Spdrmn Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 Hey guys, I am attempting my first raid setup. However i heard there has been issues with certain issues with some drivers working. Which driver should I get ( be specific please). I am planning on a stripe raid on two 250 gb disks. Any suggestions?:confused: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spdrmn Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 Does the raid slots matter? Sata slots 1-4 might differ from 5-8, in terms of which drivers you use? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3stars Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 your sata slots need to correspond to the raid chip that you using i find it best to do a slipstreamed install http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=284&p=1 this is a goods guide Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiro_uspsss Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 use the SATA ports provided by the nF4 chipset - NOT the Silicon Image.. there will be two seperate clusters with 4 ports per cluster... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loggan26 Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 Slipstream them like 3Stars suggested, it saved me a lot of grief. And that would be the NVraid and not the SIl3114r. Logan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk21770 Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 How do you get the nVidia raid to work without their IDE drivers? (They cause problems with other apps that I use). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loggan26 Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 Load the default windows ide drivers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk21770 Posted September 26, 2006 Posted September 26, 2006 I tried it that way a long time ago and it wouldn't recognize the array -- just 2 SATA hard disks with the wrong capacity. I gave up on it and went to the Si. But, I'm pretty sure that the Si is limiting my speed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jo blo Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 I just did a RAID-0 array on two WD SATAII 250GB drives. This is my boot drive, so I did not have the luxury or running the nForce package from within the OS. After a lot of wasted effort, I used the nLite meathod (nLite homepage: http://www.nliteos.com/index.html) , which the short-media.com link refers to. The nLite forums have a long running thread (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...29entry356029) on how best to slipstream the RAID drivers, and it's updated constantly. I think that's where you'll get the best information. I used the latest meathod with the 6.86 nForce drivers. Prior meathods required that you use older drivers. First update your bios to the latest (I use the releases on the DFI site) -- sometimes a bios update contains a new RAID bios that can break an existing array. Setup the RAID in bios before you try to do the install. When the array is set up, you should not see the drives in the Basic Bios settings. I used 16k stripe and the NTFS default 4k cluster size. You set the stripe size when you set up the array in BIOS, and the cluster size when you format the array. If you format the array with the Windows CD at install, you have no option to change the cluster size, and even if you could (3rd party aps) I hear you run into problems by straying from the 4k default. Not worth any incremental performace gain to me. Disconnect any IDE drives before installation, as Windows really likes to install the MBR on an IDE drive, even if you direct it to install to the RAID array. You can reconnect them aftere the OS has installed. It's invaluable to have another machine to burned the slipstreamed install discs on. My DFI machine was down for several days before I arrived at a working install. I think I burned 2 coasters before I got a good one. There is a learning curve. Also depends on how ambitious you are with the tweaks and add-ons you can do with nLite. I had to take one RAM stick out to get the OS to boot at first. After all the drivers were installed in Windows I put the stick back in with no problems. I have always used the Nvidia IDE drivers with this board (about a year) with no problems. Most of that time was with just the Seagate drive (see sig). The RAID array has worked for me for about a month now on the Nvidia drivers without any problems. I should say though that I haven't overclocked it and I don't play games on it. A word of caution: with the nLite slipstreamed install, I get "Windows File Protection" warnings with every application and hardware install. These can be cancelled without problems. At best this is just annoying, at worst there is a deeper problem lurking, waiting for a crucuial moment. Quite a number of people are having this problem with nLite. See http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=44048 . I'm currently putting serious consideration into trying again to reinstall the OS without nLite to get rid of the problem. If you don't care about having Windows File Protection, a work around is to turn it off. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loggan26 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 JoBlo does that not mean that you have WFP turned off due to NLite disabling it????????? Turning it back on would save you reloading your OS...... One of the reasons i dont like using NLite is that it does "stuff" under the hood some are not sure off, i like to do my own slipstream with all hotfixes and tweaks, programs, drivers, silent install etc and do it Manually. Since i have started a NF4 build its the first time i have turned to NLite to get the NVraid drivers to install, and only for that, everything else is still done manually except the slip of the nvraid driver..... David when you say tried it before do you mean from the xp install at the blue textmode part of the install, or do you mean you uninstalled it once windows was loaded???????????? Logan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk21770 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 It was not for my boot drive -- so I installed it after windows was installed. EDIT: And, when I installed XP onto my add-in raid card, I had no problems with having it read the drivers from a floppy. But I seem to remember that you're limited to what you can fit on a single floppy... Ie., not sure why you need to slipstream the drivers onto the install disc -- especially considering the problems you're reporting with nLite? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loggan26 Posted September 27, 2006 Posted September 27, 2006 Hmm i was just trying to figure some stuff out that is all, initially when i set up the build i had a single maxt80gb on the primary ide. This used the windows default ide drivers or if i liked the Nvidia unified sw ide driver......... Since i have set up raid though, this is not the case, i see now that as my 2xhdd Raid0 stripe are the boot drive there is no option for windows default or nv sw ide in the device manager. The Nvraid driver has installed its driver and it is shared with both the raid and ide channels....so i guess there is no way to load the normal windows default or the sw ide drivers if i use the nvraid as my boot.............. Logan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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