I have a couple of Diamond Max 10 hard drives that I would like to use for storage. I know they won't work on the Nvidia controller, but was wondering if I could use them on the SIL114 controller. Thanks!

They should but only if they are set as SATA 150 speeds rather than the SATA 2 spec. The Sil 3114 chip only supports SATA 150 transfer speeds. IF the firmware has been upgraded on the drives they should work on the NForce controller. According to those that have done the firmware flash on the drives the speeds are set to SATA 150 anyhow, so your not gaining anything either way in the way of speed. I would still keep a close eye on them even as storage drives just due the reputation they carry on the A8N series motherboards.

Let me add that the problem is not an A8N series issue, it's an NVidia NF4 issue. The early 9 and 10 series Maxtor drives just did not get along with the NF4 chipset. I have several I'm using as doorstops now as a result.

Thanks for the replies guys. Do I need to enable the SIL controller in the BIOS? I don't want to run RAID, just have them as separate drives.

Yes you need to enable the controller in BIOS to use it. Just remember that to use the disc as a non raid setup one has to set them as JBOD in the setup utility.

Hi Rod, I am not sure how to set-up the disks as JBOD. Could you explain how to do that? Thanks again!

After you enable the Sil ports in BIOS, you will be prompted at boot to set up the Sil controller. I think it's F4 to enter its setup. From there, pick JBOD and you should be good to go.

If the drive is not recognized at that point, try formatting it with the manufacturer's utility. The Sil ports can be a bit twitchy about unformatted drives.

Thanks for the pick me up on that one Arlie. OldFilmFan, Arlie is correct in that there is a choice for JBOD in the setup. I beleive it is the last entry available in the Sil setup utility. Ctrl+S or F4 gets you in the setup program.

Okay guys I got that. I formatted the drive with no problems. Now a new problem, the drive is not recognized in Windows. I went to Computer Management>Disk Management
and the drive is not there The New Hardware found icon never appeared either. I am stumped again

Does your device manager have a entry for the controller?

Yes, I see the SIL114 in Device Manager.

Oldfilmfan.

You may need to activate and partition the drive in the disk storage utility. Go to control panel, then administrative tools, computer management, storage, disk management (local). If the drives appear there, just follow the directions to partition and activate them (right click the drive in the bottom right portion of the screen).

Arlie, I did that and it doesn't show up. I think just for the heck of it I will try the Nvidia controller and see what happens.

OK, if they show up on the NV ports and are recognized in BIOS, then the issue is probably one of a bad SilImage driver. That is easily rectified by uninstalling it in device manager, inserting the MB CD, and using device manager to install it again (auto search option). Your MB CD may even have a wizard to install it. It's been so long since I looked at it that I do not remember.

If that does not do it, then you are the lucky owner of a pair of DiamondMax drives with the now infamous issue of being unseen by computers based on the NF4 chipset. Fixing that requires contacting Maxtor support and obtaining the correct firmware update for them.

Arlie, I did hook the hard drive to the Nvidia controller and it seems to be working okay.
I will use it for unimportant files for a bit to make sure it continues working. Thanks for your help