Sata 3 6 GB/s - no disk found during install

S

steve612

Hello,

I am trying to install FreeBSD, but the installation can't find my hard drive. Says 'No Disk Found'. I tried to play with BIOS settings with no luck. Can you please help me?

My specs:

Asus Rampage III Gene
WD SATA3 6 GB/s Caviar Green HDD
8 GB Kingston RAM
Nvidia GTX-560

On my motherboard there are SATA2 and SATA3 ports, but in the BIOS I can change settings only for SATA2 and I don't know why, I am not an expert!

Thanks.
 
Yes, I still have Windows on that PC, installed on this drive, and that is what I am using now. I want to change to FreeBSD.
 
Do you want to end up with FreeBSD only, or a dual-boot system?

The reason for asking is that if a dual-boot system is the goal, install VirtualBox on Windows and run FreeBSD as a guest. It will work like a separate machine but both can be used at the same time.

If the goal is to have FreeBSD only, it's worth disabling RAID in the BIOS.
 
The goal is to have FreeBSD only, and Windows on Virtualbox. I took some photos of my BIOS to help you understand better, I think RAID is not activated, I am not sure.

Here are the photos:

Here is where I can see my disk in the BIOS:
http://i43.tinypic.com/vhxe6v.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/b4fdbq.jpg // 2 Ports for SATA3

http://i41.tinypic.com/31616w8.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2w65op5.jpg // SATA 2

That is not the first time that I try to install FreeBSD, but that is the first time I have this problem.
 
It appears that the SATA3 ports are through a Marvell 9128 RAID controller. What version of FreeBSD are you trying to install?

If this is due to the controller, an easy option would be to move the drive from the Marvell SATA port (red) to one of the native ones (black).
 
I thought about that, but does this affect the speed of the bus? I am trying to install 9.1. As I remember when I built my PC, I tried to use SATA 2 3 Gb/s cable on black port and it couldn't find the disk. Then I tried using a 6 Gb/s cable on the red port and worked great (that is my current setup), but it doesn't work the way I want it for now. Should I use it on a black port?
 
Any single hard drive will not keep up with the speed of SATA2. Good hard drives go about 150M/second at best, SATA2 can theoretically go twice that fast.

I'm pretty sure there is no difference between the cables. Maybe the ratings, but still. Yes, if you want to try that way, it will do no harm. If it does not work, try a different cable.
 
I tried the 6 GB/s cable on the black port, and I get
Code: 
ATAPI incompatible press F1 to resume
on system startup. I tried the same with the 3 GB/s cable, still got the same message. In BIOS it shows the hard disk on the SATA1 port, but then the operating system doesn't load. Boot settings show for the first device a hard disk, but not the name of the disk. Maybe I have to change some settings on BIOS I am not sure. Should I check the hard disk jumpers to set it differently or not? I started to think that FreeBSD is not for me :(
 
I have never seen that message before and it's hard to tell what it's trying to say. Just for reference, what brand and model is the drive?

It's not so much FreeBSD as the gamer motherboard. Checking jumpers on the drive will not hurt, if there are any.
 
I know it's about hardware configuration. . .

As for my hard disk, it is a Western Digital.
Model: WD10EARX-00N0YB0

I will play with my computer hardware tomorrow. What I am thinking now is that my motherboard has SATA3, the hard disk is SATA3, do I have to move to SATA2 for FreeBSD? I am not sure if there is any difference in speeds.
 
It's a Caviar Green, but WD's always-useless web page is not helping me find a spec sheet.

FreeBSD handles SATA3 fine, drives and controllers both. There are no hard drives that can go as fast as a SATA2 controller, so there is no speed loss. It's the motherboard that is producing that strange BIOS error.

That Caviar Green drive does not have a great reputation, and there may be several kinds of overclocking of processor, memory, or other things set on that motherboard. Check the motherboard manual about the error. Resetting the BIOS to manufacturer settings is worth a try. As is a different drive.
 
Thanks for the help. What I am thinking to do tomorrow is to change the hard disk position to black port SATA 1, using a 6 GB/s cable, reset the BIOS and try to install FreeBSD. I will keep you posted! I hope to have good news!
 
I did what I said in the previous post. Now it acts normally! Success :) I am going to install the operating system now. Thanks again.
 
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