Nforce4 Ultra-D/SLI-DR/SLI-D RAID Tutorial (updated first post)

[PORSCHE911]

HI guys I'm having major difficulties setting up my new computer in RAID 0 with 2 raptors and the Lan Party SLI Expert. I set up BIOS and configured the drives in striping that's all fine but when it comes to installing the nvraid in with F6 it says insert disk in A so I do and it never reads it just keeps repeating the same thing. Anybody ever run into this before? Thanks very much for your help.

[PORSCHE911]

Nevermind got it working!

[Angry_Games]

911']Nevermind got it working!

how'd ya fix it?

[ridikolous]

i've heard that you can do a raid 0 on a single harddrive, only if you have it partition into 2 drives.. is this information true?

[dissident]

there would be no point in raid 0 on a single drive... the whole reason to raid a drive is for performance.

 

I do have a question... is it possible to run 3 drives in raid 0 on the nvidia controller and still overclock? I've heard that some can't overclock past 240htt with drives in sata 1 and 2.

[Anospa]

When you put two drives together in a RAID 0, what happens when its time to upgrade? Any way to keep the drives together? I'm not really sure how the swapping in and out of drives would work, know you can't do it with the array running at all or add any new ones in once you start it. Any ideas?

[old_geekster]

Angry, thanks for the terrific guide on setting up RAID! It couldn't be simpler to follow.

 

I have two of the same drives used in the guide and want to setup RAID 0. However, I don't have a floppy drive in my computer.

 

I copied the drivers from the floppy disk (SATA RAID Driver Disk; nVIDIA nF4; Silicon Image 3114; Rev.1.0) to a CD using my old box. I checked and they are all there.

 

Will my DVD drive work the same as a floppy drive?

 

I can't believe it won't, but before I eliminate all of the work that I have gone through to format and partition the drives, I want to verify that it will positively work.

 

Thanks!

[red930]

It's possible it might work, but many people slipstream the drivers right onto the Windows XP disc using nlite. Google it, you'll find some support for it.

 

Best way to install drivers and servicepacks in my opinion.

[PORSCHE911]

how'd ya fix it?

 

Actually it was something dumb. The USB keyboard selection in the BIOS was disabled. LOL yeah I know

[old_geekster]

It's possible it might work, but many people slipstream the drivers right onto the Windows XP disc using nlite. Google it, you'll find some support for it.

 

Best way to install drivers and servicepacks in my opinion.

Thanks for your reply, technodanvan.

 

I downloaded nlite. Now, I will see what I can do about slipstreaming the drivers onto the WinXP disk. Hopefully, I won't corrupt the disk.

[old_geekster]

It's possible it might work, but many people slipstream the drivers right onto the Windows XP disc using nlite. Google it, you'll find some support for it.

 

Best way to install drivers and servicepacks in my opinion.

Thanks for the help, technodanvan!

 

I did what you suggested. I downloaded "nlite"; slipstreamed the drivers; burned the ISO to a disk, but had no luck getting the drivers to load.

 

So, I went to trusty ole Walmart and purchased a USB 2X floppy drive. It worked great.

 

I am using my new RAID Stripe as I type. :nod:

 

I do notice some increase in speed from simply using the two drives separately.

[dmo580]

Question: If I don't use a slipstreamed SP2 installation, and I have 2 x 250gb 7200.9s in RAID-0, I will have a problem creating partitions right? (without RAID, I usually have the partitions created with Seagates tools, and so I will have the first few partitions show up, and the rest won't because of the 137gb problem, but once I install SP2, everything is fine)

 

Also, can I use Seagate's tools to create the partitions on the RAID array or do I need to do something special?