Going to give Raid 0 a try...How to Install XP

[visick]

I currently have a 100gb WD hdd with WinXP pro installed on it.

I bought a Promise TX4 Raid controller and want to take 2 40gb Maxtor hdd's and do a Raid 0 with them. I wanted to then use the 100gb for back-up and for critical stuff. I also have a dvd-burner for backups.

I want to install WinXP on the Maxtors. What do I do?

I currently have an IWill P4HT mobo with an onboard Promise Ultra-133 controller that I have my 100gb hdd on.

Do I unplug the 100gb drive and try to install XP on the 40gb's first?

Do I setup the 40gb drives by going into the Promise Raid bios first? Then when WinXP is setting up, hit F6 and install drivers?I tried a few combinations already to no avail. When XP asked me where to install it showed a partition with the 2 Maxtor drives, but when I tried to select a drive, I think XP only detects 1 of the drives.

Is there a step-by-step web site around? The Promise site/manual is of ZERO help...

Thanks in advance

visick

[enyceexdanny]

Once you build your array with the RAID promise utility, windows setup will see it as 1 drive.

It is a good idea to remove the other drive while setting up your RAID. I always do, just so that the drive letter scheme doesn't get screwed up. (which did a few times in the past)

[visick]

so build the array 1st, with the 100gb drive unplugged.

then after the reboot, install the raid drivers by hitting F6?

XP then sees 1 partition, but 2 drives. I assume I install on the partion drive huh?

[visick]

I first built the array. For Performance/A-V Editing. No Problems here.

Then after XP reboots, I hit F6 to install TX4 drivers. No Problems so far.

Install XP, then F8 (Lic. Agreement) and I get to which drive I want to install on. Gets a bit confusing for me here.

Partioning:
2 HDD's are now seen. C and D.
C: Partition 1 39198mb
D: Partition 2 39205mb
Unpartitioned space:8mb.

Isn't XP suppose to see only 1 drive?
Have I made a mistake somewhere?
The drives are both set to master and I have a drive on IDE 1 and the other on IDE 2 of the Promise card. ( The 100gb drive was disconnected.)

What gives?

Help...:confused: :confused:

[m1abram]

It looks like you have not actually made the RAID array yet. Make sure to go back through your RAID software utilty again and make sure you actually built the array on the two drives.

XP should only see 1 drive that is 2x the capacity of the 1 drive is you are doing a RAID0.

[visick]

I hit Auto Setup at the Promise bios and this should build it for me right?

Am I missing anything else to build it?

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
I hit Auto Setup at the Promise bios and this should build it for me right?

Am I missing anything else to build it?

Well I am not familiar with the Promise bios, however with Highpoint you do have to say more than just Auto Setup. Did you specify RAID0 and pick the two drives? Does the Promise card even see the two drives?

[visick]

yes to both.
looks like it's working. even says it's a bootable array.

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
yes to both.
looks like it's working. even says it's a bootable array.

Then the XP install should only see 1 drive, unles you made two partitions with the array before installing XP.

Also did you make sure that you pressed F6 and supplied the promise drivers for the XP install? Course if you did not then you should not see ANY drives.

[visick]

I finally got it working, I think.
I'm posting from the machine right now.

I took the drives out and formatted them in a test machine that I have. I built the array and got it to work.

XP saw a 80gb (about) at hd0 and installed on it.

I thing though. In My Computer, The main C drive is only being seen as 40gb (about).

Any ideas?

[visick]

When I open Computer Management, Disk 1 (C) is seen as:
38.29 GB Healthy and 38.28 GB unallocated.

[visick]

I just re-connected my 100gb drive and XP assigned it C, when before the Raid array was C. Man this sucks...:mad:

[visick]

anyone?

[visick]

Going into the Promise Bios shows the array to be bootable, if this helps anyone.

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
I just re-connected my 100gb drive and XP assigned it C, when before the Raid array was C. Man this sucks...:mad:

This is not un-normal behaviour. Problem is Windows automatically assigns drive letters based on which controller and wether primary or master. The issue you are having is the Promise controller will be secondary to the onboard controller. It really should not be an issue since windows XP will gladly treat the D: drive as the root device. The Promise Bios has little to do with drive letter assignement. You may be able to reassign the drive letters, however I am not sure how.

Also the reason that half your drive is unallocated is because for some reason you only formatted half the drive. Your options to regain that space are in order of effort:
1. Format the unallocated space as another partition, then you will have 2 ~40GB partitions.
2. Use a program like partition magic to reformat the whole drive into one partion and hopefully not loose data (BACKUP FIRST).
3. Loose the data and start over to make a single 80 GB partition.

[visick]

That sucks. Man, my first journey into Raid and this is what happens? :mad: :mad:

Anyhow, thanks for your input m1abram. I already did #1 on your list. I may give #2 a try at some point. However, how could I do #3? Currently after doing #1, XP shows 2 40gb partitions and assigned each a drive letter. I re-arranged the drive letters now to show C as my 100gb drive, and D / E as the 2 40gb drives.

BTW- Would it work out if I changed the cd-rw and dvd-drive to the onboard controller and moved the 100gb drive to the IDE 1 controller if the Onboard Promise controller takes precedence over the added Promise Raid card?

Or would XP then just boot up with the 100gb drive anyhow as the C drive?

(I think I just answered my own question...)

[visick]

:confused: :confused:

[m1abram]

#3 option was assuming that somehow only 40GB of the 80GB got formatted. I am not sure how that happened, but somehow it did. You would start over from scratch and make sure that the whole raid is formated as 1 partition. XP install should have let you do this.

As for rearranging stuff drives, you can give it a try however the addon card will normally be lowest in the pick order.

[visick]

:confused:

[visick]

The array after a re-format isnow seen as 1 drive. (80gb)

However, I just hooked up the 100gb drive again, enabled the Onboard controller an XP pushed the array to D, and gave the 100gb drive C.

Anyone care to lend a hand?

[visick]

Nobody can tackle this one huh?

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
Nobody can tackle this one huh?

Really you do not have a problem to solve. The machine boots and operates fine right? Who cares if your boot device is labeled D drive.

I think i did stumble on a way around this a while back when I was playing with the issue. It involved making sure ALL drives where installed during XP install time, however that would require you to do yet ANOTHER install, which I am telling YOU NOT TO, it is not worth it. And hell I am not sure that will even work, it has been awhile since I played with that.

Just relax accept your boot device as it is with its lovely D letter.

You "may" be able to move drive letters around, however you can not move the boot device drive letter while it is active and you can not inactivate the boot device AFAIK, so you will need to somehow boot with another device then rearrange the letters. I have not done this so not sure how to do it.

[visick]

My boot device remains C, the 100gb drive.

When I disable the C drive (100gb hdd) on the Onboard controller, XP uses the Raid Array, formerly D, as the boot device.

The only time I can boot from the Raid array is if the Onboard device is disabled. When it's enabled, the Raid array gets bumped to D, and booting occurs from the 100gb hdd , now C.

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
My boot device remains C, the 100gb drive.

When I disable the C drive (100gb hdd) on the Onboard controller, XP uses the Raid Array, formerly D, as the boot device.

The only time I can boot from the Raid array is if the Onboard device is disabled. When it's enabled, the Raid array gets bumped to D, and booting occurs from the 100gb hdd , now C.

Ok check your BIOS startup order. Make sure that the RAID controller precedes the onboard. Sometimes the RAID controller is SCSI (even though yours is an IDE). I would remove the onboard from the startup order all together.

edit: and make sure that in the RAID bios that you defined which array is the boot device

[visick]

The problem is: There is no Raid or SCSI listing in my BIOS booting order.

I've tried to boot from Hdd 0, Hdd1 and Hdd2, all resulting in the 100gb drive booting up. (Even though it's connected to the onboard and NOT checked in the boot order.)

Weird huh?

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
The problem is: There is no Raid or SCSI listing in my BIOS booting order.

I've tried to boot from Hdd 0, Hdd1 and Hdd2, all resulting in the 100gb drive booting up. (Even though it's connected to the onboard and NOT checked in the boot order.)

Weird huh?

There is no other option in the BIOS to boot from an external controller, or SCSI device. That is odd. However if that is the case, do you have an avialable ide controller on the promise card? You do not want to run it as a slave to one of the drives in the raid and you do not want to run any of the raid drives as a slave either.

[visick]

The Promise Raid card has 4 IDE connectors. The 40 gig drives are at 1 and 2. The 100gb drive is connected to the Onboard Promise connected right to the mobo.

[m1abram]

Originally posted by visick
The Promise Raid card has 4 IDE connectors. The 40 gig drives are at 1 and 2. The 100gb drive is connected to the Onboard Promise connected right to the mobo.

Cool now just find out if the Promise controller will work with NON-RAIDed drives, it should however I remember a few years back Promise cards did not. i think they fixed that with a bios update. Anyhow if it will work with a non-raid drive put your 100g harddrive on the Promise raid controller, and only have optical drives on the onboard. That should solve your issues.

P.S. odd I am the only one helping out on this thread :(

[visick]

Thanks for your time m1abram. Much appreciated.

I'll give it a go with what you said and post back the results.