Marvell on Intel d975xbx2 with FreeAgent Pro 750GB eSata

[heartspeace]

I am hooking this up and the Marvell Bios recognizes the drive. I have two operating systems - XP and Vista on other drives. Neither operating system will recognize this drive using the Marvell controller. I have attached it to both a red and blue port. I am using the latest drivers and latest bios on the Intel website. The MRU program only recognizes some adapter called adapter 0. The Marvell bios says the drive is on adapter one. I have tried adding this both without adding it to a RAID array type 0, and with adding it to an array type 0. The drive also has a USB interface that works fine and allows the system to read the drive. I am connecting the drive to the Free Agent Pro through a sata to esata adapter port with two ports on it. I don't think that is the problem because the Marvell Bios recognizes the drive and size just fine. There sees to be a disconnect between the Marvell adapter and the drivers. I have the drives in IDE mode and the interface turned on in the bios. Any ideas for help would be appreciated. I have contacted Intel support so far with no luck.

HP

[mickrussom]

I am hooking this up and the Marvell Bios

I know this isnt helpful, but the lack of a driver in Vista is an indicator that the Marvell drivers are not and will never be good enough for Vista WHQL. I strongly suggest staying away from that controller - you will be putting your data at risk.

[heartspeace]

They do have a vista driver - just not one included with vista. I don't think its whql certified but most vista drivers today are not whql certified because companies were caught with their pants down on Vista.

Also the problem is both on XP and Vista. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Michael

[mickrussom]

I don't think its whql certified but most vista drivers today are not whql certified because companies were caught with their pants down on Vista.Michael

All of my drivers are WHQL. I got out of the box support for most of my hardware, and the Nvidia driver is now WHQL, the only driver that isn't WHQL is the Marvell, and windows update doesn't offer a driver either.

I've done Windows software raid, Adaptec, LSI, 3Ware, Mylex, ServeRAID, Intel ICHxR, Linux MD, LVM, FreeBSD vinum, Solaris DiskSuite/metadisk. I'd like to think I have a decent feel for how much confidence one should have in the real, fake raid or software raid subsystems.

Again, my recommendation is that, based on my own empirical experimentation, that the Marvell stuff is a waste of time and puts your data at risk. This is, unfortunately, for your thread, and unhelpful opinion, and YMMV.

The right people to ask about this is Marvell and Intel. As you might have found out, Intel is supporting the Marvell trash very well, and I would be surprised if Marvell would own up to their driver or ASICs issues.

My rig, the D975XBX2, with a Conroe and DDR2 800ECC with a 8800GTX pro has not Blue Screened or given my any trouble to date (Over 7 months of ownership and continuous use). I use hardware that works out of the box with Vista/32. Start installing outside drivers, and the problems begin.

Microsoft has recently said that single bit memory errors and garbage drivers cause 80%+ of all the failures they see, and based on my experiences with Windows 2003, Vista 32 on this hardware, I'm inclined to agree.

If you continue to try and boot these OSes off of the Marvell raid controller on a virtual disk there, you will be sorry. If you cant get support building an array, may the powers that be help you when the array is degraded or broken and the rebuild isnt working properly and you have valuable information on the array and you cant get to it.

[opcode]

Just a thought, what is the length of your eSata cable? I had problems connecting with a length of 46". I brought that down to 39" (1 meter) the sata 1 spec and it works just fine.

[heartspeace]

The cable is about 12 inches so I don't think the cable has anything to do with it. I am still curious if anyone got a free agent pro (750gb) working with the esata connection from the d975xbx2 motherboard.

Also is it possible to have that port active and then an internal esata drive both on Marvell.

I don't have room for another controller in the system - its full. Damn large video card steals too much room and I have sb xfi elite, pcie wireless 802.11n, and a ati hd card for hidef video.

Anyone have any ideas? Sorry have been out of touch, been recovering from serious surgery for some time.