IDE Controller PCI Card Freakout

[hansmax]

I recently purchased an IDE controller PCI card in order to add a second hard drive to my system. I installed the card, and on boot got the message (in yellow, no less) to press F1 or F11 for Windows 2000 (The only OS on my system is WinXP Home). I wait, and it then tells me BIOS is disabled. Then it procedes to boot normally. XP tells me new device found (RAID controller), comes up with another message telling me the device model, and about 3 seconds after that the system freezes completely and I have to shut down by the power button. I tried a different PCI slot, to no avail. I certainly wasn't expecting this! I was anticipating an upcoming problem because the driver disk only has drivers for Win98 and 2000, but I never got that far. (Thought maybe WinXP would just install automatically and save me some gried. My stats are:

P4, 2 GH
ASUS P4S533 mb
WinXP Home
I/O Flex PCI Ultra DMA/100, Model IOFLEX-571A (Controller card)

This one has me really stumped, and I would appreciate any help.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to TechSpot

That's what you get if you buy something totally obscure!
For adding a second HD, you don't need an extra controller in the first place. Just connect it to the second connector on your existing IDE-cable (or exchange that cable for one with three connectors (one to mobo, middle to second HD, third to first HD.
Set the jumper on the new HD to Slave. In the BIOS set the HD-type to Auto.
Then partition and format.

 

[hansmax]

I need it because I already have a DVD, CD, and ZIP Drive besides my hard drive, which uses up my ration of IDE devices (at least on this mb). As far as it being obscure it was one of only two or three offered at ZipZoomFly, so I figured it should be fairly all-purpose. I wonder what the rest of the folks who bought it are doing. The thing that really surprises me is how many others I have looked at in other places, and have yet to find one that supports WinXP. Maybe they figure SATA drives will render them uneeded, and haven't been building any lately (lol). Thanks for the input, realblackstuff.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Do a Google with "IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller" This one is XP-compatible.

Or look at the ATA-controllers from Promise http://www.promise.com/product/product_list_eng.asp?familyId=3

Stick both HDs on IDE0, the CD/DVD on IDE1 and the ZIP on the new controller.,
that would probably be better.

 

[hansmax]

Thanks for the lead, realblackstuff. However, I found it at pricegrabber, and the reviews were pretty awful. I'll keep looking.

 

[Zerogreat]

Hello. I have this terrible ATA controller too (actually, its Kouwell 571A, but judging from the number and that "press F1 or F11 for Windows 2000" on startup, it is the same). It works...but only in PIO mode. I was unable to find any working XP drivers for it.

@realblackstuff: That would be good, but the problem is that when you have this ATA controller in your computer, it ONLY lets you boot from itself! It completely ignores the mainboard BIOS settings and tries to boot from itself. If tehre is nothing to boot from on this ATA controller it will not continue to the onboard one, but simply refuses to boot! On some mainboards,. when you connect this ata controller the computer will the NOT WORK AT ALL. Just black screen. No matter which PC slot you put it in. I think this is the worst piece of sorry crap i came upon in my life.

I would reccomend you to get the 571B version (worked flawlessly for me) or something else (actually im trying to get Promise TX-2 but seems there are some problems with shipping or whatever)

 

[ryantruck]

If you buy an external Box to put the second Hdd in then you can hook it up to a USB port maybe that will work

 

[hansmax]

That's probably the best idea. However, in the meantime, I no longer need my ZIP drive, which frees up a spot for the second hard drive. The card is now in the "curiousity" box.
Who knows, there may be a use for it out there yet.

 

[Midnight Rider]

I installed the card, and on boot got the message (in yellow, no less) to press F1 or F11 for Windows 2000 (The only OS on my system is WinXP Home). I wait, and it then tells me BIOS is disabled. Then it procedes to boot normally. XP tells me new device found (RAID controller), comes up with another message telling me the device model, and about 3 seconds after that the system freezes completely and I have to shut down by the power button.

Did you have a drive connected to the card when you did that first boot?

If so, I'd say you need to:
1) Install the card with no cables/drives attached
2) Boot the system
3) Allow your system to recognize the new card
4) Allow XP to install the new card & standard drivers
5) Shut down
6) Attach your cable(s) & Drive(s)
7) Fire it up... the card should recognize your drive(s), then XP will add the drives & badabingbadaboom

I just installed this card this way - never touched the instruction sheet or driver disk, and everything went smoothly.

The other thing I would ask is whether or not you have the latest updates for your BIOS and for XP.

 

[hansmax]

Did not have a drive installed at the time. The BIOS thing is a good possibility, but since I've changed the setup, I don't think I'm going to chance it. It could indicate that if I have a chance to install it at some later date on a newer board, there's a good chance that it might work. Thanks for the input. It helps to know that you were able to install the very same card on Xp. This tells me it's doable.