I am trying to add a 2nd hard drive. The motherboard has to controllers on it and they both are full (10GIG Hard drive, DVD, CDRW, and a ZIP) I have a bought a PCI add in contoller card. I thought it was a regular controller card yet know it is a RAID controller card. Can I use this like a regular controller card. What do I set the card to. Or have I screwed up and need to get a different controller card.

Hi Lu / Ladybird, You should have nothing to worry about. Your add-in RAID PCI card will work as a regular hard drive controller card, as long as you don't specifically set it up with a second hard drive and configure them into a RAID array. You WILL need to install the regular drivers for the card (which are probably on a floppy disk or two, provided with the card), and set your BIOS to boot from the card first (usually a "Boot from SCSI device" option in the CMOS settings). Just follow the instructions provided with your card, and let us know if you hit any snags. It is sometimes critical to install the card into a particular PCI slot, but without knowing which specific motherboard you have, there is no way for us to know which slot to recommend. Preferably, you can find a slot which does NOT share an interrupt, but we won't know for sure unless you provide some more information. It will help if you reply to this with more details, such as the brand and model of the card (Promise TX-2 ATA 100 RAID Controller, etc.), so we'll be able to research it specifically. My guess is that you'll have to ignore any instructions about setting the drives in a RAID array. As long as you only hook ONE drive to the card, it CAN'T work as a RAID controller, because RAID arrays REQUIRE more than one drive by default. Please provide more specific information about your particular card, and let us know if you hit any snags. Once the new drive is recognized, you'll still have to format it, and jump through all the other hoops needed to make it work, but the longest journey begins with but a single step, according to an old saying. One more suggestion: You might want to turn your system off, unplug the keyboard, and then turn your system on. That way, you can copy down the BIOS ID string (which you should see on the bottom of your monitor), and include it with your next post. That way, we can ID your motherboard, and (hopefully) have a better idea of what types of BIOS / CMOS options you have available. Once you have that BIOS string written down, you can shut down, and reconnect your keyboard. FYI, add-in controller cards are usually seen as "SCSI" devices, even though they are NOT actually SCSI devices. It is easier to fool the OS into working with a (so-called) "SCSI" device, than to have to create a new BIOS every time a new device is introduced (such as CDRWs, DVDs, DVD/RWs, and so on). Good luck; sorry this has taken so long to type, but it is after 3 AM, and I have been working for almost 24 hours straight now. Hope This Helps (HTH) Pete

Pete Thank-you for the info I have found more info on Controller card and my motherboard. Controller Card: Ultra ATA/133 PCI RAID Card FS-MEG-ITE (Is this a good brand?) Then all the specs om computer: Gateway 450 PII Jabil BX Motherboard w/ Integrated Audio Specifications · Intel 440BX PCIset · 82443BX PMC (492 mBGA) · 82371EB PIIX4e (324 mBGA) Computer Memory · 100-megahertz (MHz) Memory Bus Speed (FSB) · Three 64-bit or 72-bit Error Checking and Correction (ECC) 4-clock, 3.3V, unbuffered synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) DIMMs · Expandable to 384 megabytes (MB) of HDD Interface · Internal to core logic (PIIX4) · Supports up to four Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) devices · Uses two shrouded IDE connectors · Dual independent channel support for Fast Integrated Device Electronics (IDE), programmed I/O (PIO) mode 3, mode 4, and ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) compatible CD-ROM drives · Support for direct memory access (DMA) modes 1, 2, bus mastering, and Ultra-DMA33 on both channels Bus Mastering supported on both channels I/O · SMC FDC37C707 Ultra input/output (I/O) with BIOS code base to match BIOS, which supports two serial and one parallel port, single floppy disk drive, keyboard, mouse, real-time clock (RTC), and infrared (IR) · I/O connectors to include: · Stacked PS/2 style mouse, on top, and keyboard, at the bottom · Stacked DB25 connector for parallel port and two DB9 serial ports Universal Serial Bus (USB) Interface · USB controller integrated into PIIX4 · Two USB ports, one rear panel stacked connector, another USB header on board. A jumper must be used to enable or disable this header. When enabled, the lower stacked USB connector will be disabled. · Stacked USB connectors Battery · Socketed Lithium coin cell 3V (~5 year life) and external battery connector Audio · Ensoniq 1373 based · Split analog/digital architecture for improved signal to noise (S/N) ratio: greater than or equal to 80 decibels (dB) - measured at line out, from any analog input, including line-in, CD-ROM, auxiliary line-in, and video, stereo audio from a video source · AC '97 Audio with PCI bus interface · AC analog Coder-decoder (CODEC) which interfaces with digital controller via a five-wire digital interface · 18-bit stereo full-duplex CODEC with a fixed 48 kilobytes (KB) sampling rate · Destination Style Header for back panel connection · Stacked D-sub/3.5mm phono jacks for game port, line-in, line-out, and mic-in · 4-pin PH ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) connector for CD-ROM · 4-pin PH ATAPI connector for mono-in/mono-out for modem speakerphone (TAD) · 4-pin PH ATAPI connector for TV tuner in · Auto detect speaker type, analog/digital · Support user disable feature in the BIOS Setup Utility · Ensoniq ES1373 digital controller · Crystal CS4297 analog CODEC Speaker · On board piezo speaker · Speaker header for off board speaker, part of front panel header BIOS · Intel/Phoenix code base · 4-Mbit flash support (TSOP) · Pentium II processor detection and initialization · Memory auto-configure and ECC support · AGP set initialization module · Autodetect keyboard, mouse, floppy, IDE, serial, and parallel devices · CD-ROM boot · Password secured boot · User and administrator mode for BIOS Setup Utility screens with two separate password protected accesses · Supports non-volatile storage in BIOS flash · PCI Configuration space and Desktop Management Interface (DMI) support · USB support with support for Legacy input devices · Audio disable support in the BIOS Setup Utility · Supports bootable LS-120 · Ultra DMA/33 support · ATAPI support for IDE CD-ROM and tape drives · Int 13h extensions to support drives larger than 2 gigabytes (GB) · AC power loss state retention management Power Management · Motherboard and BIOS must support the On-now Initiative, Soft power off · Motherboard must allow BIOS control, on/off, of Power Supply fan · Motherboard must allow BIOS control, on/off, of Processor Fan sink · Motherboard must allow BIOS control of Dual Mode light-emitting diode (LED), Full-On/Suspend · Legacy Advanced Power Management (APM) 1.2 Power Management support of onboard peripheral devices · Power-On Switch must support Soft-Off. Touching for one second or less puts the computer in Suspend mode. Touching and holding for four seconds puts the computer in the Full-Off state, where Full-Off has all power removed except Power Supply 5V Standby. · Support for Wake On LAN (WOL) · Energy Star Compliant · SMM, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) monitor specifications · Power down of ATAPI green enabled devices · Standard 20-pin power header provides standby current used to maintain complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) real time clock PCI/AGP/ISA slots · Six total slots: · Four PCI, one 1x-AGP, one shared PCI/ISA · All PCI slots are masters, revision 2.1 · All slots support full length cards Manufacturing · Surface mount technology, single sided assembly · Four layer printed circuit board (PCB) Form Factor · ATX form factor, 12.9 inches ´ 9.6 inches, - has existing BAT/AT plus three new holes, 10 holes total · ATX 2´10 power supply connector - includes 3.3V and PS-ON Front Panel · 2´8 front panel header: · Supporting Soft-off power switch · Sleep switch · Infared (IR) interface · Hard disk (HD) light-emitting diode (LED) · Dual Mode, two color: green and yellow, Power LED, also called Sleep LED · Reset Switch · Speaker · Multiple 3-pin auxiliary fan connectors · Stuffable Custom, 1´26, header to match current configurations Back Panel · Custom stacked USB/RJ-45 connector for integrated network interface card (NIC) Cases · Can be assembled in all cases: · New Look Desktop · New Look Mini Tower · ATX Tower · Hercules Full Tower Power Supplies · Can be assembled with the following power supplies: · 200 Watt New Look with ~720mA PS standby current · Must have standard ATX 20-pin power connector · Soft-off support System Intel 82443BX Pentium II Processor to PCI bridge (with GART support) (4/23/1999) Intel 82443BX Pentium II Processor to AGP controller (4/23/1999) Intel 82371EB PCI to ISA bridge (ISA mode) (4/23/1999) Intel 82371EB Power Management Controller (4/23/1999) Processor support (4/23/1999) Plug and Play BIOS (4/23/1999) Advanced Power Management support (4/23/1999) IRQ Holder for PCI Steering (4/23/1999) IRQ Holder for PCI Steering (4/23/1999) IRQ Holder for PCI Steering (4/23/1999) IRQ Holder for PCI Steering (4/23/1999) IO read data port for ISA Plug and Play enumerator (4/23/1999) I have added a Network card and a 4 port USB 1.1 PCI Card

New controller won't go into BIOS after installing card. When I boot I get a screen asking to push ctrl-E to enter setup. When I do that all I get is a blank orange screen. The BIOS info displayed before that is IT8212 vs 1.2 FW 02093030. My Motherboard BIOS does not have an option anywhere that says to boot from a SCISI device. There is a option to change the Hard drive from my Maxtor to IT8212. The Motherboard BIOS is 4WSB0X0.15A.0006.POA If I have the hard drive plugged in and let the computer boot when it reaches the PCI controller thePOST Bios gives me one long beep and then 2 short beeps then a couple pf seconds later 1 beep for the keyboard. Controller card and my motherboard. Controller Card: Ultra ATA/133 PCI RAID Card FS-MEG-ITE