SATA trouble

[Teki187]

Hey guys, i've just got 2x 250g SATA2 hard drives and im currently trying to install them. My motherboard will accept SATA 1 and i've been told there backwards compatable.

When i try to install it, the maunal for the motherboard says "go to advanced > onboard devies configuration and make sure the onboard promise controller is enabled" and it is enabled.

Then it says "set the operating mode as raid" which it is.

Now i want to use RAID 0 (performance) so it tells me to do this

Boot the system and when MBFastTrak378 displays No Array defined, press CTRL + Y"

Then it says "Select auto setup and choose Optimize array for and select performance, the mode should display stripe.

Press any key to reboot. Once the array is created, use the FDISK utility to format the array as a single hard drive.

Now i dont actully get the FDISK utility (unless im having a blonde moment)

So it loads through into windows, i press F6 to install the RAID drivers from floppy. I have downloaded the right ones and i select the right ones when installing the drivers. Once i've selected them and continue with the windows install, it says there is no hard drives there to install windows on, yet the Promise controller is saying i have 2 in RAID 0.


Any help would be great, as my girlfriend needs the computer for a Uni assignment.

Thanks

 

[rpstewart]

No need to worry about FDISK, that's the old DOS utility for creating partitions etc. There's an equivalent in the Windows install which you should get to at the point where it's telling you it can't find any disks.

Now the problem you're seeing is a weird one, I'm not quite following your original post so just to get my head straight...

You've created the array and the RAID BIOS sees it when you reboot?

When you did the F6 thing the setup program accepted the drivers OK? IIRC it checks the disk when you do the press S part and then copies the files a bit later - did it do both bits?

You say you downloaded the drivers, do you have the original mobo CD just in case the downloaded drivers need a newer version of the RAID BIOS or something equally daft?

 

[Teki187]

No need to worry about FDISK, that's the old DOS utility for creating partitions etc. There's an equivalent in the Windows install which you should get to at the point where it's telling you it can't find any disks.

Now the problem you're seeing is a weird one, I'm not quite following your original post so just to get my head straight...

You've created the array and the RAID BIOS sees it when you reboot?

When you did the F6 thing the setup program accepted the drivers OK? IIRC it checks the disk when you do the press S part and then copies the files a bit later - did it do both bits?

You say you downloaded the drivers, do you have the original mobo CD just in case the downloaded drivers need a newer version of the RAID BIOS or something equally daft?

This is really strange, i originally tried the VIA raid controller setup and it didnt work, i tried the Promise and i got the above problem. Now i've gone back to the via controller, set it up as raid array 0 and its now detected it....

If it doesnt work with the via controller i'll come back.