Disk 0 changes to Disk 1

[Spenello]

XP pro with ASUS A8N-Deluxe MB. I installed an internal WD5000KS SATA HD as main drive (C:\). Bios is updated, configured to boot this disk first, and the MB controller is plugged into SATA1 (first recognized controller). XP Disk Management recognizes this drive as Disk 0.

I then added two internal, secondary SATA drives. Now, XP Disk Management recognizes this drive as Disk 1.

What gives and how to correct?

 

[xwb]

1) Check the disk - are there any jumpers for master slave or auto select

2) If autoselect, is it 2 cables, one to each disk or a daisy chain.

3) If 2 cables, what happens when you switch the cables round. If daisy chain, what happens when you put them in a different order.

 

[gbaughma]

xwb: Good advise, except he said SATA.

Spenello:

Is your boot drive plugged into drive 0 on the SATA controller? You must have a 4 port SATA controller, if you have 3 drives in it... sounds like it was recognizing the drive at first because it was the only one plugged in, but when you plug in more drives, it's renumbering the drives.



Just my 2¢
-Cole's Law: Shredded cabbage

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[bracadar]

I think that MOBO has 8 SATA connectors, but I agree. Make sure connector 0 is your first drive.

 

[bracadar]

There are some BIOS settings for your SATA connectors. 4 are SATA RAID unless you disable them. Here is a link to find your manual.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx

 

[Spenello]

The MB also has 4 IDE connections that I don't use. The MB will default to these first on boot, if there are disks connected. The SATA drive does have jumpers (already thought of this). Checked WD support. The SATA drives do not use the jumper connections unless you want to slow down the disk to 150MB/sec. SATA1 is connected to the main drive.

I installed the main drive by itself without the other drives connected when installing XP and partitioning. It was fine, except it wanted to assign drive letter F. When I restarted the process Windows assigned letter C to the first partition like it is supposed to. Turned PC off, connected other two drives, and the music drive made itself Disk(0). There are no system or OS files on the music drive.

When I switched the main drive (SATA1) and the music drive (SATA2) cables, the PC couldn't find the boot files. Switched back and it booted fine.

The reason I'm doing this is the main drive had bad sectors and I replaced it with the new WD drive. Previous setup was fine. The other two drives being Seagates shouldn't make a difference, I would think.

Let me know if more info is needed. It's becoming very frustrating.
Thanks!

 

[Freestone]

Are you saying then that when the other drives are attached and the drive switches from Disk 0 to Disk 1, the drive letter assignments are also changed?

 

[bracadar]

I have had some internal usb devices(multi card reader/floppy) and usb ports try and take over drive letters. That's sounds like what happened with your F: drive letter partition. Disconnect any internal usb devices and see if it will find the disk correctly.

 

[Spenello]

Nope. The drive letters don't change, just the Disk number in the Microsoft Disk Management Configuration Tool. The music drive (M stays (M but assigns itself as Disk(0). The (C drive stays (C but bumps down to Disk(1), when the music drive is connected. I didn't have this trouble before with basically the same exact hardware configuration.

There are no external drives attached. There are four main SATA connectors as well as 4 main IDE connectors (not currently used).

Desired Connector/Drive/Management configuration:
SATA1/Main drive (C/Disk(0)
SATA2/CD-ROM(D/
SATA3/Music (M/Disk(1) (Could also be Disk(2), no diff.)
SATA4/Photos (P/Disk(2) (Could also be Disk(1), no diff.)

When the Main Drive (C is connected by itself to SATA1, it reads as (C Disk(0).

Connector/Drive/Management config after (M amd (P are connected:
SATA1/Music (M/Disk(0)
SATA2/CD-ROM (D/
SATA3/Main Drive (C/Disk(1)
SATA4/Photos (P/Disk(2)

I'm hoping someone out there has an answer.

 

[Freestone]

I am not trying to offend in any way, just trying to understand as I must be missing something. If drive lettering isn't changing, what issues does the drive numbering change cause?

I don't think you have control over this as it more than likely has to do with XP's PNP enumeration:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668

And though this applies to Vista, I would bet that it is also the same in XP and is the cause of what you are seeing:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937251

 

[bracadar]

You are not the only one having SATA problems with the ASUS A8N board. I have seen endless reports on this board but no solutions. Buy yourself a 4 channel SATA controller and be done with their onboard SATA problems.

 

[Spenello]

Didn't mean to confuse people with two issues here. The one issue of the drive lettering changing was resolved by starting the XP install over.

The more important issue is the disk lettering changing. There is a difference. The 1st (main) disk should be Disk(0). After connecting the secondary drives, the 1st (main) disk becomes Disk(1). This can be viewed in the XP disk management tool.

What will happen is some applications will not install properly or run properly.

I like these forums very much. There are many knowledgeable people out there with good ideas to help solve problems.

Asus does have it's share of issues with these boards. I thought I was buying one of the best MB's. I think at this point if I don't trip across any better solution, buying a seperate controller might be the way to go.

Thanks!

 

[Freestone]

The second article I referenced specifically refers to Disk Numbering, not lettering, and though it says for Vista, I am betting it applies to XP too. You can't control the PNP enumeration. By leaving off the other drives, you changed the initial enumeration order, which changed again once the drives were reintroduced.

When I switched the main drive (SATA1) and the music drive (SATA2) cables, the PC couldn't find the boot files. Switched back and it booted fine.

When you swapped these cables, you changed enumeration again. It wouldn't boot in this configuration because the boot.ini file was then pointing at the wrong drive, wrong partition or both. This swapping will probably cure your issue but you need to get the boot.ini correct.