Raid controller or aren't they?:how to use and boot'm

[timdams]

On my mobo there are two white ide-like plugins, I presume these are raid controller right?
(correct me please)
Windows 98 detects them as Mass Storage Drivers bunt can't proparly lad them and so puts them in the Unknown Devices tab.
My questions:
a)what can i connect to these ?
b)connect using a ide?
c)how to make windows know what it is?
d)bootable?
e)etc
Thanx, I do'nt have a clue what it is, that's for sure, but I definetely wanna know.

[Lebo]

a) ATA66 or possbly ATA100 harddrives
b) Connect using an ATA66 data cable, should have come with your motherboard, it has 80 wires instead of 40
c) A driver disk should have come with your mobo, either floppy or cd, install the drivers
d) Check your cmos settings, choose boot sequence, set to udma or ata66 or 100
e) You must have a ATA66 or ATA100 HDD to use these, basically it has a much higher data tranfer capability.

[timdams]

Thanks a lot Lebo http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Variable]

u r using SCSI HDD's now are you?

[timdams]

Nope, these two raids are just on the mobo unused,I've attached all my hds to the normal ide plugs.
No scsi in my system

[Variable]

so you are saying that you have 2 IDE connectors on your mobo and 2 unidentified connectors??
Then those other two plugs are probably SCSI connectors! Some mobos have integrated scsi controllers, but I think there is NO SINGLE mobo with an integrated RAID controller!

[Axel]

what's the model and make of the motherboard - you should be able to find a manual on-line and figure out what those are -

If it really is a raid on-board controller - you probably either got a server motherboard - or spent a LOT of money on a PC motherboard -

Most RAID controller cards are PCI plug-in cards - typically, the majority are manufactured by adaptec and run several hundred dollars.

As to what to do to make the system use it - it usually has to be configured within the BIOS - most modern BIOS have a boot priority option that includes SCSI - otherwise, systems typically try to boot off the floppy - then the CD - then the hard drive - this is done so you can recover from a boot diskette or a recovery CD - I usually change this to put the CD last.

Now - further speculation on what you have - I've seen several PC boards that have a generic IDE primary & secondary connector and seperate ATA primary and secondary connectors -

Some manufacturers set the IDE as the default and you either have to change the BIOS or an onboard jumper to activate the ATA connections. That's probably what you've got there.

[timdams]

It's an old mobo, used for amd k6-2 cpus...(a friend of mine is using it for a test, so can't tell the type now)
There's not a single option in the bios referring to something I do'nt know (and I do know enough from pcs tto say that http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif