Adding raptors to RAID 0 boot drive Nvidia MediaShield

[imported_coolcase]

I'm getting 2 additional WD raptors on 1/28/06 to add to an existing RAID 0 drive set - off of which XP boots. The nvidida nforce 4 documentation clearly says that you can add drives to a RAID 0 set witihin windows, without data loss, using the Nviida MediaShield utility.

However, it's not clear if you can do this - that is add a drive without data loss within windows - on a boot drive. Has anyone done this or do you know if it can be done?

Thanks ....

 

[imported_coolcase]

Well ... the answer is yes!! (And actually, it is in the Nvidia documentation that you can morph a boot array, pg. 144 of the pdf, under Media Shield frequently asked questions, Array Morphing Questions.)

I added the two new raptors and used MediaShield to add the 2 new drives to the existing stripe set. It chugged away to 'upgrade' to the new stripe. It took 30 minutes to convert the 69GB stripe into the new 137 GB stripe. Windows ran the entire time; and all files and programs were accessible. Cpu idle temps went from 33 C to 43. It might have been a little faster to have created the new stripe with DOS-like utility and then repopulated the new stripe with a Ghost backup image of the drive. But, it's a bit of a pain doing this ... loading the RAID drivers from floppies, booting on the Norton CD, etc.

I have praise Nvidia for this providing this nice utilty - very nifty, and quite easy to do.