Rosewill RAID card does not see HDD's

I installed a Rosewill RAID card 4xSATA2 3GB yesterday.

After resolving some other problems (loose wires), I managed to get the computer up and running again, and recognizing the RAID card.

Unfortunately, when I press the F4 button, during boot up, the card says there are no devices attached, and continues with the boot sequence as if the two 500G SATA2 Seagates that I just plugged into it don't even exist.

I have installed the drivers - the card shows in the hardware manager as working correctly.

I have checked all connections, several times. (SATA cables are poorly designed, IMHO)

I have set the jumpers for 3GB on the HHD's.

If you need specific hardware model numbers and such, I will crack the case, and have a look at what they are, I just figured I might be overlooking something simple, that doesn't require that level of detail. I'm hoping I don't have to disconnect everything again, because my office space is the pits for removing and replacing cables.

Nevertheless, I'll do whatever it takes to get my RAID working, and my data properly protected.

Thanks

 

With add on RAID cards you need to access the card's BIOS. With a clean boot from the power off state, you should watch the computer's boot screen for special instructions regarding your Rosewill card. It might say "Press < Ctrl-J > to start RAID BIOS" or something similar.
( This is assuming that you mobo doesn't suppress interrupt 19 - but that's another issue )
Then the configuration and testing screens will appear and you should be able to follow the documentation on the CD or manual that came with the card.

 

Thanks for responding.

With a clean boot from a power off state, I get a message about pressing ctrl-s, or F4. Both give the same result - the card can't find the device. I get no other screen - it goes straight into windows boot.

Tell me about suppressing interrupt 19?... I'll try anything.

win2kpro sp4

 

bump?

still stuck here...

thanks

 

Interrupt 19 capture vector is usually disabled by default, on most motherboards. To enable it, access your motherboard BIOS/CMOS screen and go into the BOOT section. Here they provide you with several choices of boot device and the boot access order of those devices. Slots may be such as:

1: Floppy (removable media)
2: Atapi CD-ROM
3: IDE hard drive
4: Other

If you select 'other' then you may be presented with choices such as:

1: Disabled
2: SCSI Boot Device
3: INT18 Device (Network)

Some BIOS's will label a separate item as INT19 Boot Device. However, it is the same as the SCSI Boot Device so either one will work fine for your purposes.

Once this is 'SAVED' to CMOS, you should be able to 'Boot' into the card's BIOS with <CTRL-S>.