need some advice on running RAID / SATA first time - installing xp

::: CooliceT :: · 4 Feb 2007 at 09:27

hello.

i built my first full build this time last year, (see sig for specs)
but i installed it all using IDE cables. and the two raptor drives are just formated in NFTS. and using a old 160gig drive to boot the computer.

im sure this isnt the best way for speed. and loading.
so i ordered another drive yestaday.
Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 8MB Cache

i have never tried installing windows and formating using RAID or SATA before.
so i need some help in that area.

my reason for starting all again is. my pc seems to be hanging in a black screen for ages, after seeing the windows xp loading bar. soon as thats passed it hangs for about 3-5mins. and really annoying, i cant seem to fix it.

so i think i need to take all the drives out, and start again.
i would like to use the two raptors for games / programs maybe to boot the pc aswell. and the others for work and files.

im not sure how i go about it all. and what does RAID / SATA do...
my motherboard does have the access for the connections on there. and i have the leads i think for it.

can anyone point me in the direction and any help. in installing windows on these types of formats.

also... i would like to duel boot aswell. and im not sure how too.
i have windows xp pro. but looking to get windows vista at one point.

thanks for your time,
regards chez.

iBot · 4 Feb 2007 at 09:45

you have to load the raid drivers (press f6 when installing xp)

WoZZeR · 4 Feb 2007 at 09:56

I am no expert, perhaps RPStewart will be around later to offer his esteemed advice but here goes:

The 2 Raptors need to be in RAID 0 if you want high performance, the other drives can just be left as standalone drives.

I'm assuming all your drives are SATA here, if you plug everything into the SATA ports and then boot up and access the RAID menu, either in the BIOS or a separate key combo comes up on the screen (Ctrl I) on mine. Then just select the 2 Raptors for your RAID Array, choose the size of the stripes (i'm on 128K but some folk think small is better so why not try 64k).

When XP launches the setup menu it'll ask for drivers, press F6 and shove a good old floppy in containing the drivers. I'm guessing now, but you'll need to have 2 partitions on this RAID array, XP will only see 1 drive of approx 300 GB, so in the setup menu split it in 2, one for your XP and the other for Vista when you have it.

Hope that helps.

rpstewart · 4 Feb 2007 at 11:45

WoZZeR said:
I am no expert, perhaps RPStewart will be around later to offer his esteemed advice but here goes:

I'd better get it right then

As WoZZer says, using the two Raptors as a RAID 0 array is going to give you the best performance. The gist of what he's saying is correct but there are a couple of things extra to watch out for.

Before you start make sure that you've backed up everything off the Raptors because creating the RAID array will wipe the drives.

The best policy is to only have the Raptors connected when you go about creating the array and installing Windows, that way you don't mistakenly overwrite anything or end up with bits of the Windows install on the wrong drives. With the board you have use the black SATA ports furthest away from the CPU marked SATA1 and SATA2, they give better RAID performance than the orange ones (you can use any of the black ones but the rest of this assumes you've used SATA1 & 2).

The first thing to do is make sure that the BIOS is configured correctly:

The Raptors should be detected as first and second SATA masters on the main screen
Go to the Advanced Menu, then into the Onboard Device Configuration menu and finally into the NVRAID Configuration menu
Make sure the top RAID Enabled option is set to ENABLED and that only the First and Second SATA master RAID options are set to ENABLED, all the others should be left as disabled
Exit back to the main screen and then save the settings and exit the BIOS. The machine will reboot.

Let it go past the main splash screen until you get the NVRAID BIOS message, press F10 when prompted to launch the RAID configuration program. It's not the most intuitive app unfortunately but you need to:

Make sure the RAID mode is set to striping and the striping block to optimal or 32K
The Raptors should appear in the left hand box, use + to move them to the right hand one.
Press F7 to finish and say yes to the clear data message.
The status screen should show the array as healthy
Press Ctrl-X to exit, if the machine doesn't reboot automatically then reboot it manually.

You'll need to go back into the main BIOS at this point and check the boot order is set to you're DVD drive first then the NVidia array. You can now crack on with installing XP.

You'll need the RAID drivers on a floppy (make sure you make this before you start

) and then at the very start of the install press F6 when prompted in the white bar at the bottom. The drivers aren't used there so don't panic. Later you'll be prompted to press S to install new storage drivers, do so and follow the instructions to load the drivers from the floppy. The install carries on as normal from this point.

Once you've got XP running off the Raptors and all the drivers installed make sure you disable the read caching for the RAID controllers in device manager, for some reason the NVidia controller doesn't perform all that well with caching on. You can also now install the other HDDs, either on the remaining black ports or the orange ones. The drives should be recognised at first boot although you may need to use the Disk Management applet to either import (if the drive has been used as a dynamic disk in another machine) or partition and format (if the drive is new) the disks.

If you get stuck just drop a post in here and I'll try and help

::: CooliceT :: · 4 Feb 2007 at 12:17

thank you very much for that detailed post rpstewart

i will read that very carefully when the other harddrive comes,
im not sure i understand about the RAID drivers,

the two raptors never came with any software or cd's.
i have all my motherboard, and other software cd's.

maybe you have a link for the RAID drivers, i will download them and burn it all to a cd before.

would i be able to partition one raptor for both bootable windows.. xp and vista... would that be best?

and use the other for games / programs
or maybe i should use windows on one, and vista on the other, but partition both so incase one fails i can still use the other...

is there any program i would need to duel boot. or does it it come up with a screen for that on loading?

im sure i will post back here in a couple of days when its delieverd.

thanks again for your time, and post

cheers chez

rpstewart · 4 Feb 2007 at 12:23

The RAID drivers are on the motherboard CD, they need to be on a floppy, the XP install won't recognise anything else. Make sure you create the floppy for the NVidia RAID controller, not the Silicon Image one.

would i be able to partition one raptor for both bootable windows.. xp and vista... would that be best?

and use the other for games / programs
or maybe i should use windows on one, and vista on the other, but partition both so incase one fails i can still use the other...

That's all possible in a non RAID setup. The question is whether you want to do that or do basically the same but on a RAID array.

::: CooliceT :: · 5 Feb 2007 at 17:43

i had a think about it all.

think im going to set up the two raptors in RAID 0.

this is sharing the disks as one right? so best performence...

then i shall use the other western digital drive i got coming, and partition that in half use with windows vista on that one, and my old other drive with xp pro on. both i shall just use SATA for.

im not worried about booting the system fast, as its usally on all the time. but im more concerned with running programs and games as fast as i can. so i shall use the raptors just for that.

just waiting for the delievery to come, then i can crack on with the process of installing it all again. i make sure i back up all my work on DVD's before also

::: CooliceT :: · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:15

hey again.

well i got my other harddrive yestaday, spent all last night and this morning backing up all my work/files.

im now ready to wipe everything clean, and start again.
i got my floppy drive working again.

only problem is... i have my motherboard cd ready, but not sure how to create a RAID disk for the floppy. can you point me to what files i should drop into it...

also. im tempted to install windows xp pro 64 version... is it worth it for my system? would it work well if i installed that into the raptors in RAID?

would i get many problems having it in RAID 0?

also can i duel boot in RAID? say if i install windows xp pro 64, then couple months wish to install vista on the same RAID? could i do so... or would i have to wipe. then partition them?

sorry for the questions, im just trying to make sure i go through it smooth, so i can learn in the process too.

i make sure i connect the harddrives using the black sata ports also. so i put the two raptors in the SATA 1 and 2 slots. then the other two for the other harddrives. right?

should i install all harddrives first then run windows.
or just install the two raptors first, then do windows and install the other two later?

cheers for your time.
chez

rpstewart · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:23

::: CooliceT :: said:
only problem is... i have my motherboard cd ready, but not sure how to create a RAID disk for the floppy. can you point me to what files i should drop into it...

Not sure off the top of my head, your mobo manual should have instructions

::: CooliceT :: said:
also. im tempted to install windows xp pro 64 version... is it worth it for my system? would it work well if i installed that into the raptors in RAID?

I've never used any of the 64bit versions of the OSes, so can't comment

::: CooliceT :: said:
would i get many problems having it in RAID 0?

No more than if you weren't using RAID

::: CooliceT :: said:
also can i duel boot in RAID? say if i install windows xp pro 64, then couple months wish to install vista on the same RAID? could i do so... or would i have to wipe. then partition them?

Yes, you can dual boot but you'll need to wipe or mess about with Partition Magic unless you set up the partitions now.

::: CooliceT :: said:
i make sure i connect the harddrives using the black sata ports also. so i put the two raptors in the SATA 1 and 2 slots. then the other two for the other harddrives. right?

Correct, leave the other disks disconnected until you've got Windows up and running. That way you'll avoid problems if the installer decides to boot from a different disk to where it installs Windows.

::: CooliceT :: · 8 Feb 2007 at 15:33

ok cheers,

i been looking at the manuel and on the cd there are many drivers and im not sure which one is the right one...

i guess i can only find out.

i have never tried a 64 bit system either, but since i have the duel core. and been using the 32bit system for over a year, i thought id try it, see if its any better now.

that way, in a couple of months when vista is up to speed. i try the 64 version of that too.

if all fails on it. i just wipe it again and use my old xp pro cd.

im going to find couple more floppys, and put each of the drivers on, then give it ago. i check on my laptop if i get any problems, and report here

::: CooliceT :: · 8 Feb 2007 at 19:41

ok well...

after forgetting my forum access for my laptop, finally got back in to post here my current progress...

after taking out the old drives, putting just the two raptors in.
i had my floppy drives ready with the RAID drivers on.

i managed to create a RAID using the two. it said healthy.
and i thought all was good.

when i was installing windows xp pro 64 onto it.
it asked for the RAID drivers of the floppy. i then pointed to both NIVADA's drivers of there. looked like it was going ok.

after running windows setup. it then said could not find each file for the RAID of the floppy. i couldnt retry... or use the motherboard cd to get it.

so everytime it finished windows setup. and went to reboot and load windows. i would get the blue screen of death.

STOP 0X0000007b error.

i tried a number of times, so now i put the other two harddrives back in. and ran windows xp onto one of them, so i can atleast try the floppy files again,

not sure why it was not reading the files. i tried 3 different disks. all same stuff on there. it says its there. but wouldnt get the files off after installing through the setup.

not sure what to do now...

update:::

well. i have tried windows xp 64 so many times, it just wont load the files from the floppy. im now installing my old xp pro back, and it picked up the other floppy first time.

ah well. i be ok without the 64, pc was superb for a year anyway without it. i try vista aswell tomorrow