PC BIOS Help

[STEED]

SATA Operation setting

What is the different between RAID Autodetect/ANCL and RAID Autodetect/ATA

I'm no expert so I would be grateful to know what this would do if I changed the first one to the second one, and there meaning as well.

Thanks

[ASWnut101]

Does this still have to do with your floppy drives? Cause (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) the RAID stuff has to do with your Hard Drive, if I remember correctly.


Beyond that, I've never really messed around with my computer's BIOS. I know a few basic things, but not too much in that field.

[Spruence M]

Originally Posted by STEED

SATA Operation setting

What is the different between RAID Autodetect/ANCL and RAID Autodetect/ATA

I'm no expert so I would be grateful to know what this would do if I changed the first one to the second one, and there meaning as well.

Thanks

Without checking my A+ Manuel:

When using 2 or more harddrives in close conjunction is a RAID.

For Example:

RAID 0: Stripe: 2 Hard Drives - 1 piece of data, 1 half is written to each drive so each drive only spins half as much to read data. Both drives read half and report it back to whatever hardware/software requested information. Supposivdly twice as fast as a regular HD.

Raid 1: Mirror: Same data written to two HDs. If one of your HDs has a hardware malfunction, you have all your data exactly stored on the other drive for data redundency.

RAID 3/5: Mirror/Stripe/Parsec: RAID 3 and RAID 5 are basicly the same thing. Both RAID 0 - 1 combined. BUT - in a RAID 3, 1 peice of data is broken up into 2 pieces, 2 of the HDs get 1 piece, and the 3rd drive gets a Parsec Bit. The Pasec bit is written on a different drive for each byte of data. So it stripes the data across three drives and sets the parsec bit in the empty space. The parsec bit is there for rebuilding one of the HDs if it fails. You have three, 1 has a mechanical problem, you pull it out and replace it, the other two HDs place all nessasary data onto the new drive for you. "Data Redundency"

RAID 5 works in the same way but with 5 HDs for added protection.

Any other RAID numbers above that use tape drives and such and were not on Microsofts exams. To use a RAID your motherboard must support it and your HDs must be exactly the same size/type/speed/brand.

If you don't use a raid just ignore it, it will only check at POST. (Power on self test) and it won't slow you down any inside windows. It doesnt hurt to disable it though, doesnt help either...

If you are running a RAID, and its working, I wouldnt mess with it because the detection is working already, and no need to fix something that isnt broke.

[STEED]

It's a minor problem bought about when I changed the internal battery and this is the second time in a row this has happen this year.

the start up the bar gets almost to the end then I get this on my screen.

Floppy disk seek failed
Drive 1 not found serial ATA Sata-1
Drive 2 not found serial ATA Sata-2
Drive 3 not found serial ATA Sata-3


There is no floppy drive on the PC but I have got two external floppies, all is working well so should I just ignore this until such time I need a repair?

The reason I asked as I put this question on a Tech Forum and I got the answer back with a full guide line how to change the settings as mention in my first post, the first time this happen I was advised by the shops engineer from where I bought my PC from just to ignore it.

[Spruence M]

Which load bar are you reffering too? Windows?

As a technition, the first thing I would do is check to see if your BOIS has the onboard floppy controller disabled. Maybe somehow it got turned on when you reset your battery. When the battery dies all your BOIS information is lost, as far as non-default settings. ***Is this the 2nd time this year you have changed your BIOS battery?

The other three messages are about your SATA drives. Are you using Serial ATA drives at all? Or are you using EIDE or IDE drives? If you are not using SATA you could turn that off in the BIOS as well and that would stop the computer from seeking them at startup.

If you are using SATA Hard Drives, and your machine is still working, and you can access all your data from windows with no problem, then I would ignore it, but I would also put aside 10 bucks out of every paycheck in expectation that my motherboard was going to fail.



As I mentioned above, the first three SATA Seeks and the Floppy Seek are proboly default settings in your BOIS, and whomever built the machine, if it wasnt you, proboly disabled those settings before they sold it too you, so you wouldnt see that message. Most likly, since you dont have a floppy, and *IF* you are not using SATA drives, BIOS needs to be told to stop looking for them.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Spruence M

Which load bar are you reffering too? Windows?

Yes, Windows XP

Originally Posted by Spruence M

Is this the 2nd time this year you have changed your BIOS battery?

Yes indeed, the first time was fixed only because I had another problem a week or so later which was not in any way connected.

Originally Posted by Spruence M

The other three messages are about your SATA drives. Are you using Serial ATA drives at all? Or are you using EIDE or IDE drives? If you are not using SATA you could turn that off in the BIOS as well and that would stop the computer from seeking them at startup.

How do I check for this information?

Originally Posted by Spruence M

If you are using SATA Hard Drives, and your machine is still working, and you can access all your data from windows with no problem, then I would ignore it, but I would also put aside 10 bucks out of every paycheck in expectation that my motherboard was going to fail.

In the case of the Mother Board that went some months ago so I have a new one now, by the way the PC is a Dell 8400

Originally Posted by Spruence M

As I mentioned above, the first three SATA Seeks and the Floppy Seek are proboly default settings in your BOIS, and whomever built the machine, if it wasnt you, proboly disabled those settings before they sold it too you, so you wouldnt see that message. Most likly, since you dont have a floppy, and *IF* you are not using SATA drives, BIOS needs to be told to stop looking for them.

From the tech site I was given this info a follows -

Configure the "SATA Operation" Settings in the Computer BIOS

By default, the SATA Operation setting in the computer BIOS is set to RAID

Autodetect/AHCL To change this setting to RAID Autodetect/ATA, follow these steps

Press the F2 set up when your seek failed screen comes up

In the Setup screen, press the down arrow key to select Drives, and then the <Enter>

key to expand the Drives node

Press the down arrow key to select SATA Operations, and then press <Enter> key to select this option

Press the right arrow key to select RAID Auto/ATA, and then press the <Enter> key

Press the <Esc> key to exit the set up program

Press the right arrow key to select Exit, and then press the <Enter> key. The computer restarts

[Spruence M]

Dell 8400

Steed,

Going to look this up right now and take a look. Could you tell me what your Hard drive sizes are?

Did you already try the settings that the techy guy gave you?

BRB