thanks for the help so far s_b. Anyone know how to read/flash firmware on Hard drives?
mesyn191
12-29-2005, 06:26 PM
Varies significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer, even from model to model from the same company so you'll have to read thier FAQ, usually its not much different from flashing a mobo BIOS though. SATA2 won't improve performance though for you of course, you know that right?
Varies significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer, even from model to model from the same company so you'll have to read thier FAQ, usually its not much different from flashing a mobo BIOS though. SATA2 won't improve performance though for you of course, you know that right?
I had a pretty good idea, but I thought it may improve burst rates, Kinda-like PCI-E x16 is overkill for a single graphics card, but you notice the difference if you bench 8x and then 16x.