Is it possible to install RAID drivers into a pre-existing XP installation?

[Kadence]

I'm going to make a RAID array of two drives, and install Vista on it. However my current system uses XP Home, and is on an eSATA drive (which will not be a part of the RAID array).

When I change the SATA configuration in the BIOS to RAID, XP Home doesn't work from the eSATA drive anymore - I assume because the RAID drivers weren't installed for XP. But I want my current XP system, on the eSATA drive, available as an alternative option even after I make the RAID array.

Is it possible to install RAID drivers onto a pre-existing XP installation? Or is my only option (after changing the SATA configuration to RAID) to transfer to an IDE drive if I want to use the already installed XP Home, and not the eSATA drive?

 

[Ika]

I'm pretty sure it's possible - earlier this year I converted my single-drive legacy IDE (in BIOS) Vista installation to a single-drive AHCI configuration, then a two-drive RAID 0 configuration without reinstalling. But it was a BIG pain in the ass to do... I spent many many hours (at least 20-30) backing up, creating arrays, restoring my backups, basically jumping through tons of hoops. I probably would've spent less time doing a new install...

I'm also not sure how it would work with your eSATA drive - to do RAID, I had to plug the drive into the secondary SATA controller on my motherboard (Gigabyte's, rather than Intels).

 

[Kadence]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear - I will have the RAID array with Vista on it consisting of two drives, as well as a third drive with XP Home. I want to leave XP Home on the eSATA drive, but right now when I change the SATA configuration in the BIOS to RAID so that I can create the array, the XP Home on the eSATA fails to work. I think I need RAID drivers for XP to make it work in this situation, but XP is already installed.

I'll edit my first post.

Vista I've been told comes with RAID drivers. XP however doesn't, you have to install them via floppy during installation. I don't know if it's possible to install the drivers on an XP system that's already set up.

 

[Blain]

If I'm reading your post correctly... The XP Home drive isn't part of the RAID array?

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: Kadence
S... but right now when I change the SATA configuration in the BIOS to RAID so that I can create the array, the XP Home on the eSATA fails to work. .

It "fails to work" because it is no longer set as the BOOT Device in the BIOS.


Leave the original drive connected.
Add the two new drives.
In the BIOS configure the HDD ports that the two drives are connected to for RAID (0, 1, 5,...???). The drives should be on ports 1-2 or 3-4 (not 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, or 2-4)
Reboot and press whatever key you have to to get to the RAID array setup utility.
Setup the array (block size, etc)
Install Vista (and of course the RAI drivers). It will see the previous XP install and automatically set up dual booting.

One typical issue is setting the boot device to be the array.
You can't do that before you install Vista (and the Raid drivers) because the array doesn't exist yet. The drivers allow the BIOS to see that array as a drive.
You can't do it after Vista is installed because Vista will install to whatever single drive is set a the boot device (not the array, which wasn't set as the boot device because it didn't exist yet)
You may have to interrupt the install process when it reboots (after it copies it's files), enter the BIOS then and set the array (that will now be there) as the Boot Device, reboot and let Vista finish the install to the array.

The above assumes that you want the Vista files on the array and that you want the array to be the boot Device. You can put the Vista folder anywhere you want and you can make any drive or array the boot device. Just modify the above accordingly.

Just remember that whatever is set as the boot device when Vista does the second half of it's install, will forever be the place where the Master Boot record (MBR) and the boot sector are located and that (drive or array) will have to be functional in order to post and boot to function.

There are a lot of ways to set up what you have. A little thinking (more questions too?), and knowing exactly what you are doing now may make life a lot easier later.

 

[vailr]

If I'm reading correctly, you have an existing Raid pair on the Intel Raid controller.
And a single eSATA drive on the JMicron controller.
You want to dual boot either the eSATA drive or the Raid array, as selected in bios setup.
Correct?
If so: change the bios setting for the JMicron controller from Raid mode to: IDE mode or: AHCI mode.
Leaving the Intel Raid controller set to: Raid.
If the disc won't boot ("blue screens"), then do a "Repair Install" when booted from the Windows install disc. Supply the JMicron driver via F6/floppy disc.

However: if the eSATA HD is, instead, also on the Intel controller chip, just do a "Repair Install" when booted from the Windows install disc. Supply the Intel Matrix driver via F6/floppy disc.

 

[Kadence]

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with the JMicron controller - in the BIOS, there's only one SATA configuration setting. The SATA and eSATA drives are all connected to the SATA ports on my Asus P5E Deluxe mobo.

I'll try the repair install approach. My floppy drive isn't functioning so I'll have to try slipstreaming. Thanks.

Originally posted by: Billb2
It "fails to work" because it is no longer set as the BOOT Device in the BIOS.

No, it was still set as the boot device. It just resets or crashes with a blue screen. I hadn't set up Vista or the RAID array yet - all I'd done is change the BIOS setting. And the boot priority and HDD boot order are the same.

There are a lot of ways to set up what you have. A little thinking (more questions too?), and knowing exactly what you are doing now may make life a lot easier later.

I'm currently booting from an external eSATA drive with XP Home. I want to clone this to a RAID array, which will consist of a pair of internal Velociraptors, and then install Vista on the RAID array. But I want to be able to change the boot device priority in BIOS and boot from the XP eSATA drive when I choose to. However, changing the BIOS SATA configuration setting to RAID makes it unable to boot from the eSATA drive.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Kadence
Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with the JMicron controller - in the BIOS, there's only one SATA configuration setting. The SATA and eSATA drives are all connected to the SATA ports on my Asus P5E Deluxe mobo.

The IDE port is controlled via some 3rd party [non-Intel] chip. Most boards use JMicron. For example, the Abit IP35-Pro board has 2 eSATA ports plus the one IDE connector, both off the JMicron chip.
Your Asus P5E Deluxe X48 board does not appear to have eSATA ports off the motherboard.
So: it looks like you should set up the bios for "Raid Mode", and then do a "repair install" on the (now probably non-bootable) eSATA XP-Home drive. Once that drive is working, unplug that drive and install Vista on the raid drive pair. I'd recommend doing a fresh install of Vista using a Vista-SP1 install disc. Your plan of doing an upgrade from XP-Home to Vista would likely introduce unwanted registry instabilities, wasted drive space, etc.

 

[Kadence]

Originally posted by: vailr
Your Asus P5E Deluxe X48 board does not appear to have eSATA ports off the motherboard.

I have an eSATA bracket installed, which plugs into the SATA ports on the motherboard. So functionally it's the same as plugging the eSATA drive into the mobos SATA ports.

I'd recommend doing a fresh install of Vista using a Vista-SP1 install disc. Your plan of doing an upgrade from XP-Home to Vista would likely introduce unwanted registry instabilities, wasted drive space, etc.

It's Vista 64, so I couldn't upgrade anyway. Vista just tosses the old XP stuff into a single folder, and does a fresh install.