Need help with Raid 1

[Timaneo]

I have Windows on a 74gb Raptor hdd. When I set up 2 x 320gb on raid 1 my system restarts halfway through the windows loading bar. When I turn off raid in the bios and set sata back to ide windows boots up fine but I obviously don't have raid anymore.

Am I able to set up raid without windows being on the raid hdd's? I just want to have those hard drives as backups.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Timaneo
I have Windows on a 74gb Raptor hdd. When I set up 2 x 320gb on raid 1 my system restarts halfway through the windows loading bar. When I turn off raid in the bios and set sata back to ide windows boots up fine but I obviously don't have raid anymore.

Am I able to set up raid without windows being on the raid hdd's? I just want to have those hard drives as backups.

Are you booting off of the hard drive that you are putting into RAID 1?

 

[Billb2]

Yes, a little more info please.

Raid card or on board Raid?
Card mfgr?
Motherboard?
OS?

I suspect your problem is the boot order, but that's a guess without more info.

 

[Timaneo]

I am booting off of my 74gb windows, I made sure the boot order is correct. It gets halfway through the windows bars loading screen before it restarts.
I am using the Abit IP35 Pro on board raid
Vista 64bit

 

[tw1164]

Are the drivers loaded? Can you boot into safe mode w/ the raid?

 

[Timaneo]

I can't boot into safe mode, it just restarts about 10 in when its loading the files.
I'm pretty sure I got the drivers off the disk but that doesn't even matter since it doesnt boot into safe mode correct?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Timaneo
I can't boot into safe mode, it just restarts about 10 in when its loading the files.
I'm pretty sure I got the drivers off the disk but that doesn't even matter since it doesnt boot into safe mode correct?

You have to have drivers for Windows to recognize the RAID array. I nromally go about this by creating the array in the RAID controller's firmware / BIOS, then doing a fresh install of windows (using the F6 install with a floppy disk that has the RAID drivers).

 

[Timaneo]

I reinstalled the drivers to make sure and it still does the same thing. Can someone tell me if it is possible to do this? 1 hdd as a windows and 2 raid as a backup?

 

[Timaneo]

anyone?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Of course it's possible, you just seem to be having an issue with it that hasn't been identified yet. I'm currently running an 80GB for OS, 2x250 RAID1 array controlled by a Promise S150 TX4 PCI controller.

I installed the OS with JUST the OS drive powered on. Installed all drivers, including the RAID controller drivers. Once the OS was all set, I restarted and then setup the RAID1 using the hardware controller setup app. (Ctrl+F to config for mine, yours may be different) Then booted back into windows and loaded up the Promise Windows management software. Worked ok

Anyway you can post screen shots of Device Manager? RAID config? etc..

 

[Timaneo]

Whenever I make a raid in the raid bios this is what ends up in disk management http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/timaneo/raid.jpg

I installed all the drivers on the cd that came with my Abit IP35 Pro motherboard. Can someone confirm on what drivers I need to install from their website? I doubt its drivers though since I cant even boot into safe mode. Im using Vista 64 bit

 

[ch33zw1z]

Disk Management should see the array as one logical drive. Your picture indicates that there's two drives seen by Windows. Can you post a picture of Device Manager with which RAID controller is installed?

 

[Timaneo]

For that last picture I meant that is what the drives are set to after I create the raid in the raid bios and then turn off raid in the main bios. I cant post a picture with the raid controller installed because my computer restarts during the windows booting screen.

 

[Timaneo]

ttt

 

[tw1164]

Can you boot into windows w/ the RAID controller on, but the HDs unplugged?

 

[Timaneo]

I unplugged the hdd's, turned on the raid controller and it did the same thing. Cant boot into windows.

 

[Timaneo]

ttt