P5WDH RAID setup. Please list steps to do it right

[Redtarga]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I've done a search and couldn't find it. Then again, nothing shows up in my searches, so maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I've been having all kinds of trouble setting up RAID. I have one PATA I'm using for XP SP2. I'd really rather install theOS there, than try to configure RAID and setup the OS at the same time. I have four 300 GB SATAs, and I'd like to setup two of them as RAID 0, and have the others as non-raid SATA. All these drives are new and unformatted, except for the PATA, which I formatted to install the OS, but it is new. I've updated the BIOS to 14xx.

Since XP isn't booting right anymore after I tried using EZ-Backup for the RAID 0, I'd like to just re-install the OS. I think I'm supposed to use F6 and load the Intel Matrix drivers. I'm confused about the rest. Where would I plug in the SATA connectors? What else needs to be done to set this up? Do any of the drives need to be pre-formatted to set this up? Later, I'd like to setup another XP partition and an XP64 partition on the PATA, but I'll get into that later.

Many thanks for your time and patience.

Michael

 

[nrs251]

I have your answer as I had the same issue.

FIRST: UNPLUG ALL EXTERNAL HARDDRIVES, XP IS NOTORIOUS FOR INSTALLING THE OS ON UNSUSPECTING USERS EXTERNAL DRIVES.

FIRST MAKE A FLOPPY WITH THE ICH7R DRIVERS
You can get the utility here.

First get 2 SATA DRives (no formatting needed)

1)Plug them into SATA1 and SATA3 (on the ICH7R controller, see the motherboard diagram in the manual).

2) Boot and setup the BOOT ORDER, CD-ROM FIRST, then your RAID array.
3) At ICH7R (RAID) setup screen Hit Ctrl+I
4) Set up the RAID array by selecting the drives. Use a 64K Stripe
5) Reboot with your XP CD in the drive. hit a key when it asks if you want to boot from the CD (WATCH FOR THIS)

RUN THE XP SETUP
EVERYTHING ON THAT RAID ARRAY WILL BE GONE WHEN YOU DO THIS.

5) Watch for when you see the prompt to hit F6, HIT F6
6) XP will continue loading drivers, this is not a problem.
7) you will be prompted to put in a floppy (you created this from the Intel website)
8) Hit S when prompted
9) Select the appropriate RAID driver (its in the list, just scroll down)
10) XP will continue installing with multiple reboots and you will be good to go.

RAID XP SETUP TAKES 15-20 minutes (1/2 the time of a regular XP setup).

 

[Redtarga]

Thank you! I do have two more questions, though:

Is there a way to do this and use the PATA for the OS? Also, where do I plug in the other 2 SATAs so I can use them non-RAID?

Thank you very much.

 

[nrs251]

RAID on this mobo is SATA. SATA RAID Boot time is ULTRA-FAST and APP LOADING is unbelievable. I hope that the above advice shows you how to install XP to your RAID setup in one smooth step.

If you want a PATA boot drive then:

Use The IDE Controllers (Blue) on the mobo and arrange the BIOS to BOOT from those. Again, WinXP will ask what file format you want to use. USE NTFS NOT FAT32 (PLEASE DON'T USE FAT32), FAT32 means 4GB contiguous file limit.

WITH YOUR RAID.
First set up your boot on the SATA 1 and 3 Controllers.
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
DO THAT FIRST.
THEN PROCEED to add drives.
You can add 2 additional SATA drives on
EZRAID 1 and 2.

THE KEY IS PAY ATTENTION TO THE RAID SELECT JUMPER. YOU WILL FIND THIS RIGHT ABOVE THE SATA 1 CONNECTOR.

REFER TO PAGE 5-50 IN THE MANUAL.

It gives you the options for that jumper:

3 Choices: You shoudl choose one.

Then make the BIOS change suggested and you are good to go.

I have one word of advice.

After you install Win XP, IMAGE THAT RAID VOLUME TO AN EXTERNAL DRIVE.

Acronis Drive Image 10 is excellent. It comes with a 15 day trial. I did it and made the rescue boot disk that Acronis suggests. This gives you a safety net. Nothing is more frustrating than installing an OS and then finding out that something happened on a boot that corrupted your install. Remember RAID 0 is really AID 0, there is no redundancy. One trashed disk means you are toast. BACK UP and be prepared to rebuild that array at any time.

If you don't want a RAID boot disk (there are pros and cons as I said above) then simply build the array and set the boot order so you are booting from your OS containing IDE PATA drive rather than the RAID array in the BOOT ORDER selection in the BIOS.

If you have any more questions, post it. I just got through with setting up this board and I can help.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Redtarga]

Hi Neil,

Thank you very much for your help!

You've convinced me to boot with the SATA RAID 0 array.

What I've done to make that happen is to connect 2 SATAs to SATA 1 and 3, and have left 2 on the EZRAID 1 and 2.

In BIOS, the Boot page "Hard Disk Drives" sees all the drives, so I've arranged them as follows:

1st Drive HDD:3M-ST3300620AS (SATA)
2nd Drive HDD:3M-ST3300620AS (SATA)
3rd Drive HDDM-ST3120814A (PATA)
4th Drive HDD:4M-External Di (I have no idea what this is;there are no external drives)

I intend to setup the 1st and 2nd Drive as RAID0, and to install the OS on them, per my interpretation of your instructions.

In BIOS, the Boot page "Boot Device Priority" lists the following drives:

1st Boot Device CDROM:4S-PLEXTOR D
2nd Boot Device HDD:3M-ST3300620AS (which I hope is one of the SATAs in RAID array, as you had mentioned)
3rd Boot Device 1st Floppy Drive

I don't understand how the PC knows I want to setup a RAID0 volume, but hopefully the ICH7R (RAID) setup screen will show up to educate the PC.


Best regards,

Michael

 

[Redtarga]

Neil,

I followed the procedure of my last message, but these issues came up:

1) The Intel Matrix driver was named as ICHR8, though its Readme indicated it was OK for ICHR7.

2) After loading the driver, the install ended with a STOP: 0x0000007B error. I've seen this before when attempting to install the OS on RAID configured SATAs. That's why I wanted to use a PATA as the boot drive.

I'll try again with the PATA as the OS boot drive, per your instructions.


Best regards,

Michael

 

[Redtarga]

Neil,

I tried to install the OS on the PATA, but again got the STOP error. I'm at a loss.

Best regards,

Michael

 

[Redtarga]

Success! I tried again to install the OS using two SATAs on SATA1 and SATA3, but this time I used an older Intel Matrix Driver (May 23). It was the last one before they added ICHR8 support. So far, the OS is loading now.

 

[nrs251]

If you create the boot disk as I described above (DO NOT USE the ASUS DISK, they messed up and put only the ICH8 driver on it) then you WILL have an ICH7R driver in the list (I did). You just have to scroll down to see it. You should use the correct driver ICH8 and ICH 7 are not the same and this may lead to problems later. Again, use the disk I set up above and SCROLL DOWN. That driver is on the list guaranteed.

 

[Redtarga]

Yes, I did so and everything is fine. You've been a great help! You had mentioned that I can add 2 additional SATA drives on EZRAID 1 and 2. I've plugged them in. What must I do for them to work? In BIOS, there is a choice, as you know, to use SATA as RAID or regular SATA. I don't imagine I should change it from the RAID setting.

Many thanks!

Michael

 

[nrs251]

Please read my above directions on JUMPER settings.

RAID or BIG DISK THAT is your choice.

Remember RAID 0 is AID 0.

IMAGE THAT DRIVE.

 

[MachSpeed]

I have a question,

I followed the instructions and i was able to load the xp, however, when i check the bios it doesnt detect my 2x raptors.
During the boot up it lists my 2x raptors as un-raided(as I want them right now) but it when it does a drive check and says no drive found. ialso get a one beep warning indicating no master drive found?

When i get into xp, i only show 1 raptor as a c:\ drive and not the other raptor?

Any ideas on what is going on?

Thanks

-Garrik

 

[nrs251]

Try removing the extra Raptor.

Boot into XP
Shut down, attach the 2nd Raptor.
Boot into the BIOS
Check to see if the 2nd Raptor is detected.
Set your Boot Order
Make sure your IDE is setup in BIOS per 5-30 in the manual
Make sure that CONFIGURE SATA IS CONFIGURED AS IDE (not RAID for you)
If you set this up wrong a boot will fail to detect a MASTER BOOT RECORD and you will get a boot error similar to the one you describe.
Pages 4-15 and 4-16 in the manual cover this in detail
Save and Exit the BIOS
Boot into Windows

If its still not there (the 2nd Raptor I mean) then

Control Panel-->Administrative Tools--->Computer Management---->Disk Management

See if the 2nd Raptor is there
Does it have a partition?
If not you need an NTFS partition and format the 2nd Raptor)
Make sure you don't delete the wrong drive (you have 2 identical Raptors bwhich makes it a bit confusing here)

 

[MachSpeed]

Neil,

I went ahead and changed my IDE config in bios to standard IDE. (i did have it on raid)
Then i booted in xp and used the disk managament to format the second raptor.

Now it detects both drives, but the odd thing is that during boot up I still get an error beep; indicating three possible error that can occur according top page 3-1:

1) keyboard controller error---i dont think so since keyboard functions
2) refresh time error--- no idea what that is?
3) no master drive detected --- I am thinking the beep refers to this since

During the boot up, it runs a drive detector and displays in a quick blimp "driver detector donel no any drives found"
also the boot up time is aprrozimately 50 seconds - is that normal? it seems slower than when i boot up my spare rig with win98.

Thanks for you help

 

[nrs251]

Hi,

See if in BIOS going under IDE and changing the IDE detect time to 20 secs makes a difference. Then diable the JIMICRON controller in BIOS.


Also

Are you overclocking?
What is your memory running at and lastly
do you have external hard drives connected???
are you using a USB keyboard?
have you installed SP2 and all motherboard drivers?

 

[MachSpeed]

Hi,

Im really not that computer savvy. I'm going to look into overclocking later, but I want to make sure i can run everything at stock first.

Im not sure where to check what my memory is running, but bios shows 2048mb total. Mem is 2x1gb corsair xms2 5400 cas 4.

no external hds, i have a regular p/s 2 keyboard connected. Sp2 is installed. I tried running the motherboard drives on the Asus cd, but the asusinstantstall or whatever keeps hanging, that i have to abort it; actually i am able to install the drivers individually, the asus instantstall doesnt work properly.

disabling the Jimicron controller got rid of the blimp message to detect the drives, but checking in bios,

i have no primary IDE Master detected so that is what is causing the boot up beep error
My dvd is listed as Primary IDE Slave
raptor (1) with os is THird IDE Master
raptor(2) plain is THird IDE Slave.

I tried putting a jumper on my DVD drive to identify it as a master, but when I do the drive wont post.
I used the blue HD cable in the 40-1 pin PRI_IDE to connect the dvd. should I not be using that cable or IDE slot but the black cable instead?
If I am interpreting page 2-32 in the manual. Tha should be correct, but I'm not sure how to switch my HD to become the primary Master/Slave position.

thanks so much

 

[nrs251]

No, Leave your Raptors alone.

Move your DVD jumpers (on the actual drive) to CABLE SELECT, plug it into the IDE Slot right below the floppy connector and boot. On page 2-32 the manual indicates CABLE SELECT or MASTER. If Master is not working then use CABLE SELECT.

The ASUS CDc sucks. I hung on me too. I installed everything individually.

Tell me how that works

Also regarding your boot speed. What memory are you running?

PC6400, what timings is the stick rated to run at (this is usually on the package or at the manufacturer website. Corsairs website has all this info for your particular memory). Is your memory PC 5400 or is that just what the board is booting at?

 

[MachSpeed]

I have the corsair Twin2X2048-5400C4 timings should be 4:4:4:12 1.9V.
Other than loading up everest, i dont know how to check the mem setting except at the bios reads all 2048MB of it so it seems ok?

Adding the jumper to either cable select or master screws up the dvd drive, it doesnt detect it, giving me a error message stating the drive is incapatible.

I didnt realize sata drives were such a difficult install? As you can tell, this is my first time doing so.

 

[nrs251]

NO SATA drives are not difficult.

My advice is to not put anything on the JMICRON controller. Use the primary IDE channel below the floppy for your DVD or CD-ROM drives. That JMICRON controller is flaky. If you Google JMICRON and P5W DH you will see what I mean. There are numerous reports of missing DVD drives, PATA drives and crashes when using that controller. It is just not worth it. Stick to the ICH7R controller and the EZ_RAID plus the Native board IDE controller.

You said this:

I have no primary IDE Master detected so that is what is causing the boot up beep error

PUT your DVD jumpered as master to the primary IDE slot below the floppy cable and your error will disappear. Just make sure you set your boot order as you want it. Don't use that damn JMICRON controller. It really sucks. I replicated your error on my machine.

Your memory sounds OK.

The blue cable sounds fine. Are you just running one DVD drive. Are you saying that if you put the DVD on the PRI_IDE (not the J_MiCRON) contolled by the board's ICH7R northbridge you cannot detect it as master???

 

[MachSpeed]

Ok,

I have not been using the Jmicron controller. I am using the slot below the floppy. I have the jumper set to master on the dvd rom drive.
when booting up, it still gives me the 1 beep error and then adds an 'f1' error halt telling me the slave drive - atapi incompatible.

Here is the an image of the boot up where it halts.
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/6720/bootih0.jpg

I went into bios and configured the primary ide slave to not installed to fix the f1 halt, but it still beeps for some error? Is that just normal?

 

[nrs251]

Got your picture.

One question.

What is your BOOT order.

Make the RAID boot first (before the IDE DVD device) and let me know if this problem goes away.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[nrs251]

OK.

What is your boot order?

Make the RAID array boot FIRST.
Then the DVD.

Did that help?

Thanks,

Neil

 

[nrs251]

 

[MachSpeed]

Everything seems to boot up and function properly, but i still get a beep upon boot up. I already had my HD as the first boot up priority, but to fix the issue I just went into bios and disabled my primary slave.

Is it normal to have it beep upon boot?

Thanks for all your help so far!!

 

[nrs251]

Yes I have that beep. Its fine.

I also have seen that F1 error before. I think the board does have a bug of some type regarding the ATAPI detection.

If you are booting into Windows and all is well there then you are good to go.

Good Luck!!

Neil