MB upgrade have a few questions

[SemperFi]

I currently have an A7V and I have a Soyo Dragon+ on the way. I am planning on using the RAID.

My plan is to delete the enum key in registry then change board. Boot using regular ide and install via 4in1, and promise drivers. Then ghost partition to put on the raid.

Can I make my new drive NTFS? I have no need for fat 32 anymore. I was dual booting with 98, but I am dropping it since xp should run the few proggies that wouldn't run on 2000. Or should I use the convert to ntfs before I ghost the partition?

I know clean install is best but don't want to do it since xp will be my primary os once installed. This 2000 install is pretty fresh and I am really tired of reinstalls. It takes me a couple of weeks to get everything installed, and get the settings right.

Will I be able to use partition magic on the raid drives?

Do I need to do anything special with ghost in order to change partition size? What I want to do is my current win 2000 partition is 10 gig. When I put it on the raid I only want the partition to be 5Gig. I doubt that I will add anymore proggies to 2000 and 5Gig will add plenty to what I am currently using on 2000 partition.

This is my first raid system I don't really know what to expect.

One other thing is there a way to import my desktop settings from 2000? Yet another thing that takes a while to get tweaked to my likings.

Thanks for the help. And if you have any other suggestions whip them on me.

Semper Fi

 

[Force21]

If you set that drive up in a Raid array with one other drive and run it in Raid 0, you will lose everything on it. The minute you setup the array, all info on the drives is gone.

How many drives are you using in this computer? What raid setup are you planning on using? Raid 0 (striped. at least 2 drives), 0+1 (striped and mirrored which takes 4 drives I think)?

Make sure if you use Raid 0, that your drives are of identical size and speed and preferrably same model, but thats not absolutely necessary. I don't know how the Promise Raid controllers handle NTFS, but the Highpoint controllers are pathetic in XP when it comes to NTFS, I had to switch mine back to Fat32.

From what I have read around, the Promise controllers like cluster sizes of 32 and 64K best, but a few people say 16K works best for them. If you are not familiar with Raid, there are some excellent articles about it on this website and I believe its even covered in the almighty FAQ's....(bow down and pray to the almighty AT FAQ man) lol.

Good luck

Jim

 

[SemperFi]

Thanks Force21 no I am not going to use my current drive in the raid. I have 2 maxtor 40Gig in the mail.

As stated in my first post I want to ghost 2000 from my current drive to the array. From what I know that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[SemperFi]

I sure could use some input here.

 

[Ryan]

I would seriously advise againt this.

 

[SemperFi]

Could you be a little more descriptive please?