Burky Posted May 17, 2006 Posted May 17, 2006 Wow, that's pretty weird about the floppy disk thing. Anyway, I'll look up slipstreaming tomorrow and get it sorted then. Thanks. As for the RAID edition, it was like I said at the beginning of this thread that it was a total accident I ended up with a second disk; I initially followed a link through for an external harddisk, and bought it without checking the specs, but I was lucky enough that the disk is great value for what I paid anyway, so I'm happy. Hopefully I'll be even happier when I get RAID going. Thanks a lot you guys. [EDIT] I just read this page and on there it shows two power plug ins for the disk. My Caviar has this feature, but my normal disk doesn't. Is it necessary to plug power into both of these? I'd rather keep cabling to a minimum if possible, Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wwhat Posted May 17, 2006 Posted May 17, 2006 nonono!! never use both, they warn you should only use one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdingeling Posted May 17, 2006 Posted May 17, 2006 I used both on my 160GB HDD, it worked for a week, then I realised it wasn't supposed to be that way, so I took the molex out. But why do the SATA drives have diufferent power connectors, and there is still a molex connector on them? *confuzzed* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wwhat Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 SATA is meant to have SATA powerconnectors, but because initially nobody had those on their PSU, and many still don't, the manufacturers decided to do a legacy connector. Some PSU's and mobo's come with sata poweradaptors, but those aren't according to standard either because sata power is suppose to have 3.3 volts too and adaptors don't supply that, and in fact even most powersupply 'SATA' connectors don't, so HD makers just adapt to the reality of it all and make do with what they knew from the past, +5 and +12 and molex, and convert some of that to 3.3 volt if needed until perhaps one day PSU's come with the real sata power connectors. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burky Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 Thanks, I'd better unplug mine now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squid1 Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 The answer on all these questions only depends on what kind of RAID software you use (where the firmware on the hardware RAID controllers count as software). With my Linux software RAID I can stuff anything together. I ran raid-5 on three devices: one file inside a filesystem, one on a network filesystem and my USB mp3 player. Western Digital are generally amateurs when it comes to drive firmware, and when it comes to professional drives (no server line, no SCSI). So I am not surprised their normal firmware doesn't work for some RAID controllers. Any Seagate or Fujitsu should serve you just fine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wwhat Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 Uhm, who says WD doesn't work with RAID? they just have specialised RAID drives that work even better than standard. Not that seagates aren't excellent drives too. Just stay away from maxtor IMHO. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squid1 Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 Uhm, who says WD doesn't work with RAID? they just have specialised RAID drives that work even better than standard. No, they just don't have their own error recovery, that is the difference in the firmware. The RAID software would kick a drive out of the array in the time that the internal error recovery takes place. I highly doubt that this is overall "even better than the standard". It is much more likely that WD is patching up one of their usual firmware messes here. Just stay away from maxtor IMHO. That we can agree on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burky Posted May 18, 2006 Posted May 18, 2006 Yeh, I went out of my way to pay that $10 to get a decent brand. Next up from Maxtor was WD, and with 16mb cache, I'm not complaining. I only just moved up from IDE, so the speed is still kicking butt now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burky Posted June 3, 2006 Posted June 3, 2006 Bump. About the installing raid drivers. I'm not sure how to slipstream windows (I know there's a guide but it's a lot of hassle), and my floppy drives don't work. Could I not: -Put the drivers on a hard disk which is unaffected by the windows installation? -Put the drivers on a cd and load them from a seperate CD drive? My friend wants to swap me his WD SATA II caviar, which is identical to mine, for my Seagate Barracuda SATA, so I will have matched SATA II disks for the configuration. I will be installing it all on tuesday. My rig is almost finished now, I can't wait. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wevsspot Posted June 3, 2006 Posted June 3, 2006 Burky, the only two ways to get the RAID drivers installed are either by the floppy method or by slipstreaming. The slipstreaming process is extrememly easy using nLite. Just follow the tutorial. Alternately you can create yourself a new floppy. PM me with an email address or server location and I can send you the files off of my disk. Luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wevsspot Posted June 3, 2006 Posted June 3, 2006 Burky, RAID disk driver files emailed along with utility to unpack them. Be sure to follow the NF4 build guide here at the Street for a happy and stress free build. Cheers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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