ProLiant PL1600R (Adding an IDE Controller & HDs)

[Gabe_6]

Hello Folks,

I wanted to upgrade my PL1600R by adding a Promise ATA 133 Controller and a few IDE HD's. There's data's in those HD's already, but no OS in any of them, however whenever I restart my system, it's seeking the OS from those HD's first instead of the SCSI's---particularly my 9.1GB which contains my OS. So my question is, how do I get my 9.1 GB to boot and my other IDE's to be slaves? I've set those IDE HDs as slave, but still it's booting to them. I've lost my manual from all the moving I've done, so any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :)

Gabe

[JohnWRuffo]

Gabe:
The nature of IDE is that it has an integrated controller. It will always boot first.

I do not think the bios of the 1600 has the support for selecting the SCSI boot order over a PCI based IDE controller.

[Brian_Murdoch]

Gabe,

Your only hope is that the Promise controller has the ability to disable its BIOS. This way you can boot from the other disk and still gain access to the disks attached to the Promise card. Otherwise you may be stuck.

There was a similar problem with a Promise card reported on the forum recently. See the Promise support link and the FAQs for information on your card.

www.promise.com

Regards,

Brian

[e4services]

Gabe,

This question has been brought up before. The statement above to correct, you need a controller with the feature of addressable BIOS with the ability to controller whether it is encluded in the boot strap or not.

It would seem from other messages here that the Promise controllers a re fairly simple and do not provide any features beyond the basis (well the price reflex that). I would move up to an Adaptec or other with more advanced features

[Roger Faucher]

Gabe:

Here's a reply (FAQ) from the Promise website for their Ultra133 TX2 product:

"How can I boot to a bootable device when the Ultra Series controller is installed in my system?
The Ultra Series controller happens to be Bios Boot Spec compliant, this means that if your motherboard runs a current Phoenix or AMI Bios you can select to boot to a specific bootable device; if this is the case the controller should be recognized as â UltraD0" In the Boot Sequence on your Mother Board Bios.

If you are running an Award Bios or older AMI/Phoenix Bios on your motherboard the Promise controller should be identified in the Boot Sequence as follows:

SCSI

Add In Card

Option ROM

Removable device

Bootable Device


Note: Most motherboards will start scanning the PCI Bus from PCI 1 to the last PCI and based on this it will normally boot from the first bootable device it scans. Current Phoenix or AMI Bios will allow you to select a Bios Boot Spec compliant device regardless of the order in which the motherboard Bios scans the PCI Bus.


Note: Always make certain that the Promise controller Bios Post during your motherboard bios posting."

I have a similar Promise product in my desktop PC and it shows in the PC BIOS boot list as 'SCSI'. Unfortunately, it is only available in the first two positions so I can't set my options to Floppy, CDROM, SCSI as I would like (but enough about my problems) ;^)

HTH

Rog

[Gabe_6]

Hello Folks,

Thanks for all the replies. Very interesting information posted. Merci! :)

Gabe

PS. Would anyone recommend a particular IDE Controller? Thanks!

[e4services]

Adaptec ATA RAID 2400A , ATA RAID 1200A