(long post, trying to be as descriptive as possible)
I'm kickin' off the new year with not a good bottle of champange but an annoying issue with my PC. Not too fun. :'(
I bought two 74GB Raptor 10K drives, and trying to RAID 0 them and install a fresh copy of Windows XP SP2. My mobo is Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe (nForce 4 chipset).
I installed the hard drives in SATA 1 and SATA 2 ports on the mobo. In the BIOS the drives show up as third and fourth IDE masters, and not under primary IDE master/slave (secondary is my optical drive). So, I'm assuming that third and fourth IDE master is correct. The jumper settings on the drives are at default manufacturer setting (i.e. no jumper and w/spread spectrum clocking enabled).
In the BIOS I then enabled the nVidia RAID controller. I disabled SATA ports 3 and 4 since they're not being used. I enabled RAID SATA ports 1 and 2.
Then I rebooted and entered the nVidia RAID utility by pressing F10. Both my disks showed up, and I moved 'em to the right area to build an array. I set the mode to striping (RAID 0), and 128k striping block (optimal). I continue through the process and the array is created correctly (health status). I reboot and begin the Windows XP installation.
Prior to that though I got an internal floppy disk and installed it in my PC. I browsed the A8N32-SLI drivers CD for the 32bit SATA RAID make-disk utility, to put the RAID controller drivers on the floppy disk.
I didn't use the Silicon RAID drivers, which I'm not even sure what that is.. except the port for it on my mobo is away on the North bridge and red.
So, I start up the Windows XP installation. I hit F6 when it asks me for 3rd party RAID drivers. A screen shows up saying it doesn't detect my RAID array, and tells me to press S to load it up from a floppy or ENTER to bypass. It also says <None> for RAID arrays detected.
I hit S and there's the prompt for my floppy. I put in the floppy, and hit enter.
Now comes the problem. It shows me the prompt again for the floppy. I hit enter again. It does its thinking, and asks me again for a floppy. The disk is in the floppy though. As far as I'm aware my floppy disk is fine and working, and the disk had the correct RAID drivers on it.. so I can't for the life of me figure out why the Windows XP RAID thing isn't detecting my RAID drivers on the floppy. I tried with a few other floppies and same problem.
Maybe my floppy drive is wack.. in the BIOS the drive is enabled. Is there a way to test the floppy drive working without booting into Windows?
I'm moreso wondering is if I messed up somewhere in the installation of the RAID up until the Windows XP install part? If not, is there a way to install these RAID drivers with a USB floppy drive or CD-ROM?
Can I just install Windows XP SP2 normally on a non RAID array (meaning just normal drive), and then after Windows XP is installed make an array? Or do I have to do a fresh install? I'm trying to go for what's best performance wise.
Much thanks if you can guide this RAID noob to help. Been at this for the last 4 hours or so and it's a real pain.
I'm kickin' off the new year with not a good bottle of champange but an annoying issue with my PC. Not too fun. :'(
I bought two 74GB Raptor 10K drives, and trying to RAID 0 them and install a fresh copy of Windows XP SP2. My mobo is Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe (nForce 4 chipset).
I installed the hard drives in SATA 1 and SATA 2 ports on the mobo. In the BIOS the drives show up as third and fourth IDE masters, and not under primary IDE master/slave (secondary is my optical drive). So, I'm assuming that third and fourth IDE master is correct. The jumper settings on the drives are at default manufacturer setting (i.e. no jumper and w/spread spectrum clocking enabled).
In the BIOS I then enabled the nVidia RAID controller. I disabled SATA ports 3 and 4 since they're not being used. I enabled RAID SATA ports 1 and 2.
Then I rebooted and entered the nVidia RAID utility by pressing F10. Both my disks showed up, and I moved 'em to the right area to build an array. I set the mode to striping (RAID 0), and 128k striping block (optimal). I continue through the process and the array is created correctly (health status). I reboot and begin the Windows XP installation.
Prior to that though I got an internal floppy disk and installed it in my PC. I browsed the A8N32-SLI drivers CD for the 32bit SATA RAID make-disk utility, to put the RAID controller drivers on the floppy disk.
I didn't use the Silicon RAID drivers, which I'm not even sure what that is.. except the port for it on my mobo is away on the North bridge and red.
So, I start up the Windows XP installation. I hit F6 when it asks me for 3rd party RAID drivers. A screen shows up saying it doesn't detect my RAID array, and tells me to press S to load it up from a floppy or ENTER to bypass. It also says <None> for RAID arrays detected.
I hit S and there's the prompt for my floppy. I put in the floppy, and hit enter.
Now comes the problem. It shows me the prompt again for the floppy. I hit enter again. It does its thinking, and asks me again for a floppy. The disk is in the floppy though. As far as I'm aware my floppy disk is fine and working, and the disk had the correct RAID drivers on it.. so I can't for the life of me figure out why the Windows XP RAID thing isn't detecting my RAID drivers on the floppy. I tried with a few other floppies and same problem.
Maybe my floppy drive is wack.. in the BIOS the drive is enabled. Is there a way to test the floppy drive working without booting into Windows?
I'm moreso wondering is if I messed up somewhere in the installation of the RAID up until the Windows XP install part? If not, is there a way to install these RAID drivers with a USB floppy drive or CD-ROM?
Can I just install Windows XP SP2 normally on a non RAID array (meaning just normal drive), and then after Windows XP is installed make an array? Or do I have to do a fresh install? I'm trying to go for what's best performance wise.
Much thanks if you can guide this RAID noob to help. Been at this for the last 4 hours or so and it's a real pain.
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