frost75 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 OK, I have been reading forum posts, I have been messing with this thing since I installed it xmas day. I cannot seem to figure out what to set my RAID to, and how to make windows stay up. I don't know anything about these RAID settings like stripping and mirror and spanning. I look up explanations on the web but they confuse me even more. Right now I have been setting All 3 HD's to one array. I have them on Spanning, and Boot = Yes. This is my 3rd Windows install, I cannot seem to keep it. The first time I had windows up, I finished installing all drivers, began to customize windows. At one point I had to force reboot because of a freeze up. After that windows would not even begin to boot, SYSTEM FAILURE at BIOS. Second time around was the same except for the last part. I had Ntune tweaking the system over night. When I came to, in the morning, it was complete, but the monitor kept turning on and off, on and off. When it turned on each time the picture was corrupted in diffrent ways. When I forced reboot, Windows would not get past the first boot sequence with the sliding bar no matter what I tried. This is my 3rd install now, with this new DFI board and SATA HD, Drivers are in, SP2 is on, but I am afraid to even bother customizing windows and installing apps. How can I keep windows up and running? What RAID setting to even use? I want all 3 drives to run independently. I use 1 for my normal downloading and music, the other for temp data, and the new SATA will now be the windows drive. I don't want to have all 3 drives putting the same data accross them or anything. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 I want all 3 drives to run independently. I use 1 for my normal downloading and music, the other for temp data, and the new SATA will now be the windows drive. I don't want to have all 3 drives putting the same data accross them or anything. If thats what you want then you don't need a RAID array at all. I'd recommend unplugging the drives you don't want to install windows on, then format and install on your last drive. No need for RAID drivers or anything on install, it should work just fine without them. Once you have windows up and running stable then install your other drives. I'd recommend keeping all 3 drives on the nforce controller, but its up to you. I would not recommend using ntune however, from my experience it causes more problems than helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frost75 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 Nforce controller? Don't know what you are talking about. So if I install windows on my SATA drive, with the other 2 HD's unhooked, and no RAID it will show the drive to install? If I recall I tried that and it wouldn't list the SATA drive to select for windows install without RAID. So you say IF I get windows on the SATA drive, turn the pc off then hook my IDE drives back up, and it will load windows and show all 3 drives without RAID? Doesn't sound right to me. I have had no luck using my SATA drive and IDE's so far without RAID. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 Hmm...sorry didn't know some of your drives were IDE. In any case you should be able to boot off of a single SATA drive, at least I could off my DR and Expert. Hopefully somebod with better knowledge of that board will come along. Sorry i couldn't be much help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frost75 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 No problem yo, thanks for trying to help though. Yeah 2 are ATA as it says in my sig. The SATA is new, I got that this DFI board and the geforce 7800GT for xmas. So Its all new to me. I know some basic overclocking from a forum I'm with, but Most of this DFI and SATA stuff I am new to. So I am back in the newb stage of confusion lol. So much stuff I know nothing about or never heard of(BIOS has alot of interesting head scratching material). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmf Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 Turn off raid in bios..make sure sata drive is enabled in Genie bios. Take off ide drives. Install windows on sata. Reconnect ide drives. You don't have to enable or install raid for your sata. Windows recognizes the sata as a pata and goes on to install. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frost75 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 OK, but is there perhaps anyway to take off RAID without reinstalling windows? If I have a choice I would prefer not to reinstall again. If I have to though oh well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmf Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 Since you've only been running your system for 1 day it can't be too hard to reinstall. Better a clean install than a messed up one you keep trying to fix. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frost75 Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 True enough yo. Alright I guess it's time to try a new setup. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wevsspot Posted December 26, 2005 Posted December 26, 2005 Cudos to HMF. Perfect solution. You cannot run 3 drives in a RAID array and expect them to operate independently. An array writes zeros to one drive and ones to another (splitting your data amongst the available drives). Start from scratch as already recommended, there isn't any way to reliably delete your array and expect your OS - or any other programs to work correctly because the data has already been split. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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