No drive attached-Fastrack controller

[gs47]

Not a hardware guy so I'm asking for some advice from those of you that are.

For an unknown reason on PC start up, got the pop up balloon in the tray "new hardware found" but I have not made any changes or added hardware, peripherals, etc. Also the Hardware Wizard popped up and another small window that just said "Raid Controller" - I actually just closed all the pop ups/windows at the time. I don't have RAID or SCSI devices/peripherals??? May just be what it is called?

Have an ASUS Mobo



When I start/reboot, briefly in the black screen it says;
Scanning IDE drives - then it says "No Drive Attached To Fastrack Controller"

I went through the Add Hardware Wizard to troubleshoot and saw this;



Went through the process, let the PC/Microsoft search for what it needed and it failed so tried again this time using the option with the CD - reinstalled or actually I think during the process maybe the driver(s) was found - finished the process, then rebooted.

No change - is there a simple or direct or preferred way to reset this IDE/Controller deal so drives ARE attached to the Controller (Fastrack controller)? Recognized/Seen I mean?

I have 2 DVD drives, HDD of course, & an external firewire hard drive. At start up (again it moves fast) I saw my HDD and I think it said another drive (maybe it said Generic for the Iomega HDD?) That's it. I really don't know what it is suppose to "see".

I can post anything or screenshots that might be helpful of system info from Device Manager or NeroInfoTool...

Hope this made sense, got a little long. Thanks so much for any suggestions....

[Chewy]

Hmmm,
I have the same motherboard and it does come with a via raid serial controller, but it also has a promise raid controller, so there's 4 serial/sata connectors?


the 2 controllers up next to the extra pata controller are the via

the 2 at the bottom are the fast track sata

either can be turned on or off in bios

usually someone accidently hits F2 at bootup and loads bios with setup defaults

[gs47]

I do recall when I got the components I did get the SATA so I could also get the SATA version of the Plextor 716A. The SATA/Plextor andthe mobo were NOT compatible so I swapped out for the IDE/ATAPI Plextor - forgot about that.

I've never messed with this area of the PC before Chewy, so what do you specifically suggest I do or try for steps to remedy this thing?

No one is suppose to touch this PC but on occasion someone does. Haven't ever been in BIOS myself, I need to change a setting there?

[Chewy]

you'll need to turn the fasttrack/promise back off in bios

1st verify that the serial boot drive is connected to the top via sata

course there were probably other changes made or tweaks from whenever the computer was loaded

or you could just disable it(fasttrack) in device manager or load the drivers

[gs47]

Really appreciate your time

or you could just disable it(fasttrack) in device manager or load the drivers

If disabled I'll need something to enable then wouldn't I? OR
can I select from other drivers or load something else from the CD? Not quite sure what you mean...? Sorry.



- I'll see what I can do, just don't want to get stranded on a black screen somewhere in the "unknown galaxy" of the PC.

Gotta be gone for an hour or so, I'll check back - thanks again for taking the time!

[Chewy]

You should see the via listed in device manager and like I said the boot drive should be connected to it, so you won't touch that, just the promise controller that was just turned on in bios, it doesn't have any drivers loaded.
Leave things as they are and load the drivers, go out and buy 2 more serial hard drives, hook them up if you wish.
Or just disable it in device manager or go into bios and turn it off there.

Does no harm to leave it one way or the other.

Under disk drives does your hard drive list as a scuzzi disk device, a sata hard drive?

It must be hooked to the via controller, your via shows in device manager?

[gs47]

Got delayed...
Here is the Device Manager info; screenshots probably tell you more than me typing...
The way it shows here under IDE/ATAPI looks like it always has as I recall.
Under the SCSI RAID, I don't recall so many controllers listed before. I could be wrong, going by memory.

This part of the PC has been good since put together 1.5 to 2 years ago roughly, until just a day or two ago. Hopefully this answers some of your questions/concerns?

[Chewy]

expand disk drives and show

[gs47]

Disk drives The Maxtor is the 300G HDD; Iomega is the 160G external HDD connected by firewire; the Generic is a card reader I think. (Also have a camera dock dock and a scanner that are USB)











DVD/CD Drives

[Chewy]

well I guess the mystery is solved, the maxtor is a serial and connected to the via sata and had nothing to do with the fasttrack/promise at all

[gs47]

Well...
So do I need to get rid of the FastTrak or...?

Still on PC start up, I get something like this in the quick black screen;

When I start/reboot, briefly in the black screen it says;
Scanning IDE drives - then it says "No Drive Attached To Fastrack Controller"

Do I have extra drivers loaded here that I don't need or am not using?

I disabled the pop up for the Hardware Wizard & New Hardware Found (really by accident since I closed the pop ups without unchecking the box for "don't show this again" in the hardware wizard. I assume that would come up every time I start the PC.

Looks like 2 drivers available here that may or may not apply. I don't know what that Via 4 in 1 driver is as shown on the CD screenshot in the earlier post.

Bottom line question(s) maybe is; What stays and what goes or gets disabled?
Where does the VIA 6420 RAID Controller Driver go or should show up in Device Manager?
Same question with the Promise FastTrak 378 Driver?

And will that then stop the pop ups or potential errors? Close to a clean get-away here Chewy. Really just want to be sure this is all set correctly.

Thanks so much!

Side Note:
Gonna get a different DVD drive DL burner to replace the Sony soon too. I have an NEC 3550 in another PC that seems to be good. Maybe another one of those. Want one that will recover speedafter hitting ARccOS cells/bad sectors so I don't need to cycle DVDD tray all the time with the Plextor. Got suggestions on good drives? Benq/Nec/LG?

[Chewy]

you are fine just like it is, if you do want to add serial hard drives, you can add 3 of them

[gs47]

Thanks so much for your help & interpretation.
No drives attached messages kinda concern me though. I don't understand why new hardware found and the Hardware Wizard pop up (or would if not disabled) on every PC startup?

Sounds like I have more room to expand internal HDD's than I realized too. There are threads on my side note in my previous post but wondered if you had any new info or opinions on DVD drives?

You've been a big help and helped put my concerns to rest.

[Chewy]

I would go for a samsung or liteon for a new dvd burner, the newest nec's won't bitsett(no hacked firmware), benq's are no more

btw those cd mobo drivers are next to useless, ask if you ever get ready to reload that computer?

you don't need raid drivers at all since you aren't using raid

[hello people]

Hi,

I have a similar, but different problem.

I get the "no drive attached to fasttrack controller"...but I AM trying to boot up with a SATA drive attached.

Promise controller is enabled in bios...but I still get the message.

My A: seems to be not working...it wont read any disc...so I am unable to boot with A: to have RAID drivers function.

So, I can't get beyond this message at all. I do have access to another PC for the time being.

Can I somehow burn the RAID drivers to a cd and have my bios boot from that?

ta