How to install RAID?

[dougbrad81]

hi,

i bought a promise fasttrax tx2 along with a western digital 40gb to go along with the one i already have. my question is, should i format the hd i'm currently using, or will that be done installation. also should both drives be set under master or cable select? thanks in advance for any help.

 

[SuperCheetah]

Check out these threads. It has lots of info on raid and its performance and uses.

http://www.3dspotlight.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=541

http://www.3dspotlight.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1063

http://www.3dspotlight.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=702

You'll have to set up the raid arrary through the controller in the bios more than likely. You'll have to reformat both drives since the raid will be reading and writing to both drives (unless you have Raid 1). This can be done after you set up the raid array and boot from the installation CD. You'll need preferably the newest drivers for your controller on a floppy disk, as I know XP will ask for them (if you happen to being using XP). Other than that the setup and installation of raid should be pretty straightforward. I did it for the first time not too long ago without any help, just me and the guide and I made it fine.

I believe if you put the drives under cable select you'll get a little better performance under raid. I'm not sure about this, but I've had my drives both ways and not really noticed a huge difference, IMO you should set them to cable select, but check with the manufactorer first!

 

[boeingfixer]

Super is correct, follow his links to the "Storage Mainia" group. The topic of RAID has been asked several times and I believe the threads have been merged so its in one group.

On my RAID, I set both drives to MASTER and put them on separate channels. You need not worry about formatting until you install XP. Make sure you have your RAID drivers on a 3.5 floppy and start the XP install with the 3.5 in the disk drive. Pay attention to the bottom of the screen and hit "F6" when prompted to load the "Third Party" controllers for your RAID. If you need anymore help, just ask !!

 

[dougbrad81]

thanks for your help guys. hopefully won't have any problems.

 

[dougbrad81]

hi,
i seem to be having a minor problem with my RAID. i've set it up as raid 0. when my system boots, the pc bios comes on and says no hd were detected. then the fastrax bios comes up and detects the drives and says to press f1 to continue. after that everything's fine. is there anyway to get rid of that message? thanks in advance for any help.

 

[SuperCheetah]

Have you set the Hard Drives as your primary boot devices??? I think this is your problem. Try this and see what happens.

 

[dougbrad81]

the hd is setup is the primary boot divice. i have no ideas so more suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[SuperCheetah]

Hmmm...I don't exactly know what your bios looks like so I can't say. I had to set my bios to detect the ATA100RAID on both drives before it would find my raid setup and boot. Then again, I have a built-in controller chip and I assume your using a controller card. Try upgrading the bios and drivers of your controller card and see what happens:

http://www.promise.com/support/mix_dwn_eng.asp?product_id=8&family_id=2

Also, there is an installation guide on this same page if you haven't already seen it. I assume there is some setting in the controller card bios or utility that will allow you to do modify the boot to boot directly to the raid setup. Look around look new bios and drivers and check if there is any utilities you can use to try and tell your bios to check if there is a raid setup. Sorry I can't help you more, but the best thing you can do is look around for yourself, or maybe someone else here will have a similar card and can help more.

 

[Didou]

You can try disabling HDD auto detection in your BIOS. By default it will try to detect all the drives on your IDE bus at each startup. Setting it to None / Disabled should work.

 

[dougbrad81]

thanks Didou. that did the trick.

 

[dougbrad81]

i was wondering: for a gaming pc, what should the stripe size be set to?