questions on new XP Pro Install with Raid 0

[MR2MAGIC]

Hallo Everyone,

 

i am the proud owner of the system noted in my sig. Up until now i haven't had any large problems with regards to configuring my system, as of yesterday i'm a bit stuck :eek:

For the past year and a bit i've been running the system with only one HDD without any probs. Now i've got a second drive and would like to do a new install using raid 0. The searches i did gave me the info that i should install to IDE, create the raid array and then install again onto raid. I tried this but for some reason i can't get my system to boot from the IDE HDD??

 

Bios Notes:

S-ATA or SCS Card Boot = S-ATA

First Boot Device = Floppy

Second Boot Device = CDROM

Thrid Boot Device = SCSI

 

IDE HDD Attached to primary controller and jumpered as slave (tried master aswell, no result)

 

Any ideas on this? Am i doing something completely wrong

[linears4]

i have an infinity ultra rev a,

and two maxtor sata in raid 0.

to install so on the raid,or on a partition of that,first i create the raid set,at boot up hitting

ctrl+s.

then booting from the windows xp cd,pushed f6 and inserted the floppy with the silicon image sata raid driver.(bundled with the mobo)

 

after that the installing procedure is classical..

 

to boot from the raid you have to enable sata raid in bios setting.

[owcraftsman]

Boot to Bios and Check your "Advanced Bios Features" list and make sure that "Boot other Device" is ENABLED. and HDD1 etc. is somewhere in the boot order. Also I would make sure your IDE cable is connected to the primary IDE Channel (see DFI manual) and that your HDD is set to Cable Select or Master depending on Mfg. recomendations. Unfortunately atleast in my case I cannot boot to sata with this bios setting which is rather inconveinent if dual boot system is your goal, which means you must go to your bios's previous settings inorder to boot to sata 0. Of course this is assuming I read your question right. It may help when asking such a question to: mention current bios, and list all HDD's in question in your sig. Then in your question add all bios settings currently regarding BOOTing, IE a screen shot of ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES and the order/steps you took to install all of the above from 1st boot. All of which helps us give you the right anwser. There is simply to much to go wrong for us to imagine what you did. Good Luck!

[Shinobi]

Lets see if i've understood you right, you've bought another IDE HardDrive and so now you want to run them both in Raid 0 on your LanParty B?

LanParty B doesn't support IDE Raid, only SATA Raid. You'll have to buy a PCI IDE RAID Card if you want to use IDE Raid on these boards, or buy IDE to SATA Adapters.

[Shinobi]

Bios Notes:

S-ATA or SCS Card Boot = S-ATA

First Boot Device = Floppy

Second Boot Device = CDROM

Thrid Boot Device = SCSI

 

Thats setup to boot from your SATA Drives.

If you want to boot from your IDE set it up like this.

 

First Boot Device = Floppy

Second Boot Device = CDROM

Third Boot Device = HDD-0

 

Thats where you've gone wrong...

[jeremywills]

i concur

[loggan26]

Em i am confused i thought he got a 2nd hdd and wanted to pair it with his first to make a stripe (raid0).

[loggan26]

Em i am confused i thought he got a 2nd hdd and wanted to pair it with his first to make a stripe (raid0). This is the way the first post reads to me at least. OR .........

 

Does he have 3 hdd then, 1x hdd on the primary IDE channel and the other 2 setup as raid0 on the sata controlers? As the other posts suggests.....

[Shinobi]

Em i am confused i thought he got a 2nd hdd and wanted to pair it with his first to make a stripe (raid0). This is the way the first post reads to me at least. OR .........

 

Does he have 3 hdd then, 1x hdd on the primary IDE channel and the other 2 setup as raid0 on the sata controlers? As the other posts suggests.....

I thought that at first Loggan, till i looked at his sig. I was gonna say, you can't run IDE Raid on these boards, only Sata Raid, unless you bought Sata Adapters of course...

 

Yeah hes got 3 HardDrives. But you don't have to put an install on a seperate drive(he was using his IDE drive) first to be able to Raid the 2 Satas do you? Thats what hes saying he was doing.

[MR2MAGIC]

Hi Guys,

 

exactly that is what i read when looking through old posts. The ideal way to install XP to raid is to first install on ide, then to configure raid and then to install on sata. The idea was to optimize the cluster size because XP sets the cluster size as 4KB whereas the raid controller allows 16/32.

Now i have no idea whether this is correct or not ) (Yep i'm a noob)

 

Anyways...i've now managed to install ´xp on to the raid 0 system but only through using the SI3114R5 driver. This causes some kind of conflict because my hardware manager shows a big yellow question mark next to "raid controller". If i use the SI3114R driver windows won't start!! Any ideas???

[loggan26]

What is a sill SI3114R5 driver?????? Am wondering about the (R5) bit on the end?

You should try using this driver......1.0.0.7 http://s19.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1CR7PF4...A53I7P6SYFWLGVW

this is the driver that most users use here......That way you know you have the right one....

Um just one other thing i have set up Xp on raid0 since Xp was first released and i "aquired" a copy . Never, not once have i ever set up using a 3rd hdd drive, i understand that you are only going by the advice you have researched on Google, but just as a side note you dont have to go that route.

 

Things you need to go about setting up Raid0.

1. 2 X Sata Hdd same make model and size preferably. (Or same IDE HDD's with sata adapters)

2. Xp on a cd.

3. Sil raid driver (Link above) on floppy disc.

4. Partition Magic 8.5 on 2 floppy discs (optional).

 

Setup HDD for Raid0

1. Setup your Hdd's on your motherboard. I.e. on Sata channels or using Sata connectors for IDE.

2. Power up Pc and hit Del to Enter Cmos Setup. Go to Genie Bios Setup and Scroll down and Enable the Sata Raid option. Save and Exit to Reboot.

3. On Reboot hit Ctrl + S or F4 to enter the Raid Bios.

4. Both your HDD should be recognised by the Raid Bios. I.e.

 

Press or F4 to enter raid Utility

(0) Hitachi XXXXXXXX 80GB

(1) Hitachi XXXXXXXX 80GB

(2)

(3)

Sil Raid Set Hitachi Deskstar 80GB

Hitachi Deskstar 80GB

 

If not then you have to set the jumpers correctly for Master or Cable Select on the back of the HDD's.

5. Select Create Raid Set at the first screen. And hit Enter. Select Raid0 - Striped from the listed options. Answer Y to the prompt.

6. Select Manual Configuration

7. Select your HDD to be used in the Striped Array. i.e (0) + (1).

8. Select your Stripe Size i.e. 32k - 16k etc....

9. Hit Ctrl & E to Exit and Save.

 

Pre Format HDD's before Winblows has a chance too

1. This part is optional especially if you dont have Partition Magic 8.5. Boot your Pc from the Floppy drive with both PM8.5 floppys.

2. Create a 10GB Primary Fat32 partition to install XP too. (I have never tried NTFS at this size)

3. Choose either 32k clusters or 16k cluster size.

4. While your here you can partition and format the rest of your stripe as it is a lot quicker and does a far better job that Winblows does.

5. Apply the jobs and when its finished Exit to reboot.

 

Installing XP on your Patitioned & Pre Formatted stripe

1. Boot Pc from the CDrom with XP CD inserted.

2. Hit any key to run the XP Install.

3. At the F6 Prompt hit the F5 and the F6 buttons quickly.

4. When prompted insert the 1.0.0.7 driver on floppy and scroll if nessecary to choose the XP driver.

5. Proceed following the prompts and you will be asked which "HAL" you wish to install. I.e. Standard PC etc. Again scroll up and down and choose Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC option.

6. Follow the usual winblows prompts untill you get to the "Choose a partition to install winblows to" screen. Here choose the 10GB C: partition.

7. When prompted to format using Winblows choose the 5th option to "Proceed leaving all as is".

8. Proceed with normal Winblows instalation.

 

This is a rough guide that i have used for years now and i have had no problems with an install. I realise there will be others who would rather use NTFS file system, for those folks they will have to test and try and see how it fares. .

XP likes to be installed to its own partition. I.e do not install programs to your XP partition. Create other partitons for your apps/media/games/my docs etc. ONly XP on the C partiton nothing else. Force all apps to one of the other partitons. Thats pretty easy to do....

1. Open Regedit from Cmd prompt/Run

2. Goto Edit - Find and type ProgramFilesDir

3. Double click the ProgramFilesDir value and change the C:Program Files to I.e. D:Program Files or the partition you wish to use as your apps directory.

4. Do the same with the CommonFilesDir Value as well. I.e. D:CommonFilesDir.

5. Close Regedit and reboot Pc.

6. Open C:Program Files and Select All, including "hidden files". Copy and Paste too your new D:Program Files Directory. (DO NOT delete the old C:Program Files Directory or some Winblows programs will not work.)

7. From now on all your new installed Apps should now default to D:Program Files etc, keeping your XP partition "Bloat Free".

[MR2MAGIC]

Hi loggan26,

 

the R5 is the newest driver that i could find on the SiliconImage website. It seems to be a beta version. I wonder what is causing the problem??

 

As to your install: Unfortunately i have already created a single partition and installed XP on it I do have PartitionMagic at hand though. Would it be possible to follow your route after having installed XP already?? Would my route explain why my Atto benchmarks give me a transfer rate of round about 100MB/s ????

 

Compared to some that i've seen that is exceptionally slow!

 

Any help getting the raid controller installed properly and any tips for increasing the transfer rate of the array are welcome

 

)

 

Thanks for your help so far

 

MR2MAGIC

 

By the way, the tip with the ide drive came from this forum )