Help with setting up a RAID 1 array

[LtPage1]

I'm using a Gigabyte EP-45 UD3P motherboard, and I just bought 2 WD 1TB Green drives that I want to set up in a redundant RAID array. This is obviously my first time setting up an array, and I have no idea what I'm doing. The Gigabyte manual makes it seem like all I have to do is turn on RAID in the Integrated Peripherals menu of the BIOS, save, and open up storage management with control-I.
When I do that, I get an "ntldr is missing" error and I have to restart and turn off RAID to get it to boot to Windows. Doing some frantic googling, I've managed to figure out that I need to have the board's RAID drivers on a floppy, and maybe my Windows disc in the machine while I do this.
Is there a step-by-step guide on this somewhere? I couldn't find anything. Also, is there some way to not have to put a floppy drive in my machine? I'm running XP Pro.

Help!

 

[Absolution75]

Originally posted by: LtPage1
I'm using a Gigabyte EP-45 UD3P motherboard, and I just bought 2 WD 1TB Green drives that I want to set up in a redundant RAID array. This is obviously my first time setting up an array, and I have no idea what I'm doing. The Gigabyte manual makes it seem like all I have to do is turn on RAID in the Integrated Peripherals menu of the BIOS, save, and open up storage management with control-I.
When I do that, I get an "ntldr is missing" error and I have to restart and turn off RAID to get it to boot to Windows. Doing some frantic googling, I've managed to figure out that I need to have the board's RAID drivers on a floppy, and maybe my Windows disc in the machine while I do this.
Is there a step-by-step guide on this somewhere? I couldn't find anything. Also, is there some way to not have to put a floppy drive in my machine? I'm running XP Pro.

Help!

If you get to ntldr is missing, it basically means its trying to boot off a hard drive without either a valid operating system, or valid boot sector. If you see this, you've already missed the part to enter RAID setup (right before then).

When you turn on RAID in the bios, your hard drive boot order is reset and I'm guessing its trying to boot to one of the drives you'd like to RAID. Go change the boot order until you can boot to the drive. Before that though, you may need to enable ACHI in windows. Follow this guide http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976 - you can do that without it enabled, just get your bios to boot to windows correctly.

The manual is pretty much right though, thats all you have to do. If you are pushing CTRL+I and the setup isn't coming up, check to see if you have USB keyboard support enabled in your bios.

 

[LtPage1]

Thanks! I think the process is a little different under XP, but you gave me a really helpful place to start looking more effectively. I think this outlines my problem: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831. I'm going to need to repair my Windows install, I think.

 

[Absolution75]

Originally posted by: LtPage1
Thanks! I think the process is a little different under XP, but you gave me a really helpful place to start looking more effectively. I think this outlines my problem: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831. I'm going to need to repair my Windows install, I think.

Ah, missed the last line where you mentioned you have xp pro. But ya, the link you said is what you should follow once you have RAID set up and enabled. Its a quite bit more difficult than with vista. You could always try just booting into xp, install intel storage matrix (installs a driver too), and then enable RAID. I did that with an install of Vista (didn't follow the guide I linked, but on a different install I did) and it worked.

 

[LtPage1]

Well. You were right about the boot order and USB keyboard support not being turned on. I finally got into the RAID config utility, and set up the RAID disk, and almost got everything to work. Now, I get through everything, I see the Windows XP loading screen for about .25 of a second, a blue screen flashes for about as long, and then the computer reboots. I'm going to try stuff until I get it to work. Any advice?

edit: turning off RAID in the bios makes it work again. And turning it back on brings back the bluescreen+reboot.

I think I'm going to have to go back and repair my XP install with the proper drivers. Ugh.

 

[betaflame]

possibly. You can go into device manager and force install the right drivers, then reboot and change, but that gets a bit tricky