Installing Windows with RAID 0

[vortec4800]

So I just bought a Silicon Image RAID controller, and set up my RAID 0 array on my two 80gig drives. I don't have a floppy disk with the drivers on it for the windows installer, which will only take a floppy with the drivers in a special format. If I don't put in the drivers, Windows complains that there's no hard drive to install to. How should I put the files on the floppy so Windows Installer will recognize them and use them?

 

[Dark Assassin]

First off, which motherboard do you have? Secondly, what brand and model hard drives do you have?

My guess is that you need to take a blank floppy onto another computer and download the drivers onto it. That's what I had to do for my Abit motherboard.

"Pretty standard, really..." - Dr. Evil, Austin Powers

Dark Assassin

 

[vortec4800]

Yeah after fiddling with it for a while I got it to work. It needed some setuptxt.oem file or something of the sort which wasn't included in the driver package I first got, but after a little searching I found a newer one that had the file. Anyway I got it all working and I'm using it now, works great!

 

[Dominat0r]

hey post some benchmarks on your testing....I heard Silicon image cards are awful and make upgrading to a raid system almost not worth it.

Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[vortec4800]

It seems faster to me, but I have no numbers to prove it. Gimme some benchmarks to run and I'll post em here.

 

[Dominat0r]

HDtach, Sandra, atto all have benchmarks.

 

[vortec4800]

Here are some test results from HDtach

First is the RAID0 array, which consists of 2 80 gig drives, both 8 meg cache. One is a WD and the other is a Maxtor. The RAID controller is a Silicon Image PCI controller, which supports up to ATA133 (PCI can't go this fast, but the card does anyway).

Second test is my other HDD, which is a 60 gig WD attached to my motherboard's onboard IDE. It's only a 2 meg cache, so that could slow things down a bit.