Netfinity PCI Problem

[OutOfMyLeague]

Hello...I have a question regarding adding a IDE hard drive to my netfinity server. I am not sure of the model number, but it has duel P3-800 cpu's.

It has 2 9 gig scsi drives that work well, but I need more space. I have a 160 gig IDE deive and a PCI 133 controller card. I have installed the PCI card and drivers, the server boots fine, but when I connect the hard drive itself the server crashes when loading windows 2000 pro.

When the server is posting the promise bios in the PCI controller card correctly identifies the hard drive. I can load windows with the controller card installed as long as hard drive is not connected...any ideas?

I'm familiar with normal desktop pc's but this server is out of my league

 

[Mammoth]

Well, I can only speak from experience concerning SCSI controllers, but what might be happening is that the IDE controller is set to bootable. What that means is if the IDE controller that you installed precedes the onboard in the PCI scan order then the machine will load the BIOS of the PCI IDE and if the PCI IDE controller is set as a bootable adapter then the adapter will attempt to boot to its primary master. My thought is that the PCI IDE might skip booting and move to the next controller if it doesnt see any drives on its channels. When you add the drives to the PCI IDE card the card may try to boot to them. The main question is what is the error that you are getting that indicates failure?

 

[OutOfMyLeague]

Thx for the response Mammoth, I don't get an error, as soon as it comes time to load windows I get a glimpse of the bsod and the server restarts.

This is the card I am using

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...n_us/Products/Accessories/Ultra ATA/Ultra ATA

133%20PCI%20Adapter%20Card

whoa! long link

Another thing I noticed is that without the drive attached the ide controller card does not load it's bios ( when it does load it's bios it correctly identifies the HD installed)...could that have something to do with it, or could it be an IRQ issue?

 

[OutOfMyLeague]

Also... I tried adding the hard drive to the mainboards IDE connector and it boots fine, but only recognizes 8 gig of the 160 gig HD. I wonder if there is a bios flash available for the board that would correct this? I tried navigating IBM's site...but found only "serveraid" downloads

 

[OutOfMyLeague]

You know Mammoth I bet you are right! The hard drive I have has an old intall of XP pro on it,I bet it's trying to boot from it. I'll try booting from my XP disc tonight and see if I can just reload my OS on the IDE drive. I'm using this for my personal file server, so if it ran from the IDE drive that would be fine for me.

 

[Mammoth]

Give me your machine type and model and I will locate a BIOS update for you. Also concerning a possible IRQ conflict. I doubt it, nowadays IRQ sharing is dominant and if you actually had a conflict at that level then the machine probably would not boot once bios scans the bus. The only way I could see that as being a problem is if the card you are using is a ISA card.

 

[OutOfMyLeague]

No need Mammoth...you were right the first time

I booted from my XP cd and loaded the os on the IDE drive and it works like a champ. I really want to thank you for your help..I should have realized that's what it was doing, but I overlooked it.