IDE RAID 0 not recognized on W2K reinstall

[PaulAC]

Hi.

I have a little issue with my RAID 0 array I created in my old computer. I had W2K SP4 installed, and the array was reading just fine. Then, when I had to swap out an old hard drive and reinstall W2K, the new install won't "see" the RAID 0 partitions (they aren't showing up in explorer). The BIOS sees the hard drives, and the RAID utility sees an active array and partitions, but I can't find the partitions on the array in the OS.

I don't know if this will help, but the RAID is onboard on a Gigabyte Mobo with the IT8212 chipset. The array was created using the Gigabyte RAID software utility.

Any ideas? Reinstall OS again?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Nodsu]

Install the drivers for the RAID controller/motherboard?

Did you apply SP4 to this new installation? Maybe you need LBA48 support to work with the array?

 

[PaulAC]

SP4 installed

I have installed SP4, and all motherboard drivers that came with the mobo, but none of the other Microsoft updates yet. I don't use this particular computer for internet intensive work (offline computer), so I don't log it onto the net regularly for the exhaustive updates M$ provide.

In its previous incarnation, the computer was running W2K SP4 and seemed to run the array just fine. Maybe the newest version of the motherboard software might fix this problem. I'll check their website.

Thanks for the response.

Paul

 

[Tedster]

If you swapped out 1 HD, your RAID is no more. This is because RAID (Redundant Array of Independant Disks) uses 2 or more hard drives to achieve speed or redundancy (or both depending upon the type of array.) You will need to format ALL hard drives, and reinstall your RAID drivers when reinstalling windows. Right now, the OS is probably picking up a partial array and is getting confused.

 

[PaulAC]

I fixed my problem

I didn't swap out a RAID HD. I swapped out another. What I discovered is that for some strange reason, when I reinstalled W2K, it did not automatically recognize the drive, even though the device manager recognized that there were two IDE storage devices on the RAID 0 and 2 IDE channels. What I had to do was go into the administrative tools and enter the Computer Management app, use the Disk Manager to set up the RAID array as a dynamic drive (when I first set up my array, this was done automatically), and assign a drive letter.

Thanks for everyone's advice.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Nodsu]

Eww.. Why didn't you say that you are using (the evil, evil, evil) dynamic disks!

The Microsoft proprietary DD partitions are not plug-and-play like the standard PC partitions and if you move dynamic disks between systems (or reinstall), they have to be imported manually.

 

[PaulAC]

Duh... didn't know

When I first set up the RAID0 array, I used a software utility proprietary to my motherboard (Gigabyte=manufacturer). I have to assume that this software uses Microsoft's inherent dyanamic disk system when it sets up the array. So, I plead ignorance of yet another defective aspect of (most/all of) the Microsoft OS's. How they gained market dominance is beyond me. My Linux OS runs so much smoother, but emulators just don't have the same effect as the native OS, so I dual boot. In other words, M$ isn't my first language : )

Cheers,

Paul