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

[Spruence M]

On dell's site I am not seeing a Dell 8400. I am seeing models that look like the following:

» Compaq Presario 8405SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8406SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8410SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8415SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8420EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8420SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8425EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8425SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8430EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8430SE Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8437EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8440EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8445EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8450EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8455EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8470EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8475EA Desktop PC» Compaq Presario 8480EA Desktop

Still looking though, I saw you were online so I thought I'd post fast.

[Spruence M]

Checking your Hard Drive Type:

The following is a picture of a SATA or ATA cable. Take notice to the type of plug it has on the end.



The following is what an EIDE or IDE cable looks like, although different, to an untrained eye they are identical.


Let me know which type you have please. That will answer the question of wiether or not you need to disable the SATA search at startup.

Edit: IDE and EIDE look identical. Just to make that clear.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by 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

Local Disk Total Capacity:
149 GB Sum of Hard Disks: (C: )
Used: 42.45 GB
Free: 106.55 GB


Memory (RAM) Detected
1.50 GB
Minimum Requirement
64 MB


No I have not tried the advice yet.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Spruence M

Checking your Hard Drive Type:

The following is a picture of a SATA or ATA cable. Take notice to the type of plug it has on the end.



The following is what an EIDE or IDE cable looks like, although different, to an untrained eye they are identical.


Let me know which type you have please. That will answer the question of wiether or not you need to disable the SATA search at startup.

Edit: IDE and EIDE look identical. Just to make that clear.

If these plug in at the back I can say I have never used or own one as in the second picture, as for the first one it looks like a no as well. Hang on let me re-phase that I do have cables Simula to the first one and the big connection is Simula but the small one hmmmm.

Just checked the paper work when I bought it and it states ATA Hard Drive, true to say since then I have a new one. So would there be no change and remain a ATA?

[Zantham]

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

This message you should be getting BEFORE you start booting Windows XP, these are generally what's called POST message, and relate to your system BIOS.

Your computer appears to be searching for a floppy drive (externals don't count in this case), and Serial ATA hard drives. Most computers nowadays are set to automatically detect hard drives, and your's appears to be letting you know that it hasn't found any drives on those three SATA ports. Most computers have 4 SATA ports, perhaps it does detect your drive on the fourth port?

The pictures of the cables Sprunce_M showed are found inside your case, not the back. You need to open your computer up so you can see it's guts. They will run from the motherboard to your hard drive inside your computer. You will most likely have the wide ribbon cable that runs to your optical drive as well.

"paper work when I bought it and it states ATA Hard Drive"

This suggests to me then that your hard drive is an IDE drive, and hence you should have that wide ribbon.

[Spruence M]

Originally Posted by STEED

If these plug in at the back I can say I have never used or own one as in the second picture, as for the first one it looks like a no as well. Hang on let me re-phase that I do have cables Simula to the first one and the big connection is Simula but the small one hmmmm.

Just checked the paper work when I bought it and it states ATA Hard Drive, true to say since then I have a new one. So would there be no change and remain a ATA?

Most likely, Yes, you would have an ATA. If it looks simular to the first pic, I could'nt find an exact in the 20 seconds I alotted myself. (Actually, I am not sure about the 1 small connector, never seen 1 like that) anyway, this is what I would do if it were my machine:

First: Would find out which ATA Slot my hard drive is plugged into.


They will look simular to this and may have numbers next to them denoting which is which. Also your motherboard manuel should tell you.

My suspicion: You have a total of 4 of the above male plugs on your motherboard, and it is capable of using all 4 at one time, (had you ever the need to adding more.) and your error message is telling you that 1-3 are missing because they are not there, and still turned on in your BOIS, and same story for your Floppy Drive.

As far as what the Dell Technition has recommended, (Now that I understand it, or at least believe that I do) I would follow that advice first, turning it from Raid/ANCL to Auto/ATA may stop the message from coming up, if the techy did'nt give you a mothball solution.

I however do not believe that it will fix the message about your floppy drive however.

*****On a further note*****

The RAID/ANCL may be the name of the "Raid Controller" that your motherboard has. I think all motherboard manufacturers give their RAID special names to denote different styles of data transfer, so on, so forth. Your not even using a RAID, so the Auto/ATA would be the right setting.

***Floppy Drive***

As I stated, I don't believe changing the above setting is going to make this message go away. You will have to find in your BOIS, (Proboly in the same area as the RAID) where to turn off your onboard floppy controller.

((Are your two external floppy drives USB? IF so: Have you tried booting with them unplugged?))

[STEED]

Are right, cheers Zantham. I shall check this out shortly back in 20 minutes I hope.

[Spruence M]

If you change from the RAID/ANCL to the RAID/ATA and the error still arises, then report back here, and I will try to find a screenshot of what it looks like in my BIOS to show you what the manual overide would look like.