I apologize for what must be a simple matter-I've searched a bit and haven't found anything here to directly addresses my issue though-

I've been running 4 drives (3 data) for a few weeks with very little drama, but when I went to use my Adaptec 1205SA expansion card to add a 5th drive I ran into problems. While running through the initial motherboard boot I hit the Adaptec screen which identifies my new drive correctly, but then hangs there and won't let me proceed.

If I try and go into the bios setup before this, it still tries to cycle through the Adaptec screen and hangs in the same place (right after the drive description). I'm given the option to hit F3 to enter setup for the expansion card, but nothing happens-

Please tell this is something simple and I'm just being an idiot

 

Googled a bit and wondering if it might be a firmware issue. If so-how does one go about upgrading the firmware? I've found a few posts here and there, but wondered what the preferred method would be to accomplish this-everything I've found seems to require a windows-based solution-which the unRaid is obviously not...

Here's the only mention in the unRAID forums of that card:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1978.  It does mention a link about updating the BIOS, but you are probably the only 2 to use that card, so the rest of us can't help.  The Silicon Image link should perhaps be http://www.siliconimage.com/support/, but it no longer lists anything for the SiI3112.  I'd go to Adaptec support, or find a different card.

Thanks for the help - my assumption was that since it was listed on the compatible hardware page I wouldn't have any issues (I'd remove it from the list if I could-it's been a PITA)

No worries, I'm going to give the Promise TX a shot and see how it goes -

my assumption was that since it was listed on the compatible hardware page I wouldn't have any issues (I'd remove it from the list if I could-it's been a PITA)

 

I added links to this thread to that Hardware Compatibility entry.  Let's wait until others, especially Erik, have a chance to comment.

I had this card and it worked fine.  You might want to check your drives to see if they have a SATA I jumper on them since this is a SATA I card.  As I said in the thread I started I had to upgrade the bios to the non raid version.  I would do this without any drives attached to it. 

 

Have you tried to just boot with this card and no drives attached to it?  It sound like the card isn't playing well with your bios.  Can you try it in another PC?  It could be the card.

 

Erik

booted fine w/o no drives attached, but obviously that wasn't going to help much

Tried it on a PC and got pretty much the same result-Would love to have been able to update the bios on the card but couldn't make that work either.

Sounds like a bad card or it didn't like your hard drives...

Had same issue, hanging on boot with 1tb WD Black Caviar. (BIOS 4.2.11)

Updated BIOS on card to b4402.bin using tools on http://www.siliconimage.com/support/ and rufus usb to dos boot on usb.

Now card finding hdd and booting OK without limiting jumper too!

Oh it appears in unRAID too which is a bonus ;-p

 

Hope this helps others...

I apologize for what must be a simple matter-I've searched a bit and haven't found anything here to directly addresses my issue though-

I've been running 4 drives (3 data) for a few weeks with very little drama, but when I went to use my Adaptec 1205SA expansion card to add a 5th drive I ran into problems. While running through the initial motherboard boot I hit the Adaptec screen which identifies my new drive correctly, but then hangs there and won't let me proceed.

If I try and go into the bios setup before this, it still tries to cycle through the Adaptec screen and hangs in the same place (right after the drive description). I'm given the option to hit F3 to enter setup for the expansion card, but nothing happens-

Please tell this is something simple and I'm just being an idiot