Hello everyone!

This is my first post, and hope to be my last one lol j/k. Here are my listed system specs:

P4X400 Dragon Ultra Platinum MOBO
P4 2.66 GHZ processor
1 GB Corsair XMS memory (PC 2700)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
X1950 (AGP) PRO Video (New and think is the possible culprit)
New 550 Watt max PSU
2 40 GB WD HDs
1 250 GB Seagate Barracuda


That should be good for info....Anyjewhays... I used to have an ATI Radeon X800 Vid card. I just recently upgraded to the X1950, which due to its size, i had to move my drives around. The way I had it set up was my (2) 40 GB HDs were connected to the onboard primary IDE controller, and my 2 cd and dvd rw drives on the second IDE channel. My 250 GB HD was connected as a single drive on my primary raid channel. This config worked fine all throughout my time of having the X800 card. The only three things that have changed, was i moved one of the 40 GB hds to a higher slot, installed the new vid card, and the new PSU. I connected everything back up the way it was, and the strangest thing happend. If I have my 250 GB drive on the raid controller, the boot process takes extremely long times... I have tried many different combinations of trying to get the drive on the raid (due to that is my storage drive). I have tried different cables and such, but i noticed if I place that drive on my IDE controller with one DVD drive connected, and the 2 40s on the other, it boots fine. I could plug the 2 40s into the raid primary, and the 250 on the IDE and it works fine. But any time I try to connect the 250 to the Raid, windows takes forever to load. About 3 minutes to get to splash screen, and about 15-30 minutes to get to the logon. Im extremly confused as to why the raid would react this way, if it has been set up like this perfectly fine previously. If someone could please tell me if I might be doing something wrong, or what.

PS: The reason I want the 250 GB on the raid, is because that is where all my game installs are, if it is hooked to the IDE channels, game performance is reduced, and when the HD thinks, I get pops and clicks outta my speakers. PLZ HELP ME! Ty

bump

A bit too long for me to read fully (I've got eye problems) - but a few suggestions if I may:

1) Check to see if there are any channels (in the BIOS) set to autodetect - but don't have drives attached to them. If so, then select "none" on those channels.

2) You may have to reinstall the RAID/SATA drivers.

Well, I checked my BIOS, right now the way i have it set up is my primary master/slave are the two 40 GB HDs, the secondary master/slave are my cd-rw and dvd+r drives. In the Highpoint Technology Bios, the drives are set to auto detect, with only my 250 GB HD on there. Currently im at school, so i will perhaps try setting those to none. Right now i have the most up to date windows drivers, but i really cant find/dont think there is a bios update for that. What frustrates me is that it worked fine previously.

Well I got home and tested out setting the other "Unused" drives to none, but the Highpoint bios dosnt have that setting. I can do it from my VIA Bios, but that is only for my ide controller drives, not the raid. The raid is "if it is there, it is there, if it is not, too bad". WAAA

You know what, im transfering all my data off my storage drive to DVDs and im going to load windows on the 250 drive. Then use the other 40 (not my music drive) as a storage lol. See if it will allow me to do it clean install

If you don't have the 250 gB drive on the RAID controller - everything works OK? If so, then it's likely to be a problem with the drive or the controller (other things are possible, but less likely).

So, to start, test the drive with the free diagnostic tools available from the hard drive manufacturer's website.

After that, I'd check the website of whoever manufactured the RAID controller for troubleshooting steps. You might also want to check by using another RAID controller to see if the problem is still there.