I have two drives plugged into esata ports that are run from 2 internal ports on the MB.  I have 6 total ports on my MB, 4 are used for drives and 2 are used for these Esata ports.

 

My USB stick is labeled SDA and my storage drives are SDB through SDK.

 

The two drives I am testing are coming up as HDA and HDB plugged into those Sata ports.  Previously anything I plugged into those ports showed up as the next sequencial "SD" label.  What does "HD" mean?

 

I also notice my "pre read" is running slow in the 40-65 MB/sec range for both drives.  One of them in an older 7200 RPM drive that originally read in to 90-115 MB/sec(now in the 40's)  range and the other is a new  WDEARS that precleared once in the 80-95 MB / sec range (now in the 60's).  When I first started them last night the speeds were jumping around a lot high to low.  After 7 hours they are 50% and 60% through preread. 

 

Could the slow speed have something to do with how the machine is seeing the drive and therefore ow it is labeled?  I seem to recall having an issue when I first set up unRAId where all my drives were labeled "HD" and it was a MB setting, but why now only these two?

I have two drives plugged into esata ports that are run from 2 internal ports on the MB.  I have 6 total ports on my MB, 4 are used for drives and 2 are used for these Esata ports.

 

My USB stick is labeled SDA and my storage drives are SDB through SDK.

 

The two drives I am testing are coming up as HDA and HDB plugged into those Sata ports.  Previously anything I plugged into those ports showed up as the next sequencial "SD" label.  What does "HD" mean?

 

I also notice my "pre read" is running slow in the 40-65 MB/sec range for both drives.  One of them in an older 7200 RPM drive that originally read in to 90-115 MB/sec(now in the 40's)  range and the other is a new  WDEARS that precleared once in the 80-95 MB / sec range (now in the 60's).  When I first started them last night the speeds were jumping around a lot high to low.  After 7 hours they are 50% and 60% through preread. 

 

Could the slow speed have something to do with how the machine is seeing the drive and therefore ow it is labeled?  I seem to recall having an issue when I first set up unRAId where all my drives were labeled "HD" and it was a MB setting, but why now only these two?

You've set the disk controller for those two ports in a "legacy emulated mode" in your BIOS.  (or rather, that is probably the default setting from the factory)  It is emulating an older IDE drive.

 

Blame Microsoft, as win-XP and prior OS have no SATA drivers, and if the MB manufacturer did not include a legacy-emulation mode, Win-XP could not boot from that motherboard, because it would not see any IDE drives.

 

The emulation mode is often much slower than native SATA mode.  Once you set the BIOS correctly, the device names will magically change to /dev/sdX and you'll be up to full speed.

 

One more thing, don't get too hung up on the actual device name of a specific drive. It is assigned as drives initialize and the assignment can change from one boot to the next  if one drive happens to spin up faster than another.  Identify your drives by the model/serial number.   

 

unRAID does not care about the device name assigned.  It uses the model/serial number in the latest betas, and the disk controller port on older versions.

(It was changed to use the model/serial number because even the disk controller port numbering is assigned as they initialize, and in at least one person's experience, the port numbering changed from one boot to another.  The only consistent things were the disk ID and the disk model/serial numbers)

 

Stop the array, shut down, go into the BIOS and change from that legacy emulation to ACHI (or whatever your BIOS referrers to it as)  and reboot.  Do not be surprised if there are two settings in the BIOS, one for the first 4 ports, and the other for the remaing ports on the MB.

 

Joe L.

 

 

 

 

You've set the disk controller for those two ports in a "legacy emulated mode" in your BIOS.  (or rather, that is probably the default setting from the factory)  It is emulating an older IDE drive.

 

Blame Microsoft, as win-XP and prior OS have no SATA drivers, and if the MB manufacturer did not include a legacy-emulation mode, Win-XP could not boot from that motherboard, because it would not see any IDE drives.

 

The emulation mode is often much slower than native SATA mode.  Once you set the BIOS correctly, the device names will magically change to /dev/sdX and you'll be up to full speed.

 

One more thing, don't get too hung up on the actual device name of a specific drive. It is assigned as drives initialize and the assignment can change from one boot to the next  if one drive happens to spin up faster than another.  Identify your drives by the model/serial number.   

 

unRAID does not care about the device name assigned.  It uses the model/serial number in the latest betas, and the disk controller port on older versions.

(It was changed to use the model/serial number because even the disk controller port numbering is assigned as they initialize, and in at least one person's experience, the port numbering changed from one boot to another.  The only consistent things were the disk ID and the disk model/serial numbers)

 

Stop the array, shut down, go into the BIOS and change from that legacy emulation to ACHI (or whatever your BIOS referrers to it as)  and reboot.  Do not be surprised if there are two settings in the BIOS, one for the first 4 ports, and the other for the remaing ports on the MB.

 

Joe L.

 

Thanks, I looked in the BIOS before posting this and changed it from IDE to AHCI, still has the same result (sorry should have mentioned that).  It sounded familiar compared to what I had previously done, but have no idea how it wound up back on IDE.  I think it was on "enhanced IDE" and not "Legacy IDE" but I changed it to "AHCI"  I did not notice if there was a separate setting for the last two ports but don't recall seeing it anywhere.  I will look closer. 

 

Having said all that, I used to have internal storage drives plugged into these two ports and only recently changed so I could use these two ports for eSATA's, specifically to preclear drives before I crack the case.  I never previously had a problem with one showing up as HDA and one SDA. 

 

I will post back what I find in the BIOS.

There was a setting something along the lines of "combined IDE AHCI" mode.  I disabled it and all works fine now.

 

Thanks.

There was a setting something along the lines of "combined IDE AHCI" mode.  I disabled it and all works fine now.

 

Thanks.

Yup... and it apparently only affected those two ports.

 

Glad you are back as you should be.

 

Joe L.