Two quick questions about new install of RAID

[kd2777]

OK I have two 80GB WD drives (8mb) and want to run them in RAID 0, I have a gigabyte 8INXP motherboard that supports IDE RAID. I have the two drives hooked up to channel 3 and 4, I can get them to post as a single drive, but then I can't get XP to reconize them as a raid. I think I have to format the drives and have a driver floppy for the controler. First question where can I get a boot disk that will allow me to fdisk the two drives. Second how do I make a driver floppy for my RAID controller. I went to gigabyte.com and found the drives but the file is to big for a floppy, what part of the files do I need or, how do you make a multi-floppy disc setup? thanks Kevin

 

[Thraxen]

Well, I went through problems setting up SATA RAID on my system a couple of weeks ago so I may be able to help. Download those RAID drivers you find on the Gigabyte website (5.31 MB). Once you unzip the files, open the folder and go into the "ideraid" folder and then the "driver" folder inside of that one. Copy all of the files outside of the OS folders plus the "WinXP" folder itself onto a floppy. Make sure you actually copy the WinXP folder with the files inside (i.e. don't just copy the files inside the folder onto the disk). I made the mistake of not leaving those files in the WinXP folder and my Windows set-up would crash when it went to load the RAID drivers since it was apparently looking for that folder for the files. I don't actually think you need all the files outside of the OS specific folders, but I'm not sure which ones are required...but all of them together plus the WinXP folder only take up 1.15 MB and will fit on a floppy.

Also, on my ASUS motherboard, I had to hit CTRL-F (says to do this via an on screen message after POST) to enter the RAID utility and define my array (i.e. select which drives in what RAID configuration and what stripe size).

Now boot off the WinXP CD as before and hit F6 to load the RAID drivers. Windows should check the A: drive and bring up a list of RAID drivers to choose from. Just select Windows XP and you are hopefully set. This is what worked for me. Good luck!

 

[kd2777]

Thanks a million, worked like a charm, was up and running in about 30 mins start to finish. Ran pcmark2002 and got a good 80% increase . Thanks again

 

[shootinyou]

nm