Embarrassingly Simple RAID Question

[SpideyCU]

OK, I'm not completely new to the RAID scene, but I still have a few unanswered questions. More importantly, I set up 2 Maxtor 40GB drives on separate channels on my Highpoint RAID controller. I've set them up for RAID-0, and it *seems* to work (when I boot up, the drives come up listed as "Striping (RAID 0) for array #0&quot. Also, when I access C:, I see that both drives have activity going (I have one of those removable HD bays, and it has LEDs for power and activity). However, here's the question...

Drive C: claims to be 40GB in size. Now, if I have two 40GB ones in RAID-0, shouldn't that be an effective 80GB, or thereabouts? Or is it normal for the size of the drive to appear as only 40?

So far I've done nothing other than install Win98 on my system (no software or drivers just yet), in case I need to start over. If this shouldn't be happening, I'll probably have a follow-up question, as the way in which I set the drives up for RAID-0 was a bit odd (which I'll only get into if someone thinks this *is* a problem). To me it almost seems as though the drives are being mirrored rather than striped, but maybe that's just how the size is supposed to show up when accessing the drive.

 

[corgidog]

Something is not quite right. You should have 80GB total for the C: drive if the drives are striped in a RAID 0 array. Have you loaded the Highpoint drivers in Win98?

 

[SpideyCU]

Thanks for replying...yes, I have loaded the Highpoint drivers from the CD included with the mobo (Epox 8K7A+); the controller is correctly identified in my Control Panel. I don't know whether or not to be relieved about the fact that my drive is showing the wrong size (means I know it's wrong for sure, but also means I've got to fix it). The way I set up the array was unusual, I'll write down what I did on the outside chance it's useful:

After setting everything in the BIOS, fdisk'ing and formatting both drives, I installed Win98SE on the first drive (at that time they were not yet striped). First thing I installed on Win98 (after the Highpoint drivers) was the RAID management software. I told the software to stripe the two Maxtor drives, and of course was told that the data on both drives would be destroyed. I didn't know how to stripe 'em in the BIOS (or otherwise outside of Windows) so I went forward and just figured I'd reinstall Windows. I clicked OK, and of course the program crashed (screwing around with the HD while trying to run the software will do that!), as did Windows, but I shut down and went to see if the drives were set up for striping anyway. I rebooted using a startup disk, and the "Striping (RAID 0) for array #0" message came up during the boot when it checked the Highpoint controller. I figured it was set, so I did a ScanDisk, formatted C: (which at this point was both drives), and reinstalled Win98.

So, this wasn't a normal method of striping the drives (if someone can tell me how to stripe two drives which I intend to load my OS onto without this fiasco, please enlighten my feeble mind), and that could've been the source of the problem. If there's a solution (possibly some ScanDisk-esque program I could run which could find/fix whatever is causing this), that'd be great. Otherwise, I'll start from scratch.

Y'know, worse comes to worse, I'll borrow a hard drive from someone, put it on the regular IDE channel, install Win98 there temporarily, then stripe the two Maxtor drives using the RAID administrative software. Then I'll remove that third drive and install Windows on the array. Seems like a round-about way of doing something, but it'd work.

 

[corgidog]

From what you describe it sounds like the striping did not really happen even though the boot screen reports the drives are striped. BTW, what version of the Highpoint bios and driver are you using? They should be matched. I am not familiar with your mobo, is the Highpoint controller built-in or a separate card?

<Edit: I just looked up the specs for your Epox 8K7A+ mobo and see that the HPT370 is onboard. Epox has posted a new bios which has the latest HPT370 bios and also has the latest HPT370 drivers available (drivers section). Are you using these?>

I think you need to setup the array using the Highpoint bios screen. Here is what I would do in your situation (I don't have my system with the HPT370 controller in front of me, so this is from memory):

1. When the PC is booting, use &quot;Ctrl-H&quot; to get into the HPT370 bios screen.
2. Delete the existing RAID 0 config shown and reboot.
3. &quot;Ctrl-H&quot; again and choose to setup a RAID 0 array. Select two drives and follow the prompts to complete the process.
4. Reboot using a startup disk with a recent version of Fdisk. A WinME startup disk is good, find here, and use Fdisk to setup the 80GB partition.
5. Reboot using WinME startup and format the partition (the format command is is found in the RAMdisk created by the startup disk, drive E:, I think.)
6. Now you should be ready to install the OS.

I learned a lot by reading the HTP370 forum at Icrontic.com. You may want to take a look. Hope this helps.

 

[SpideyCU]

Thanks for all the help corgidog. Just for reference, I did update the bios on my mobo, which updated the bios for the controller. I would have thought instructions would have come with the motherboard, but the only booklet I got was for the windows RAID management software; and since I couldn't find an option in the motherboard's BIOS to set what type of RAID I wanted on the two drives, I defaulted to the software.

Just out of curiosity, when you say &quot;recent&quot; version of fdisk, how &quot;recent&quot; is that? I've been using a Win98SE boot disk for my purposes...has there been any change to fdisk since there? I wouldn't have imagined so, but that's not the first wrong assumption I'd be making about software.

Anyway, as long as I can get into the HPT Bios to alter settings, I should be OK (I imagine re-doing the array from scratch should clear up those problems). Even if Ctrl-H doesn't work, or something in the help you posted is different, I'll check on those forums for more information. Thanks again for everything; I owe ya one. Now, as soon as I disable that &quot;whisper-quiet&quot; mode (or whatever Maxtor calls it) on those drives to increase performance, I'll be set.

P.S. I know where the format command is, I obviously had to format these drives to begin with. But you can also run &quot;format c:&quot; from the boot disk.

 

[corgidog]

SpideyCU,

You're welcome, I hope it was helpful in getting your system going.

>>Just out of curiosity, when you say &quot;recent&quot; version of fdisk, how &quot;recent&quot; is that? <<

Supposedly there is a bug in fdisk versions thru Win98SE. It will not work on disks (or RAID arrays) over 64GB. Once you get the RAID 0 array created try running fdisk from your Win98se boot disk. Does it see the single drive as 80GB? If not then you will need to use the WinME startup/boot disk which has a more recent fdisk version and will work on the larger drives.

>>P.S. I know where the format command is, I obviously had to format these drives to begin with. But you can also run &quot;format c:&quot; from the boot disk.<<

Right, it is on the Win98 boot disk. But on the the WinME boot disk it is not. I believe format is kept in a compressed file on the boot floppy and uncompressed to the RAMdisk along with some other system tools when you boot from the disk.

I also found Paul's FAQ very helpful in doing the initial setup of a RAID system. Even though you don't have an Abit board, much of what is there pertain's to any HPT370 implementation.

Good luck!