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help setting up raid 5...

E

Everfalling

Gawd
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
676
Ok, so i got my equipment, now i just gotta put the stuff together. this'll be the first time i've ever set up something like this, so i wanna make sure i get everything right, cause i got one computer and i dont wanna fuck it up. I'm going for a raid 5 setup. So here is my hardware:

Highpoint RocketRaid 2320: http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/rr2320.htm
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=148&model=375&modelmenu=1
5x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L300S0 300GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144421

Running windows XP

So, i need to know if these parts will work to gether (all previous threads i've made about which raid card i should get say the 4x will fit into the PCIe x16 slot (the other x16 slot is filled with an Nvidia 7800 GTX oc vid card, so keep that in mind) and how i should set up my motherboard and how to set all my hard drives to work on raid 5. also, if anyone could help me understand how to set up the software and stuff in laymens terms that'd be great, cause i flipped through the rocketraid manuel and it's all kinda greek to me... thanks for your help! I'll prolly end up printing this stuff out before i start to install it all...
 
am I understanding this correctly: You have a working WinXP install, which boots of some HDD connected to your motherboard?

If so, I'd do this to be "on the safe side":
  1. insert RR2320 into the PCIe slot that you have for it.
  2. reboot, get into windows.
  3. check the Highpoint-tech website for a BIOS update and updated drivers.
  4. if there is a new bios, update it
  5. else install latest drivers in windows
  6. reboot
  7. verify correct driver install
  8. shutdown
  9. connect single MAxtor drive to RAid card
  10. power up
  11. run maxtor util to have drive work as single drive
  12. verify that drive can be seen in disk management MMC
  13. shutdown
  14. install and connect the other drives
  15. power up
  16. run raid management software
  17. select option that is called something like "create RAID array
  18. select RAID-5 option, add ALL the drives
  19. wait a couple of hours
  20. after array initialization is done successfully, use disk management MMC to partition space
  21. format new space
  22. be happy

optionally, you may want to consider running the maxtor diagnostics on the drives first to verify that they are "good".
 
it seems the manuel suggests i:
1. put in the RR2320
2. connect all hard drives to it
3. boot up and wait to see if it's detected
4. once detected, go into its bios and check if all the drives are detected, if not hook them up better.
5. once everything is up and detected, go into bios and select 'create' to create the raid.
6. login to windows and upload drivers.

sounds backwards to what you suggested. heh
 
well, i think the only reason I suggest to have the driver installed first is that creating the RAID from the GUI you will still be able to do other stuff. Doing it from the RAID BIOS will disable your PC for a while.
 
this is true. ok. i'll try it your way.

if, on the off chance i screw up, it'll only effect the already blank hard drives, and not my C drive at all right?
 
If you want to make sure, disconnect your C drive before setting up the array.
 
Everfalling said:
if, on the off chance i screw up, it'll only effect the already blank hard drives, and not my C drive at all right?
Click to expand...
Depends how you screw up. If you're in Windows, it likely won't let you do anything destructive to your C drive; in the card's BIOS you might be able to mess it up if it's connected to the controller. The safe way is probably to be in Windows, and double-check everything before you commit it to disk; then all should be well. If you end up setting it up through BIOS for whatever reason, it can't hurt to unplug the boot disk before you do so.

 
the c drive is gonna be completely seperate from the raid 5, so i dont have to worry about that i guess.
 
ok. did everything you said to do. but because of lack of forsight i faild to realize the drives i got only run offa the slim sata power cable and not the 3 pin, so i gotta buy 3 adapters.

but so far the highpoint raid manager detects the one drive i plugged in. the only thing is, 'my computer' doesn't show the drive as existing. is this normal? will it only show up after the raid has been set up?

also, how to i update the bios? the site says i gotta boot in a dos only environment. donno exactly what that means (disconnect the C drive maybe?) or how i'd access the new bios once i got into an all dos environment.

thanks for your help so far, drizzt81
 
Is the drive detected in the Disk Management MMC though?
It wont show up under my computer until its formatted, but it should show up in disk management.
 
Everfalling said:
ok. did everything you said to do. but because of lack of forsight i faild to realize the drives i got only run offa the slim sata power cable and not the 4 pin, so i gotta buy 3 adapters.

but so far the highpoint raid manager detects the one drive i plugged in. the only thing is, 'my computer' doesn't show the drive as existing. is this normal? will it only show up after the raid has been set up?
Click to expand...
yes, this is normal. You will need to set them up in the disk management mmc in order to use them. Until they are at least partitioned, they will not show up in My Computer.

also, how to i update the bios? the site says i gotta boot in a dos only environment. donno exactly what that means (disconnect the C drive maybe?) or how i'd access the new bios once i got into an all dos environment.

thanks for your help so far, drizzt81
Click to expand...
you'd need a boot-floppy with a DOS command line or a boot CD. Since the BIOS update is likely to do little if much difference (check the changelog) you may want to consider skipping that step.
 
what if disc management doesn't see them, but my raid controller does? should i just be worried about the controller seeing them until i have the array set up?
 
Everfalling said:
what if disc management doesn't see them, but my raid controller does? should i just be worried about the controller seeing them until i have the array set up?
Click to expand...
Until the disk/array/whatever is "initialized", Disk Management will not detect it. Device Manager may see the disk or controller as "unknown device" or "hpt device". Once the initialization is completed, however, Disk Management should pick up the drive/array/whatever immediately. (It did on my 2220, anyway.)
 
ok. need a little tip here. i'm setting up the raid 5, and it gives me two options for the cache policy: Write Back or Write Through

Write Back:when the write-back setting is selected, all write requests sent to the array are cached. This will result in higher performance, but data loss may occur in case of a power failure.

Write Through: when the write-through setting is selected, all write requests sent to the array are psased directly to the disks. However, subsiquent reads may still be completed from the cache if appropriate.

i dont like the sound of the data loss part on the write back, but then again an increase in performance would be nice. donno how the second option works though.

anyone got any advice on which i should choose?
 
Is your machine on an UPS with automated shutdown? Do you have a BBU for your card? If yes to either, it's probably safe to enable write back. However, I suggest you find an article about this and read more before you decide.

 
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