Partition Woes (raid array & XP64)

visibleman · 24 Sep 2008 at 16:44

Have a Raid 0 Array on an Abit IP35 Pro XE board (ICH9R) running XP64 and i'm wanting to partition the raid array to install XP 32bit (unfortunately i need it for some software that won't run properly under XP64). I've tried Norton Partition Magic 8 Pro, Paragon Partition Manager 9 as well as latest GParted and Parted Magic (uses GParted but was told it's slightly modified) liveCDs and all of them fail to partition the raid array, with GParted/Parted Magic not even detecting the raid array and instead showing each of the drives in the array.
I've also was told that the Partition Magic CD is bootable, but that failed too.

Has anyone got any ideas how i can partition my raid array?

The only options i can think of is to either scrap the current XP64 install and start again (perhaps use Norton ghost to take and image to save some of the hassle?), which is the last resort, or to go and get a floppy drive and try the partition magic rescue disks.

Any help with be appreciated!

BENdage · 24 Sep 2008 at 18:13

You can resize partitions in the vista disk management console by right clicking on the partition and selecting the shrink option

visibleman · 24 Sep 2008 at 18:24

BENdage said:
You can resize partitions in the vista disk management console by right clicking on the partition and selecting the shrink option

Don't want to be unthankful, but i'm not using Vista so i'm not sure how that helps :confused:

BENdage · 24 Sep 2008 at 18:32

visibleman said:
Don't want to be unthankful, but i'm not using Vista so i'm not sure how that helps

ah, sorry, I saw 64 and presumed vista64, I didnt read it properly

Berserker · 24 Sep 2008 at 20:48

Unless you can find a Windows tool that will do it, no amount of tinkering with LiveCDs will help you. You need the Intel Matrix RAID drivers active, otherwise as you've found you'll just see the individual drives.

I don't have a solution, and I have doubts there is one (resizing an active partition is somewhat challenging, to say the least), but at least I can save you the trouble of trying any more CDs.

matja · 7 Oct 2008 at 09:40

If the livecd's are linux-based and have a console, try running "dmraid -ay". That will try to detect the RAID metadata format and create your RAID logical volumes as devices in /dev/mapper/ , which you can partition/resize/etc like normal disks generally.

These are supported by my version:

Code:

# dmraid -l
asr     : Adaptec HostRAID ASR (0,1,10)
ddf1    : SNIA DDF1 (0,1,4,5,linear)
hpt37x  : Highpoint HPT37X (S,0,1,10,01)
hpt45x  : Highpoint HPT45X (S,0,1,10)
isw     : Intel Software RAID (0,1)
jmicron : JMicron ATARAID (S,0,1)
lsi     : LSI Logic MegaRAID (0,1,10)
nvidia  : NVidia RAID (S,0,1,10,5)
pdc     : Promise FastTrack (S,0,1,10)
sil     : Silicon Image(tm) Medley(tm) (0,1,10)
via     : VIA Software RAID (S,0,1,10)
dos     : DOS partitions on SW RAIDs

Pandobear · 7 Oct 2008 at 14:17

The best way is as you suggest yourself, create a backup of the system via Ghost or similar, then partition,format and reinstall your OS. Is there any particular reason that you are using XP64? It is a pretty poorly supported OS, with Vista 64 having much broader support.

visibleman · 7 Oct 2008 at 15:55

Cheers all,
Did manage to solve it in the end by buying an external floppy drive, some floppies and creating the rescue disks under Partition Magic - worked a charm!

Pandobear - I ran Vista64 side by side for a few weeks and for the applications i run it was pretty inefficient and overall slower. Plus i had problems with it blue screening (general dodge drivers), something which XP64 has only done once and that was due to me installing the wrong driver for the nic.