Norco card adapter works only 1/2 the time

[Denise_M]

Hi,

I have XP x64.

I bought a NORCO-4618 PCI-X / PCI eSATA / SATA II / SATA I Controller Card. I finally got a chance to connect it and I connected 4 ext hdds today. When I turned on my computer, some of the drives started right up and some didn't. Some turned on after some time had passed and some turned off after a length of time. I rotated the cables but it didn't make a difference. They all turn on and off at different times. When they turn off, they don't usually turn back on.

The drives work fine when I use a USB 2.0 cable.

I checked out the reviews of the card at the newegg site where I bought it:

Customer Reviews Of NORCO-4618 PCI-X / PCI eSATA / SATA II / SATA I Controller Card RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD - Retail

The opinions seem mixed. Some had good luck, others had bad.

These are the cables I purchased, Some I to L, and some I to I:

SATA Cables External and eSATA cables External

I removed the USB 2.0 cables from the ext hdds that have SATA ports and plugged in either SATA I or SATA II cables, as needed. I then connected the cables to either the SATA adapter card or into the ports on my pc, as needed.

The card is listed in System Devices.

Does anyone have any ideas on why this is happening and how I can fix it so that they'll stay on? I'd appreciate any suggestions.
.

 

[KSoD]

Well from the looks of it hte card does RAID. So it could be that the drives that are not starting is because those are the mirrored drives?

Either that or a defective card.

 

[Baez]

Well technically the mirrored drives should still work. Looks to me like you got a rotten apple in the bunch. If all else fails I would try returning the card for a new one.

Also, when you say some work and some don't what do you mean? Do two of them work and two not or is it more like one and three? I'm assuming these drives are all the same capacity but are they all the same brand/model? Some drives are pretty finicky when it comes to RAID arrays.

 

[Denise_M]

What I meant when I said some work and some don't is that some eSATA hdds are recognized by My Computer when I turn them on. Some aren't recognized by My Computer, and some are recognized by My Computer for a short period of time and then they're no longer recognized by My Computer.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this. I didn't receive an email telling me that I had a response.