Setting up RAID0 with asus a7v266-e promise controller and Windows XP

[basic]

My friend/cousin and I are trying to set up his new computer which we are putting together right now. He has 2 Western Digital Caviar 60gb 7200rpm drives connected to the raid controller (which is in raid mode...) they are both on seperate IDE channels, and set as master drives. The raid array has been setup in the controllers bios thing and is labled as "functional". I am able to see the drive in fdisk and other programs but the WIndows XP setup does not recognize this.

It says press F6 to define a 3rd party driver...I am wondering if there is a certain driver i should use here and how i can use it etc.

If anyone has done this before please help us get it working...a 120gb of raid power will be fun (along with his koolance case).

UPDATE
Ok we got that working now we are trying to setup the drives like this:

one 5gb partition, one 115gb partition.... total space is 60gb on each drive (120 total)
the drives are set in raid0, this lets the 2 drives be seen as 1 drive correct? The drives are both masters on ide1 and ide2 of the raid controller. Do they need to be set as master/slave on the same ide bus to make it a 120gb drive? What are we doing wrong!?!

 

[SupaKila]

<<<Bump>>>

 

[basic]

<<bizzump>>

 

[MasterHoss]

Copy the Promise "Lite" Fasttrack drivers from your CD-ROM or from the ASUS website (for WinXP or Win2K). You'll have to copy the contents of the entire subdirectory to a floppy. (ie: X:\Promise\RAID0\WinXP ---> A:\)

Now, when you are prompted to hit F6, WinXP should find the proper drivers from the floppy and you're off and running. Of course, I've had problems every now and then doing this, so I find that it may be better to copy the Promise drivers from the ASUS CD-ROM and then after your installation of WinXP to update the drivers.

 

[basic]

Ok we got that working now we are trying to setup the drives like this:

one 5gb partition, one 115gb partition.... total space is 60gb on each drive (120 total)
the drives are set in raid0, this lets the 2 drives be seen as 1 drive correct? The drives are both masters on ide1 and ide2 of the raid controller. Do they need to be set as master/slave on the same ide bus to make it a 120gb drive? What are we doing wrong!?!

 

[MasterHoss]

You could do it other ways but to "maximize" the RAID array, do it like you're trying to do it. Set the jumpers on both drives to "MASTER" (I believe on the Western Digital drives, if you are wanting the drive to be master and that device is the ONLY DEVICE ON THE IDE CHANNEL, you need to set the jumper to its default position). Then yes, 1 IDE cable for each drive connecting to each of the 2 IDE RAID Promise controllers. Yes, you'll see both your 60GBs as one --> 120GB

 

[Amused]

Um, WD drives are NOT stable set as "MASTER" when they are the only drives on a channel. You must set them as "SINGLE" or NEUTRAL"

From WD:

<<<If you are installing the Caviar drive as the only IDE drive on the cable and the system plus the ribbon cable do not support Cable Select, leave the jumper shunt in the neutral storage position. >>>

Trust me, I know this. The symptoms of not setting the jumper correctly are spotty recognition of the drives by your BIOS and Windows.

 

[MasterHoss]

<< Um, WD drives are NOT stable set as "MASTER" when they are the only drives on a channel. You must set them as "SINGLE" or NEUTRAL" >>

Um, that's why I said...

<< (I believe on the Western Digital drives, if you are wanting the drive to be master and that device is the ONLY DEVICE ON THE IDE CHANNEL, you need to set the jumper to its default position) >>

 

[Amused]

<<

<< Um, WD drives are NOT stable set as "MASTER" when they are the only drives on a channel. You must set them as "SINGLE" or NEUTRAL" >>

Um, that's why I said...

<< (I believe on the Western Digital drives, if you are wanting the drive to be master and that device is the ONLY DEVICE ON THE IDE CHANNEL, you need to set the jumper to its default position) >>

>>



Um, you wrote that while I wrote mine

 

[basic]

They are set as single (no jumper)
They are recognized by the raid controller and i can read/write the drives but when i go to make a partition it looks like they are still showing up as 60gb drives....?

 

[Amused]

<< They are set as single (no jumper)
They are recognized by the raid controller and i can read/write the drives but when i go to make a partition it looks like they are still showing up as 60gb drives....? >>



You're not setting them up as stripped in the RAID BIOS. What controler is it? Highpoint or Promise?

 

[basic]

It's a promise fasttrack "lite" 100, they are set as striped in the bios, raid 0 "performance - desktop" settings