M2V eSATA port will not work with Port Multiplier

I have the M2V and wanted to use a eSATA raid cage for extra storage.
The eSATA raid unit has the Sil 3726 eSATA 5 port multiplier in it.
All this is supposed to do is to allow the OS to see 5 disk drives.
The computer never gets to the Windows 2000, XP, or even 2003 Server
logon screen whenever the eSATA port is plugged into the unit with the
port multiplier.

The eSATA port on the M2V does appear to work well with just a single
SATA drive plugged in without a port multiplier. The port multipiler
unit appears to work fine on other units with eSATA add on cards, but
my problem is those computers are old with only a PCI slot so
performance on the raid unit is low.

Can the MV2's Marvell 6121 chip support a port multiplier? Funny
thing is that when the M2V boots, the Marvell MV61xx bios appears to
see the first 4 drives in the unit (but not the 5th) so it appears to
have some support. I have even tried just a single drive on the Port
Multiplier, but still not go.

Jordan wrote:
> I have the M2V and wanted to use a eSATA raid cage for extra storage.
> The eSATA raid unit has the Sil 3726 eSATA 5 port multiplier in it.
> All this is supposed to do is to allow the OS to see 5 disk drives.
> The computer never gets to the Windows 2000, XP, or even 2003 Server
> logon screen whenever the eSATA port is plugged into the unit with the
> port multiplier.
>
> The eSATA port on the M2V does appear to work well with just a single
> SATA drive plugged in without a port multiplier. The port multipiler
> unit appears to work fine on other units with eSATA add on cards, but
> my problem is those computers are old with only a PCI slot so
> performance on the raid unit is low.
>
> Can the MV2's Marvell 6121 chip support a port multiplier? Funny
> thing is that when the M2V boots, the Marvell MV61xx bios appears to
> see the first 4 drives in the unit (but not the 5th) so it appears to
> have some support. I have even tried just a single drive on the Port
> Multiplier, but still not go.
>

I see two problems to deal with.

1) Getting past the boot problem. Hot plugging the ESATA RAID cage, after
every reboot, doesn't sound very practical. For that reason,
I would stop using the Marvell interface and connectors entirely.
Then step (2) isn't necessary.

2) OS drivers. Of the chips in the Marvell family, the 6145 comes the
closest to being full featured (as the drivers are enabled for RAID
for that chip). Would a 6145 driver work with a 6121 ? Maybe. Maybe not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...Group_chipsets

The Intel BadAxe2 D975XBX2 has two files for 6145, the larger being the Marvell
RAID Management console.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...stems&lang=eng

What would I do, if this was my motherboard and RAID cage ?

1) Disable 88SE6121 and don't look back. Marvell offers no documentation
to the public for their products, so why waste your time ?

2) Install a SIL3132 based PCI Express x1 add-in card, in the
PCI Express x1 available slot. The drivers for that will work.

See PDF page 28 here. With a SIL3132 and the Silicon Image
RAID management software, there should be room for two chains-of-five
in the window. (The SIL3132 was suggested, as a solution to work
with a SIL3726.)

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/coold...RAIDManual.pdf

( http://www.cooldrives.com/cosapomubrso.html )

So it all depends on how much time you have to waste on it.
I don't know if the 6145 driver is picky or not, about the
hardware it handles. And if the computer won't boot with the
RAID cage connected, then I cannot see hot-plugging, or
switching on the cage after every reboot, as being
practical.

Paul