IDE Drives recognised as SCSI - an update - SOLVED

I think I do my best thinking when I am asleep, because I often awaken with the solution to a vexing problem at hand.

Last night I awoke thinking of my problem with my two IDE drives connected to the ITE EIDE connector on my ASUS MB (such connector described as PTR_EIDE) and according to the manual as supporting "two IDE HDDs for data storage). This connector is supported by the ITE 8211F controller.

Having installed them, jumpering one as master and one as slave, they would be recognised in Windows as SCSI devices, and were not available for use.

I wrote this and a couple other fora asking for advice on how to make these drives accessible.

I received alot of advice - some friendly and some not so.

I received advice - to RTFM. I explained that I had RTFM - many times and as far as I could tell had done everything by the book. The RTFMers were not deterred in their opinion that the solution lay in me reading TFM more carefully. (I got the hint). Reading it again carefully revealed no new news.

From others,I received and direction to ensure that I had installed the ITE 8211F driver. I had. I was told to do it again. on a related theme, I was repeatedly reminded to enable the ITE 8211F controller in the BIOS. I had. I was told to check it again. It was still enabled from the last time!

From others, I received advice that I had connected my drives "the wrong way around". Despite my explanation that I had a properly configured and functional S-ATA disk running on the MB S-ATA connector as my boot disk, a properly configured and functional IDE disk and DVD drive running on the Primary IDE connector, and the two nonfunctional IDE disks hooked up to the ITE IDE connector, I was advised to switch them around. Interestingly, the counselor in this case advised me to switch them to the configuration that I had just described as my current one. I refrained him from telling him to RMFM (Read My F***ing Message).

I was advised several times to uninstall the SCSI driver that Windows insisted on installing, and reinstall the proper ITE 8211F driver from the disc that came with my motherboard. This was not a possibility, because as many times as I tried to uninstall the SCSI driver and commanded Windows to look for the proper driver, Windows would not install the proper driver because it still "saw" the drives as SCSI drives and would not accept the .inf file containing (pointing to) the driver because this driver was for IDE disks -- not for SCSI disks.

The Solution:
It occurred to me that perhaps the two nonfunctional IDE disks needed to be examined to see if they had been partitioned and formatted. I moved them to the other Primary IDE connector, examined them with Partition Magic, and found that, in fact, they had not. I created extended partitions on both of them formatted both of them, and reinstalled them on the ITE IDE connector, and PRESTO! - I had two perfectly functional and accessible IDE drives.

I relate my experience with no intent of sarcasm or unfriendliness but only to provide feedback to those who attempted to assist me, to perhaps help others who have, are, or will experience the same problem as I, and to gently remind those that offered me well-meaning but persistent advice that just occasionally those to whom they attempt to provide advice are not quite as mentally challenged as they might think, and that there may in fact to be another reason why the problem exists.

I in no way mean to demean the advisors, and participants in this and other fora. Over the (many) years I have worked on my computers, I have (almost) unfailingly received excellent advise form forum participants and for that I remain grateful.

Cheers, and my wishes for a safe and healthy Christmas season for you all.

Doc