Setting up RAID on an MSI w/ on-board controller.

[aa_koch]

I am posting this for a friend of mine, who recently purchased an MSI K7T mainboard. (I don't know the exact model number, but it has the VIA KT133 chipset.) This board comes with an on-board RAID controller (HPT370?), and he bought two 30GB Maxtor drives that he wants use for this purpose. Now the problem is that he doesn't have experience setting up a RAID system, and neither do I. (And he asked me to help him. ) Can anyone tell me how to go about in setting up a RAID 0 system, or link to a website that explains how to do this under Windows 98SE? I assume it's not a matter of conecting two HDs to the controller, then installing Windows 98SE -- it can't be that simple.

Furthermore, I am interested in setting up a RAID configuration myself, but have decided not to buy a mainboard with an on-board controller. (I have an ASUS A7V.) Instead, I'd rather buy a Promise FastTrack or similar when time comes, because I heard a few things about the HPT370 controller that made me decide not to buy a mobo with on-board RAID controller. Is there anything against using the on-board controller, or do they perform equally good as PCI RAID cards? And when I use a PCI card instead of an on-board controller, is it easier to set up? (Like, are there interfaces on the card that I hook them up to, which makes it easier to install?)

Thanks in advance!

 

[aa_koch]

Anyone...?

 

[tracerbullet]

RAID on the MSI is NOT the dreaded Highpoint Controller (I don't know what it was, but it didn't wok for me). MSI uses the Promise. Works a lot better than the Highpoint, or maybe it was Abit?

Anyhow, install both of the drives set to master, one on each of the IDE #3 and IDE #4 spots. Red stripe to the #1 pin on the board (blue connector end), the other to the drives (red stripe towards power supply). On boot, it'll show the Promise screen. Hit ctrl+f to enter it. use option 1 to have it walk you through the RAID setup. ctrl+y to save your new settings and restart.

Now you're on like normal - you have a giant drive that needs to be partitioned and formatted via whatever you normally do.

RTFM!

Read the manual, it walks you through it.

 

[aa_koch]

Sounds easy enough -- thanks!

As for RTFM... he bought it "cheap," so there isn't one.

 

[compuwiz1]

They have online manuals.

Hi. MSI has online manuals in pdf format.

 

[aa_koch]

Ugh... how stupid of me not to think of that myself.

Thanks, Steve! And you of course, too, tracerbullet!

 

[Zach]

I thought Promise used the highpoint controller anyway, tracerbullet?