How to RAID

[MrBlobby]

Here are the instructions for my mobo I don't get the bit in bold. It says install windows then says at windows setup?? isn't that at the begining of installing windows ?

SATA RAID Driver is for users who plan to install Windows OS on SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions. To use RAID functions, you need to make a SATA RAID Driver floppy diskette before you install the operation system, such as Windows XP. If you do not plan to use RAID functions, it is not necessary to make a SATA RAID Driver floppy diskette. Please follow below steps for the usage of SATA RAID Driver:

Copy the SATA RAID Driver from our website to your SATA HDDs. Unzip it, and copy all the files and folders to an empty diskette.
Make sure that the “SATA Operation Mode” option in BIOS setup is set to RAID mode.
Install Windows OS to your system. At the beginning of Windows setup, please press F6 and insert the SATA RAID Driver floppy diskette you just made. Then you are allowed to select the required driver to install after your system reading the SATA RAID Driver floppy diskette.
After Windows OS installation, use the RAID tool in our support CD to configure RAID arrays under BIOS or Windows environment.
For the details of RAID operation procedures, please refer to our user manual in the support CD or quick installation guide for further information.

 

[Virdi]

Windows will not fully understand your two drives - as they are in RAID.

So you need to install the RAID driver - before Windows actually installs... So that it fully recognises your RAID (Hard drives)

So in most cases - You will have the option (or .exe file) for creating a floppy disk (containing the RAID drivers) from your motherboard CD.

If your are installing Windows XP - As soon as you boot from the setup CD - You need to press the 'F6' key, so that the installation process will give you the option to install the RAID drivers (from the floppy disk you have just created)

...after your install is complete - You can also install the software for the RAID controller in Windows. This is the program that will let you see the status and health of your RAID (Hard drives)