Hitachi 7K1000 + Sil3112A

[amp88]

I got a Hitachi 7K1000 in today and had a few problems getting my system to boot with it connected. It POSTs fine but when the start screen for my RAID controller (Silicon Images Sil3112A) comes up it detects the other SATA hard drive connected (WD2500JD) perfectly but it hangs on trying to detect the size of the Hitachi drive. It gets the name right, so it's connected OK, but it just hangs on detecting the size. In the end I've had to disconnect it and boot without the drive connected then hotplug it once the machine is up and running. This, obviously, is not an ideal solution so I was looking for any tips people could give me. I ran across an almost identical thread (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1030666079) here, but the solution to that one seemed to be just hotplug the drive, which I don't think is satisfactory. Any help/advice/links etc would be much appreciated, thanks.

My system spec:
Athlon 2700+
ASUS A7N8X-D
1024MB Corsair 3200
Radeon 9600 Pro
NEC 3550A DVD-RW
Lite-On LTR-522465 CD-RW
Windows XP Pro

[Old Hippie]

I'm thinking you might wanna read this Amazon review (http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-0A34915-7200Rpm-Cache-Drive/dp/B000PDK53E).

This is a great Terabyte disk, but note that the 7K1000 has documented compatibility issues with some early first generation SATA controllers. I hit this on a VIA 8237 controller. Hitachi note issues with the VIA 8237A chipset, Marvell Gen 1 series and the Sierra Logic SR-1216 chipset, but there may be others. Unfortunately Hitachi don't provide any workarounds. There are no jumpers to set a lower default speed and even their Feature Tool won't change the default SATA mode for this drive. Sigh.


Here's another guy with a 3114 controller with the same problem (http://www.monster-hardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=20300).

If it were me, I'd be trying a SATA PCI controller card, or returning the drive.

[amp88]

Ah, OK. Thanks for the info. Any suggestions on a cheap(-ish) controller card that would definitely be compatible with my drive, please? I can't see any not based on a Silicon Images variant and not PCI Express (which my board doesn't have).

[Old Hippie]

A little Googleing (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pci+%2B+sata+II+controller&btnG=Google+Search) found a few, but they start @ 60.00 and sound kinda "iffy".