Quick Help with RAID please

joeconway · 7 Sep 2007 at 12:40

I'm trying to set up a RAID 0 array from two 250Gb SATA drives; because the higher data transfer rate seems very desirable (obviously.)

I have followed the instructions in the manual and created a stripped array.

I then booted into Vista which is loaded onto a third drive and apparently I need to initialise the drives before i can load XP onto the RAID array.

This leads me onto a few questions:

Do I need to initialise the drives first in vista then boot up the XP setup or should I do this during the XP setup?

When in Vista disk management it says that the two discs are one; however it is appearing as a 500Gb drive, should this happen?I assumed that you used two drives but only got the storage capacity of one?

Can I get the third party RAID drivers off the drive not in the array which is loaded with Vista and so accordingly has the 680i chipset drivers on there, or do i have to burn a disc with the drivers?

I think thats it, I'd greatly appreciate any help

mp260767 · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:35

far as im aware it will ask you if you want to install raid drivers as part of the install process for xp, you have to press F6 iirc, asks for floppy drive but would expect a usb stick or something similar could be made to do the job.

spike's · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:40

mp260767 said:
far as im aware it will ask you if you want to install raid drivers as part of the install process for xp, you have to press F6 iirc, asks for floppy drive but would expect a usb stick or something similar could be made to do the job.

nope, MUST be a floppy, either usb ( note: not all usb floppy's are able to be used ) or normal floppy drive.

( i do install's a few times a week.

)

joeconway · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:48

spike's said:
nope, MUST be a floppy, either usb ( note: not all usb floppy's are able to be used ) or normal floppy drive.

( i do install's a few times a week. )

how about a file present on a local hard drive?

spike's · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:49

joeconway said:
how about a file present on a local hard drive?

nope, it has to search the floppy drive. we have tried so many ways of tricking it.

joeconway · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:50

spike's said:
nope, it has to search the floppy drive. we have tried so many ways of tricking it.

eurgh.

i cant believe im going to have to find and install a floppy drive.

EDIT: thanks a lot btw

spike's · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:51

joeconway said:
eurgh.

i cant believe im going to have to find and install a floppy drive.

EDIT: thanks a lot btw

np

mp260767 · 7 Sep 2007 at 13:55

spike's said:
nope, MUST be a floppy, either usb ( note: not all usb floppy's are able to be used ) or normal floppy drive.

( i do install's a few times a week. )

that truly sucks, was thinking of trying raid but may well give it a miss

rpstewart · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:23

joeconway said:
Do I need to initialise the drives first in vista then boot up the XP setup or should I do this during the XP setup?

When in Vista disk management it says that the two discs are one; however it is appearing as a 500Gb drive, should this happen?I assumed that you used two drives but only got the storage capacity of one?

Can I get the third party RAID drivers off the drive not in the array which is loaded with Vista and so accordingly has the 680i chipset drivers on there, or do i have to burn a disc with the drivers?

1) No, you can partition and format the array during the XP install
2) RAID0 will give you the full capacity of the 2 drives, RAID1 (mirroring) gives the capacity of one of the drives in the array.
3) Floppy as suggested above or you can slipstream the drivers onto an install CD using nLite if you want.

sidethink · 7 Sep 2007 at 14:45

Vista definately allows you to load RAID drivers from USB - its a new feature.