Bootable SATA Controller Card

seekermeister · 30 Mar 2010

Because I'm short on SATA slots, I would like to be able to connect a SATA harddrive via a controller card, but the ones that I have will make the drive available to the OS, but not to Boot Priority in the BIOS. Actually, the drive doesn't appear in the regular BIOS screens at all, just on the additional RAID screens nor is it listed in the Device Manager, even though it does appear in Disk Management.

I currrently have 3 SATA controllers, beyond the main one that most of my harddrives are connected to...2 SIIG 3132 SoftRaid 5 controller (one of which is onboard), and a VIA VT6421 RAID card. What kind of controller card do I need to make it's harddrives bootable?

Zepher · 30 Mar 2010

You may have to enable a feature in the motherboards BIOS called Interrupt 19, or INT19.
this feature allows Add-on controller cards to be access by the BIOS and booted from.

That is what I needed to do on my older machines with Adaptec SCSI cards and my Promise SATA card.

Interrupt 19 Capture
Common Options : Enabled, Disabled
Quick Review
Interrupt 19 is the software interrupt that handles the boot disk function. It is typically handled by the motherboard BIOS although it can also be handled by the optional boot ROM BIOS in some IDE/SCSI host adaptors.

When enabled, this BIOS feature allows the ROM BIOS of these host adaptors to "capture" Interrupt 19 during the boot process so that drives attached to these adaptors can function as bootable disks. In addition, it allows you to gain access to the host adaptor's ROM setup utility, if one is available.
When disabled, the ROM BIOS of these host adaptors will not be able to "capture" Interrupt 19. Therefore, you will not be able to boot operating systems from any bootable disks attached to these host adaptors. Nor will you be able to gain access to their ROM setup utilities.

If you use separate IDE/SCSI host adaptors, you should enable this BIOS feature if you wish to boot from any drive attached to your host adaptors. It will also allow you to gain access to any ROM-based setup utilities.
However, if you are not using any separate IDE/SCSI host adaptors, it's recommended that you disable this BIOS feature.

http://www.rojakpot.com/showFreeBOG....ng=0&bogno=290

seekermeister · 30 Mar 2010

Thank you. I think that you hit the nail on the head...at least the drive now appears in the Boot Priority options, and in the Device Manager.

It's probably pressing my luck, but I'm also wondering about the "Bootable Add In Card" option in the Boot Priority. How does this relate to this question, if at all?

seekermeister · 13 Apr 2010

This does work on my primary rig, but not on my secondary, because it lacks the interrupt 19 option in the BIOS settings. Your quote mentions that some IDE/SCSI host adaptors that have a boot ROM BIOS. Does this mean that no boot option in the computer's BIOS would be necessary? On the rig in question, the only boot options are harddrive, CDROM. removable and legacy LAN.