The list of SATA ports should report the model and size of the hard drive on each port, but the boot order list usually lists the volume name. I use an XPS 410, practically identical to the Dimension 9200. It is configured with RAID 0, which is bootable, and is found in the boot order list under its volume name. There is also an item labeled SATA drive which has the note "Not Present" appended to it. I have a friend who uses an E520 with a single hard drive attached to SATA 0. His boot order list also lists the SATA hard drive as "Not Present", and his bootable hard drive shows up as the model number of the hard drive. Both computers have the SATA controller set to RAID On, so the RAID ROM manages the hard drives in each, despite the fact that his E520 has only one drive.
I am guessing from all of this that being managed by the RAID ROM affects how the drives are reported. In any case, having a SATA drive listed as not present certainly doesn't seem to be a problem.
EDIT: After checking out the E520 I find that I made an erroneous statement in my earlier post. I had expected his single drive to change the report on the SATA drive, and it obviously did not. The fact that the RAID BIOS is managing the drive seems to be the pertinent fact as you seem to have guessed.
What does your status screen say when you boot the computer? The Dimension 9200 supports RAID 1 and RAID 0. I would guess that your machine has a RAID 1, which mirrors your system drive to a second drive, giving you an automatic "back-up" drive. If one of the drives fails the computer boots from the second drive and gives you a warning message about the array being degraded.
When you use the RAID option ROM to make a bootable RAID for your system drive, the individual drives are not seen by the system. Assuming that your computer was shipped this way from Dell your hard drives are most likely on the second and third SATA ports (SATA 2 and SATA 3 from a software point of view). The only port which would report a bootable SATA drive to the BIOS is the first port (SATA 0). Since in the configuration you probably have there is no hard drive on SATA 0, the BIOS reports that a SATA drive is not present.
I only have one hard drive in the computer. When I look at the "Drives" in the BIOS it shows that hard drive as SATA 0 and the DVD burner as SATA 1. I just wondered why it said the SATA drive was not present when it is. I guess the fact that it's not a RAID configuration may have something to do with that?
jackshack
6.4K Posts
1
June 15th, 2012 00:00
The list of SATA ports should report the model and size of the hard drive on each port, but the boot order list usually lists the volume name. I use an XPS 410, practically identical to the Dimension 9200. It is configured with RAID 0, which is bootable, and is found in the boot order list under its volume name. There is also an item labeled SATA drive which has the note "Not Present" appended to it. I have a friend who uses an E520 with a single hard drive attached to SATA 0. His boot order list also lists the SATA hard drive as "Not Present", and his bootable hard drive shows up as the model number of the hard drive. Both computers have the SATA controller set to RAID On, so the RAID ROM manages the hard drives in each, despite the fact that his E520 has only one drive.
I am guessing from all of this that being managed by the RAID ROM affects how the drives are reported. In any case, having a SATA drive listed as not present certainly doesn't seem to be a problem.
EDIT: After checking out the E520 I find that I made an erroneous statement in my earlier post. I had expected his single drive to change the report on the SATA drive, and it obviously did not. The fact that the RAID BIOS is managing the drive seems to be the pertinent fact as you seem to have guessed.
jackshack
6.4K Posts
0
June 13th, 2012 18:00
What does your status screen say when you boot the computer? The Dimension 9200 supports RAID 1 and RAID 0. I would guess that your machine has a RAID 1, which mirrors your system drive to a second drive, giving you an automatic "back-up" drive. If one of the drives fails the computer boots from the second drive and gives you a warning message about the array being degraded.
When you use the RAID option ROM to make a bootable RAID for your system drive, the individual drives are not seen by the system. Assuming that your computer was shipped this way from Dell your hard drives are most likely on the second and third SATA ports (SATA 2 and SATA 3 from a software point of view). The only port which would report a bootable SATA drive to the BIOS is the first port (SATA 0). Since in the configuration you probably have there is no hard drive on SATA 0, the BIOS reports that a SATA drive is not present.
dexiedoo
1 Rookie
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30 Posts
0
June 14th, 2012 18:00
I only have one hard drive in the computer. When I look at the "Drives" in the BIOS it shows that hard drive as SATA 0 and the DVD burner as SATA 1. I just wondered why it said the SATA drive was not present when it is. I guess the fact that it's not a RAID configuration may have something to do with that?
dexiedoo
1 Rookie
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30 Posts
0
June 15th, 2012 08:00
Yes, I came to the same conclusion and thanks much for the replies! :-)