Dell Precision 380 - OS Installation

[tomhanser]

I have a Dell Precision 380 with three physical drives (that I can see inside the case.) Windows only shows one drive, however.

I assume these three drives are a RAID array. This is my first machine with three drives like this.

I'm going to nuke the drive and install a clean OS - I guess I'll break down and purchase Windows 7.

My question is if I run a Windows retail installer disk, reformat the drive and install a clean OS, what, if any, problems will I run into? Will I end up with ONE physical drive again, like I do now?

I've done clean installs like this many times over the years but none on a system like this.

Any comments? When the installer runs and asks where you want to install to, do I see three drive letters? Or just one?

And while we're on the subject of Windows 7, if I buy the upgrade version can I do a clean install or does the old (XP) version need to be installed first?

Thanks!

 

[mpilchfamily]

If you don't rebuild the raid then it will install on one drive and the other drives will show as separate drives.

 

[Paperlantern]

Three drives? One Volume? Does the 380 support Hardware RAID 5? I have access to a couple of these machines in a retired state from work and i'm looking for a way of making a file server with hardware RAID 5 capability, if this supports it, i might look into using one.

 

[tomhanser]

Thanks for the reply. I've never worked with a RAID array at all.

I can only assume that when I install the OS, I'll see FOUR drive letters (there are four drives, not three like I mentioned earlier) but I'll install to ONE drive.

Then I later rebuild the RAID like you mentioned after Windows is installed, updated and running fine? Is that it?

Will I have to format all four drives prior to installing the OS?

Or is rebuilding the RAID something that's done prior to installing the OS?

Thanks much.

 

[Blazer]

before installing an os you should take the time to run memtest86+ on the ram, run the hd manufactures test in the extended mode on the hd's [each], then install the os.

as far raid, even if you plan at a latter time to migrate to raid you will still need to install the raid drivers for even a single hd, otherwise you will have to reinstall all over again as raid will require the bios be setup for raid and the driver there before you can build an os to the array.

 

[Paperlantern]

Well, with 4 drives, it is still possible that it is in RAID 5 if you have one volume, but it is also possible that its using RAID 10 (mirror and striping), which is the more likely scenario. If the array is already created, you do not need to break the array to install windows but you might need a driver disk in order to do the install. If you take down the array before installing windows and install to one drive, you CAN rebuild an array AFTER installing windows, but you would only be able to use it for data storage, as creating a RAID array usually destroys data on all drives included in the array, so ideally you wouldnt include your OS disk in the array.

 

[tomhanser]

Thanks, everyone.

Sounds like more work to build this RAID array than it's worth. I'm used to installing an OS to just one physical drive and have other physical drives as backup.

Why does the workstation even have this drive configuration in the first place? The only time I've ever seen RAID drives is for video editing or as a server- they need a LOT of drive space and can't afford to lose data.

I may just install the OS to ONE drive and leave it as is. I see in Control Panel\System Properties\Hardware\Device Manager these are Western Digital 80 Gb Raptor drives - WD800GD-75FLC3. I will end up with four drive letters but as long as I have drive space and the drives are error free who cares if they're a RAID build? Comments, please.

Speaking of installing Windows 7 - there isn't a driver set at this point for my ATI FireGL 3100 graphics card installed in this box. I may have to wait a while until ATI gets caught up. Or replace my graphics card!

Thanks again.

 

[Blazer]

could use the win 7 upgrade advisor to chk compatability, but the card may be way outdated.

 

[tomhanser]

Ran the compatibility advisor yesterday - it indicated I would have a problem with this card. Grrrrr...

Time for a new graphics card. I wish it were easier to pick out a card that was Win 7 compatible at this point. I use a Dell machine with Win 7 at work (it's BRAND NEW) so I'll look to see what graphics card is installed.

Thanks, everyone.

 

[Paperlantern]

Chances are Win7 wont have any issues with the card, I have a Precision Workstation 380 and Win7 installed just fine. Though i'm not sure if we have the same exact card, there's a good chance we do. If I were you, to make things easier, I would install your OS to one of those 4 drives (this keeps you from having to get complicated with floppy disks and raid drivers during windows install if necessary), then do one of two things. First, you could take one of the raptors out and leave 3 in the system, one of them being the OS disk, then mirror the other two using RAID 1 to have another 80GB data drive that is redundant. The other option is leave all disks in the machine, use one for the OS as previously stated, then use RAID 5 on the other three, to have a 160GB volume that is redundant, the only drawback here is you wont have a extra Raptor on hand if one fails.

The 380 is a powerful system, even to this day it can hold its own, especially with a built in RAID controller capable of any of the 3 (actually 4 if you count RAID 10) major RAID levels. Control+I gets you into the RAID BIOS and you can do whatever you want with it.