Need help with MCE RAID 0 install - crashes on boot

[jeremySanDiego]

I am using an ASUS A8N SLI-Premium MB. My install fails to boot. Here are some observations:

1. my BIOS doesn't show the HDs (WD raptor 78 (2) ) when I use the Nvidia BIOS to config RAID 0. But when it is booting, it shows the 150+MB RAID when it gets to the nvidia BIOS section. normal, I assume. It showed the drives before I configured the RAID 0.

2. Installing MCE, I get a msg to "hit F6" for RAID drivers. hitting F6 doesn't do anything, but I waited until the end when I got a msg saying it can't find any HD. I install the single RAID driver (do I need to install the nForce driver also?) from the floppy I created with the BIOS.

3. When it is ready to partition, it shows up as 2 separate drives and asks which one to put the OS on. Should I expect to see a single 150 MB raid here? I picked one and installed.

Now, it crashes when I boot. Any ideas?

 

[lansalot]

If hitting F6 doesn't do anything, your timing must be off. You should be prompted shortly after to insert the floppy disk with the drivers on it. Keep trying (give it plenty of finger) until it asks.

Also, make sure the files are on the disk in the correct location (ie, they aren't all in a subdirectory, but are in the root for example). Depends on the driver as to where they go, so read the manual.

 

[imported_Phil]

It sounds like you're selecting the regular IDE drivers as opposed to the RAID drivers. Once you're pressed F6, you will not receive a prompt until Setup is ready to do so. Then, insert the disk and follow the instructions- you may have to scroll down the list (yes, it's scrollable, only two-three lines are shown at once) and find the RAID drivers.

However, a RAID-0 Media Centre/HTPC machine is pointless and risky.

 

[jeremySanDiego]

so why is mce raid 0 pointless?

anyway, got an OS up by installing both drivers.

But two issues: it couldnt fine iexplorer.exe on any disk given, and I dont appea to have the full raid. C: driver shows 80mb, but device mgr shows 160mb stripe??

 

[IceBreakerG]

It's pointless it's not secure at all. If you have a hard drive failure, you've just lost all your data. It may be faster reading and writing, since its doing it with multiple drives, but the data is split up between the 2 drives. Also, you will not see any improvement in performance with MCE by running Raid 0. Your best bet would be to just get a good SATA hard drive and be done with it. And make sure its a big drive. I recorded a 2 1/2 tv show the other day in HD and the file size was 17GBs.

 

[jeremySanDiego]

I probably won't be doing any recording for awhile, I can buy a bigger HD later.

At this point, I own two 74 raptors and would like to get raid 0 working. Yes, the MTBF is halved, I am ok with that. If I even get a little performance inprovement, I am happy.

Now, I am assuming I should see a 140MB C:, not 70

Also, when windows does the install, it asks which partition to put the OS on. Shouldn't I only have 1 option if the raid0 is setup correctly?

thanks,
jeremy

 

[jeremySanDiego]

just restarted from scratch and now windows saw one 140mb disk.. we'll see how this goes

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: jeremySanDiego
I probably won't be doing any recording for awhile, I can buy a bigger HD later.

At this point, I own two 74 raptors and would like to get raid 0 working. Yes, the MTBF is halved, I am ok with that. If I even get a little performance inprovement, I am happy.

The MTBF being halved doesn't quite mean that- RAID-0 is pointless because if you lose one drive, then you lose the contents of both drives.

It's for people who need very fast scratch/temp space, or to store files that they're entirely not bothered about and can afford to lose.

Sure, there will be people on here that will come in and say "OMGWTF my RAID-0 arrary lasted two yearz!!!11oneone!!", but remember this: what would you be really irritated about losing?