Can I add partitions on a RAID 0 setup?

Hi everyone,
I just recently bought a used macbook pro, (15-Inch, Early 2008) that the previous owner put a RAID 0 setup on. I want to try out the OSX Yosemite Beta, but i want to try it on a separate partition so I can keep my Mavericks environment intact. I don't know i it is possible, but I would like some help on how to make a partition with the RAID setup on it. (I do have an external hard drive too, is there a way to run Yosemite off of the external instead of messing with the internal on my MBP?) Thanks in advance for your help!!!
Tommy

Camelot wrote:
This doesn't sound like an XServe RAID question - the XServe RAID is a (now-discontinued) 14-drive RAID enclosure designed for server applications.
I apologize for not knowing where. I know how forum members get upset when people use the wrong forum. It was unintentional.
For a start there's a question of the enclosure... Is the enclosure a 'dumb' enclosure that just connects the drives to your host system, or does it have a built-in RAID controller.
It is not a dumb enclosure - it does have jumpers for setting it up under different strategies.
That is going to be critical in answering your question. If the enclosure has a built-in RAID controller then you will want to use that to manage the RAID 1 mirror setup and you'll likely need to use software provided by the enclosure vendor to set that up.
Where I am at is that DU does NOT allow this system to be used and recognized by TC. I had to set the enclosure under RAID 1 and that is the only way the TC would allow it to be recognized by my network
Once that's done your host system will be presented with a 1TB volume (the RAID/mirror is hidden from the OS) and you can partition that like any other drive.
If the enclosure is dumb it's a little more complex since you'll need to configure the mirror via Disk Utility and then partition the resulting volume (note also that throughput will be lower in this mode since the OS has to write twice as much data over the link to the enclosure - with a hardware RAID in the enclosure the OS only has to write one copy of the data and the enclosure takes care of writing it to both disks).
So, what's the enclosure you're using?
I am using the Hornettek unit.
Thanks for your help. It took me a long time to get to where I am with this unit. TC evidently will not allow it to be recognized if I used DU to configure it.

Similar Messages

Live Partition Resize not working... And can't add partition to free space

Hello everyone. I have a problem that I'm trying to sort out.
I have a 500GB WD MyBook external FireWire HD. I had it partitioned into two partitions. One was a 112 GB that I used to create backup images of the 120 GB internal drive of my PB G4 (really 111.66 GB). The other I used for other files.
Now, I decided that I wanted to start using the Backup partition for Time Machine, but in order to maintain a longer history, I wanted to increase the partition size. I figured this would be a snap with the new capabilities of Disk Utility. Unfortunately, it was not. While it is true that my pocket FireWire drive behaves exactly how I'd expect it to in DU, the 500 GB WD drive does not. I can't do anything to the partitions, in a live manner (the options, + and - buttons are all grayed out, and there is no indication of volume fill status).
In a fit of frustration, I tried deleting the backup partition. That worked, but now I just have 112 GB of free space, and I still can't do anything with it. I can't even add a 112 GB partition back into this free space.
Does anyone have any ideas about what is going on here, and what I can do to get things working properly?

Hello everyone. I have a problem that I'm trying to sort out.
I have a 500GB WD MyBook external FireWire HD. I had it partitioned into two partitions. One was a 112 GB that I used to create backup images of the 120 GB internal drive of my PB G4 (really 111.66 GB). The other I used for other files.
Now, I decided that I wanted to start using the Backup partition for Time Machine, but in order to maintain a longer history, I wanted to increase the partition size. I figured this would be a snap with the new capabilities of Disk Utility. Unfortunately, it was not. While it is true that my pocket FireWire drive behaves exactly how I'd expect it to in DU, the 500 GB WD drive does not. I can't do anything to the partitions, in a live manner (the options, + and - buttons are all grayed out, and there is no indication of volume fill status).
In a fit of frustration, I tried deleting the backup partition. That worked, but now I just have 112 GB of free space, and I still can't do anything with it. I can't even add a 112 GB partition back into this free space.
Does anyone have any ideas about what is going on here, and what I can do to get things working properly?

Mirro Raid can you use a single 4TB disk with 2 partitions for mirrored raid ?

Hello,
I have a new 4TB hardrive.
After lots of reading, i was thinking that i could partician the drive to 2 (2TB) Then create mirror raid.
Essentially thinking that i would have photos on one of the (2TB particions) and they would mirror on the other ?? as a double copy storage.
I can partician okay and the try to drag the two particians onto the "mirror raid set" and ithe following message displays :
"Can't add Seagate expansion disk" to the raid set because another volume from this disk is already part of the RAID set"
I'm now thinking i need to purchase another 4tb hardrive for this to work ?
Or if you "mirror raid set" is it actually particioning the drive and creating a copy ?
Forgive me... i'm not really very up skilled with disk utility, and basically just don't understand.
Looking forward to some help and advise
warm regards Tracy Gr

It doesn't make any sense to mirror on the same drive. The idea behind mirroring is that should one disk in the raid set fail your data is safe on the other disk. Mirroring to partitions, if it's even possible, would only bring you disaster when the drive fails because you would lose the complete raid set and all of your data. If you insist on mirroring buy another drive.

Udev/dmraid not picking up all partitions of a fake RAID setup! [EDIT]

Hey all. I've been having a problem with my RAID setup in Arch. At first Arch wasn't picking up a partition on one of my arrays, (a single large NTFS partition on a 2TB array between two 1TB drives) but after re-creating the RAID array in the Intel Storage Manager I have a different problem. Arch now find the single large partition, but now /dev/mapper isn't populated with the other two partitions on the other array that my operating systems are on (Arch and Windows), when it used to just fine! The only thing I changed was re-creating the partition table on the other array, so I don't know what's going on.
Upon trying to boot, GRUB comes back with the error described on the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … oot_device
However I can't boot into the fallback image either! This means that I can't apply the fix as described in the wiki.
I'm starting to think there is a limitation in Arch where it can only handle a certain number of mapper devices (seems to be 3), or maybe it only detects the partitions on the first detected array? Now that I recreated the partition table on the larger array, it seems like that's the array that's detected first in both a GParted live session and Arch. But in a live GParted session, /dev/mapper was fully populated with all of my disks and partitions... so why is it that Arch can only find the partitions on one of the RAID arrays?
If you guys need any additional information just let me know... I really want to get my Arch setup up and working so I don't have to use Windows all that often (only games that don't work well in Wine).
EDIT: Changed post and title to reflect new problem after recreating the 2TB array
Last edited by pad76 (2011-08-11 13:15:36)

Does anyone know if I can damage my arch install by using mkinitcpio through a Debian live-cd? I'm going to try and use one to remake my initrd by chrooting using this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … oot_device
Basically the commands I'm looking to execute would be this:
# mount /dev/mapper/isw_ArchRaidPartition /mnt/
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
# mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
# mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
# chroot /mnt /bin/bash
(edit mkinitcpio.conf according to wiki, inserting the "sleep" hook)
# mkinitcpio -p 3.0-arch
So my question is would using the commands from a debian live distro work? I have to use debain since arch live-installs don't detect my arch raid partition, like how I described above. I also can't boot into fallback.

Udev/dmraid not picking up all partitions of a fake RAID setup!

Hey all. I've been having a problem with my RAID setup in Arch. At first Arch wasn't picking up a partition on one of my arrays, (a single large NTFS partition on a 2TB array between two 1TB drives) but after re-creating the RAID array in the Intel Storage Manager I have a different problem. Arch now find the single large partition, but now /dev/mapper isn't populated with the other two partitions on the other array that my operating systems are on (Arch and Windows), when it used to just fine! The only thing I changed was re-creating the partition table on the other array, so I don't know what's going on.
Upon trying to boot, GRUB comes back with the error described on the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … oot_device
However I can't boot into the fallback image either! This means that I can't apply the fix as described in the wiki.
I'm starting to think there is a limitation in Arch where it can only handle a certain number of mapper devices (seems to be 3), or maybe it only detects the partitions on the first detected array? Now that I recreated the partition table on the larger array, it seems like that's the array that's detected first in both a GParted live session and Arch. But in a live GParted session, /dev/mapper was fully populated with all of my disks and partitions... so why is it that Arch can only find the partitions on one of the RAID arrays?
If you guys need any additional information just let me know... I really want to get my Arch setup up and working so I don't have to use Windows all that often (only games that don't work well in Wine).

Please do not crosspost. Follow forum rules.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=124247
Closing..

Unable to create partition after RAID setup failure

SL - Tried to create RAID 1 with two external 250G drives. The RAID setup failed indicating improper format pair. So....I attempted to re-create the partition on one of the drives with proper settings.
It will not partition at all. It returns a POSIX error: unable to allocate memory.
I've tried the following:
Using startup disk
Partitioning using WindowsXP (which worked....only for Windows)
Tried erasing
Tried to partition with each partition type.
Nothing works! However, when I restart SL, it pops open a window indicating the drive needs to be 'initialized'. I click 'initialize' button, but that doesn't help.

Do the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Are you trying to create a RAID using partitions on hard drives or using the entire drive?

I already have a valid payment method for my iTunes account, but can't get past the Family Sharing setup prompt telling me to add a payment method . What to do?

I already have a valid payment method for my iTunes account, but can't get past the Family Sharing setup prompt telling me to add a payment method . What to do?

I had the same problem and found a bunch of others did, too. Unfortunately all the posts had no responses! Anyway, I previously had my payment method linked to my paypal. I tried changing it to my credit card and it worked. Don't know if there's a bug with using paypal but that seemed to be the culprit for me. Good luck!

How can I add a new column in compress partition table.

I have a compress partition table when I add a new column in that table it give me an error "ORA-22856: CANNOT ADD COLUMNS TO OBJECT TABLES". I had cretaed a table in this clause. How can I add a new column in compress partition table.
CREATE TABLE Employee
Empno Number,
Tr_Date Date
COMPRESS PARTITION BY RANGE (Tr_Date)
PARTITION FIRST Values LESS THAN (To_Date('01-JUL-2006','DD-MON-YYYY')),
PARTITION JUNK Values LESS THAN (MAXVALUE));
Note :
When I create table with this clause it will allow me to add a column.
CREATE TABLE Employee
Empno Number,
Tr_Date Date
PARTITION BY RANGE (Tr_Date)
PARTITION FIRST Values LESS THAN (To_Date('01-JUL-2006','DD-MON-YYYY')),
PARTITION JUNK Values LESS THAN (MAXVALUE));
But for this I have to drop and recreate the table and I dont want this becaue my table is in online state i cannot take a risk. Please give me best solution.

Hi Fahed,
I guess, you are using Oracle 9i Database Release 9.2.0.2 and the Table which you need to alter is in OLTP environment where data is usually inserted using regular inserts. As a result, these tables generally do not get much benefit from using table compression. Table compression works best on read-only tables that are loaded once but read many times. Tables used in data warehousing applications, for example, are great candidates for table compression.
Reference : http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/04-mar/o24tech_data.html
Topic : When to Use Table Compression
Bug
Reference : http://dba.ipbhost.com/lofiversion/index.php/t147.html
BUG:<2421054>
Affects: RDBMS (9-A0)
NB: FIXED
Abstract: ENH: Allow ALTER TABLE to ADD/DROP columns for tables using COMPRESS feature
Details:
This is an enhancement to allow "ALTER TABLE" to ADD/DROP
columns for tables using the COMPRESS feature.
In 9i errors are reported for ADD/DROP but the text may
be misleading:
eg:
ADD column fails with "ORA-22856: cannot add columns to object tables"
DROP column fails with "ORA-12996: cannot drop system-generated virtual column"
Note that a table which was previously marked as compress which has
now been altered to NOCOMPRESS also signals such errors as the
underlying table could still contain COMPRESS format datablocks.
As of 10i ADD/SET UNUSED is allowed provided the ADD has no default value.
Best Regards,
Muhammad Waseem Haroon
[email protected]

Software RAID setup by partition or by drive?

I've outgrown my ext FW drive that has served me well. May I still use it in a RAID 1 with a partition from a larger drive I am going to get?
I've spent the last few years backing up a TiBook to an ext FW 120GB Maxtor drive, which has worked well. I use SuperDuper to create the bootable backup every week or two and usually keep one or two old versions. It also holds my music and photo libraries, which are multi-GB.
With that said, I now have a MBP w/100GB int HD, so the 20GB partitions will no longer suffice. I've been thinking of getting a Maxtor 600GB RAID 0 as an upgrade. I like the speed but remain concerned about the risk of RAID 0. If SW RAID is by partition, it recently occurred to me that I can RAID 1 mirror the ext FW 120 GB drive and one 120 GB partition of the RAID 0 600GB dirve. Is that possible?
These appear to be the advantages: 1. RAID 1 on the backup, so if either the old drive fails or one of the drive in the RAID fails, the data is still fine. 2. Still get speed on the new RAID 0 ext. drive.
Please advise.
fellow

Hi fellow;
With the experience I have had supporting servers with RAID for IBM, I personally would try to find a different solution. I see too many variables, such as the buses and drives, to make me think it is going to be worth the effort. About the only RAID solution that were worthwhile were those that followed the rules.
Allan

Can one add apps to a lion recovery partition on external hd?

OK, so Lion Recovery Disk Assistant "lets you create Lion Recovery on an external drive that has all of the same capabilities as the built-in Lion Recovery." But can I add utility/diagnostic apps to the external drive, such as Disk Warrior?

If you want to have a fully bootable and functional backup OS, clone your internal drive to a partition on an external drive. Use a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner to do it. This clone will have all apps and docs installed and usable if you need to boot to it, current as of the date the last clone was made.

Can the command ADD partition (in table )invalid procedures,packages. ??

Hi Folks.
I know that drop a partition make invalid public synonyms, packages, functions.
But.
Add partition, can make invalid some object?
I tested and didnt find objects invalid.
Tks

>
I tested and didnt find objects invalid.
>
Please confirm that your tests included these steps
1. created a partitioned table
2. create at least one of every possible type of object that might depend on that table
3. performed an ADD PARTITION that succeeded
4. confirmed that NONE of the objects from step #2 were invalidated
5. performed an ADD PARTITION that failed in various ways (local index partition can't be created, tablespace can't be extended, non-existent tablespace, etc)
6. confirmed that NONE of the objects from step #2 were invalidated.
See ALTER TABLE in the SQL Language Reference
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28286/statements_3001.htm
>
Note:
If you alter a table that is a master table for one or more materialized views, then Oracle Database marks the materialized views INVALID. Invalid materialized views cannot be used by query rewrite and cannot be refreshed. For information on revalidating a materialized view, see ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW.
>
Did you test that the above MV is not invalidated?
Did you test that adding a partition did not invalidate any local or global indexes?

Can I add a RAID drive to my time capsule to increase capacity for backing up multiple computers

Can I add a RAID HDD to the Time Capsule? I have tried to do it, but can't select it as a backup destination.

You should be able to, but it would have to be seen by the TC as a single drive.
Not all USB drives are compatible.
And it will be slow.. exceedingly slow. Much faster just plugged into the computer.

I setup icloud mail account on pc but i can't add it on iphone.

I set up my icloud mail account on pc but i can't add it on iphone

Music is not part of backup.
If you want music on iPhone you need to select them in iTunes then do a sync with your iPhone connected and selected

Raid Setup Guide 865/875 LSR/FIS2R Rev 1.04

On-Board Raid Setup MSI 865PE/875P
Revision History
Revision 1.0 (January 2004)
- Original Raid Article
Revision 1.01 (February 2004)
- Reformatted text and fixed spelling/grammar
Revision 1.02 (October 2004)
- Added warnings to temporarily disconnect ALL drives including Zip drives during formatting Raid drives for WinXP.
Revision 1.03 (October 2005)
- Reformatted text and added links to download Promise/Intel Raid floppies if user is missing them.
Revision1.04 (February 2006)
- Minor BB reformatting
Intro
Equipment List For Tests
Description of Tests
Pre-Raid Setup Bios Tweaks
Raid Setup On Promise Controller
Raid Setup On Intel Controller
--->Intel- Migrating from single SATA to Full Raid Array
Intro
This guide is intended to help people configure their Bios and setup Windows for Raid using the Intel ICH5R controller and the Promise FastTrak 378 controller. Although all the tests were done using Raid-0 the methods described should be virtually identical to setting up Raid-1 provided the user is aware of the fundamental differences between the two. It should be useful for anyone with an MSI 865PE/875P chipset on motherboards with LSR and FIS2R suffixes. Before continuing, please read the FAQ thread posted by Maesus and the Raid manual(s) that came with your motherboard. There's also some good info regarding Raid Here and Here and Here
Keep in mind this guide is intended as a reference to help you. It is not a manual. I do not work for MSI and my equipment and time are limited. You will have different equipment and different versions of software.
All the data below is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Equipment List For Tests
MSI 875P FIS2R Motherboard
Bios 1.8
Enermax EG365P-VE (350w) PSU
P4 2.6c CPU
Kingston KHX-3200A2 2x512MB Memory
Radeon 9800Pro AIW Video Card
WD 400JB 40GB/8MB cache IDE Hdd
2-Seagate 80GB 7200.7 SATA Hdd's
Liteon 52x32x52 CDRW
Floppy Drive
Tests
Generally, tests were as follows:
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 1 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1) and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on it. Then add 2nd SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial2) and migrate to Raid0 using Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition.
IDE drive used in these tests was pre-installed with a fresh copy of WinXP Home SP1a using default settings and the following drivers all from MSI setup CD and Raid Floppy Disks that came with motherboard:
Intel INF files - version 1002
Gigabit Lan drivers - 7.0.37.0
SoundMax drivers - 5.12.1.3538
Catalyst 3.7 & Multimedia Center drivers from standard ATI CD came with video card.
Pre-Raid BIOS Tweaks
Before I continue, I'd like to point out a few changes from the defaults that I alway make to Bios before I attempt a WinXP install or hardware change. I can't guarantee that they all apply to you but none should make things worse. If anything differs from a setting that you feel is fixing another problem you're having, by all means leave at your prefferred setting. Anything related to performance and overclocking can be raised again AFTER the Raid is all setup and everything is running smoothly.
Standard Cmos Features
The only thing I change here is to enable "32bit transfer mode" whenever I connect new devices to the Intel IDE controller.
Note: Devices attached to the Promise controller and the Intel Raid(when it is enabled) will NOT appear in the standard Cmos page
Advanced Bios Features
Everything on defaults is usually fine except I always change the following for WinXP:
APIC ACPI SCI IRQ - Enabled
Boot Device select is also on this page and you'll be changing it after all the hardware is setup; more later.
Advanced Cipset Features
Confirm that the memory timing "by SPD" is enabled
PNP/PCI Configurations
Clear NVRam option I always set to "YES" before the first boot after making hardware changes. I'm not sure how important this is but I understand that's what you're supposed to do. I believe it forces the motherboard to detect hardware changes. It reverts to "NO" after the reboot.
PCI/IDE Busmaster set to "enabled" to speed things up outside of Windows.
Integrated Peripherals (Before Raid for most flexibilty)
Onboard Promise IDE - Disabled if you have nothing attached to IDE3 and Serial 3&4
ON-Chip IDE Configuration:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only or PATA Only (select the one that you boot XP with)
Keep SATA Active - Yes (if option available)
Keep PATA Active - Yes (if option available)
PATA Channel selection - Both (if option available)
Configure SATA as Raid - No (if option available)
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above
Frequency/Voltage Control
Dynamic Overclocking - Disabled
Performance Mode - Slow
Dram Frequency - Auto
Adjust CPU Bus - 201 (for "c" type cpu's)
DDR Voltage - 2.65 (minimum for Dual-Channel Mem stability)
AGP Voltage - 1.55
Note: some features above may not appear with your Bios
Note: performance & overclocking features can be increased again AFTER the Raid array has been setup and is stable with Windows.
Raid On Promise Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding a Raid array to a system already having XP installed on another drive on the Intel controller or intending to install Windows XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 3 and Serial 3&4 connectors are controlled by the Promise controller.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid arrays using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 or even 2 SATA & 2 IDE drives. I only tested 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4 connectors.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid 0+1 using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 and 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4. See HERE for a related thread.
Note: It is possible to setup SATA or IDE drives on the Promise controller as separate drives NOT using Raid but I did not test this. See your manual.
- Attach the SATA drives to Serial 3&4 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
Integrated Peripherals:
Set Onboard Promise IDE - As Raid
- Save and reboot computer
- Use control-F keys during the boot(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Promise Raid Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the promise Bios if you have set the Promise controller to "As Raid" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Promise Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. Do some research.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from
- If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
- If you will be installing XP on the new Raid, make sure the new Raid array is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes USB/Zip drives.(See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the WinXP Promise FastTrack 376/378 Controller from the floppy that came with motherboard(If Required Download Floppy Here). There are a number of different choices on the floppy. PICK THE RIGHT ONE.
Note: if using Win2K with the floppy, you can scroll down to get more driver options on this screen. It's not readily apparent on the screen.
- Continue setup and Windows should now show you the new Raid array as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running, you can re-connect/re-enable any drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Promise Array Manager software(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which adds some array management settings.
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers.
- Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the Promise drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
- Device Manager should now show the Raid properly identified by XP.
- If the Raid array was not previously formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The Raid array should now show in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- When setting "Boot Device Select", if I selected "NO" for "boot from other devices", the motherboard would ignore my selection and still boot from other devices if the ones in the list were unusable.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Raid On Intel Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding 2 SATA hard drives for a Raid array on a system already having XP installed on another drive or intending to install XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 connectors are controlled by the Intel ICH5R controller. Only Serial 1&2 can be configured for Raid arrays.
You can also install a single SATA drive and configure the system for Raid BEFORE installing XP on this drive if you intend to add another SATA drive later to form a Raid array. This method was also tested. I will refer to this for the rest of the thread as the Raid-Ready Method.
Note: If you install WinXP on a single SATA drive without enabling Raid and loading Raid drivers, you will NOT be able to migrate the XP disk to a Raid array at a later date. Reinstalling XP would be required.
Note: There is no performance advantage to having a single drive with Raid enabled. But doing so makes the disk Raid-ready and XP reinstall unnecessary.
- Attach the SATA drive(s) to Serial 1&2 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
- In "Integrated Peripherals>>On-Chip IDE Configuration" set:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only (Even if you will be booting XP from a PATA drive)
Keep PATA Active - Yes
PATA Channel selection - Both
Configure SATA as Raid - Yes
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above.
- Save Bios and reboot computer
- Use control-I keys during post(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Intel Raid Bios Utility.
Note: If you are using the single SATA Raid-Ready Method, you can skip the steps involving the Intel Raid utility. Go to the step for setting Boot device select in main Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the Intel Raid Bios if you have set the "Configure SATA as Raid" option to "YES" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Intel Raid Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. The Intel utility does describe the different options well though.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from;
If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
If you will be installing XP on the new Raid or using Raid-Ready Method, make sure the new Raid array or raid-ready drive is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array or using the Raid-Ready Method, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other hard drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes Zip/USB drives. (See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array Or Using Raid-Ready Method(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the IAA Raid Driver for ICH5R (If Required Download Floppy Here) from the floppy that came with motherboard. I only had 1 driver to choose from on my floppy but if you have more, CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONE!
- Continue and Windows Setup should now show you the new Raid array or Raid Ready drive as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running and INF files and other important drivers installed, you can re-connect/re-enable any hard drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Intel IAA-Raid Program(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which gives some info and adds the array management settings(Not many. Just the enable/disable cache setting and the migrate to raid option).
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers. Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the IAA Raid drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
Note: If the IAA Raid program detects that the Raid controller is not enabled or no device is present, it will NOT allow you to install the drivers/utility.
- Using Windows Device Manager should now show the Raid device properly with no problems.
- If the Raid array has not been formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The new drive should now appear in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array. It is safe to assume this can occur with the Intel controller as well since I believe the problem occurs because of how WinXP setup addresses the hard drives.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Migrating XP System Disk To Raid On Raid-Ready System
This part describes how to use the Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition to migrate an existing WinXP system disk (1-SATA) to a 2-SATA Raid array.
This procedure is actually very well documented in the last part of the Intel SATA Raid manual that ships with the motherboard but I thought I’d add it to make this thread more complete.
Please note that to use this feature of the Intel raid software the disk you are migrating FROM must have been made Raid-Ready as described above. Basically, this means that Raid should have been enabled in the Bios and the drivers installed from floppy during the WinXP install.
Note: I tested this by migrating to a Raid0 array but Raid1 should work also if the latest Bios and version of Intel-Raid application used.
- Open the Intel Application Accelerator Raid utility.
- With the “Raid” tab window open, right-click on “Raid volume” and select “Create from Existing Disk” as seen below.
- Follow the next several steps to choose the type of Raid array and the strip size.
Note: 64kb strip size is good for general purpose and 128kb best for most desktops and work stations according to Intel. Anything smaller is for specialized purposes. You should research this a little because you can’t change it after easily.
- After configuring the array for your preferences, you will face a couple of warnings telling you that “All data will be deleted from the Raid-controlled drive(s) and is unrecoverable” and ask if you want to continue. Obviously all data(if any) on the new drive you’re adding will be lost but the OS and other data on the disk you’re migrating FROM will be striped to the new array and will remain intact.
Note: Any complex disk procedure such as this carries the risk of losing data. A backup of the disk is important BEFORE beginning the migration process. Don't say I didn't warn you.
- The migration process can take a long time. You should see the window below during the operation.
Note: With just a default WinXP installation, migrating to 2-80Gb drives took about an hour for me.
- After the migration is complete, you will be prompted to re-boot to complete the process.
- During the reboot, as the Intel Bios comes up for a couple of seconds(don’t blink) you will see the 2 drives configured as an array and they will be listed as “functional”.
- After the reboot, you should have a fully functional Raid array with 2 SATA drives and all data from the single drive will have been striped or mirrored into the second one. Check Windows Disk manager(Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to see the status of the new drive. See bugs/surprises below.
Bugs/Surprises
The only problem I had with this test came in the form of a small surprise after everything was completed and the computer had rebooted. Although the Intel Application Accelerator showed everything functioning normally, Windows explorer showed my Raid drive as 74Gb in size instead of the 150Gb or so that I expected. After checking Windows disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc), I found that the missing GB’s were in fact there but were unformatted. Unfortunately, Disk Manager does not seem to allow merging or extending partitions so I ended up using Partition Magic 8 to format the empty space and merge it with the rest of the partition. This seemed to work fine and I ended up with a single 150Gb drive showing up in Windows Explorer. I also briefly tested the performance to confirm that it was operating as a Raid array.
I know there is a utility for Win2K called DiskPart.exe that is run from command console to extend NTFS partitions but if anyone knows of an easier way or a FREE utility that will format/merge NTFS partitions that they have confirmed works, please PM me so that I can include a reference to it here.
All the data above is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Vango44

Great work vango44!
Here are some RAID performance statistics I gathered while testing RAID on my system. The testing software was Winbench 99. The hard drives tested were new Seagate ST380013AS drives, formatted NTFS. Winbench was running on a third drive that is not included in the tests and should not affect the results.
The drives were reformatted between tests and chkdsk'ed to try and keep things "apples to apples".
No hardware or software changes other than the RAID setup/connections were made between tests.
Higher numbers mean better performance.
I also ran the same tests on the newish WD Raptor 10K drives:
I couldn't stand all the noise the Raptors made, so I returned them.
On my motherboard:
SATA 1 & 2 = Intel RAID controller
SATA 3 & 4 = Promise RAID controller
If the test title does not include "RAID", then it was a single drive test.
Unfortunately, I don't have a spreadsheet version of the above stats. Otherwise I'd create nice bar charts for us and it's would be easier to deduce performance.
Perhaps some kind reader will OCR the pictures, put them into Excel, and make some nice bar charts for us?
Hope the info helps.

Help With RAID Setup

I have two 250gb internal Hardrives(western digital) and one 500gb internal Hard drive(Maxtor).
Is it possible for me to RAID(Stripped) the two 250gb hdd's than Mirror that setup to the one 500gb hdd for back-up?
If yes, how do I set it up? which options in disk utility do use to creat this

Open Disk Utility and select any of the drives in the left side list then click on the RAID tab in the DU main window. You can configure RAIDs there. You can create a striped RAID with the two smaller drives. You can then create a mirrored RAID of the large drive and the striped RAID.
Note that you cannot add a drive to a RAID if that drive is a startup volume. You must boot from an installer disc, create the RAID(s), then install OS X on one of them. You should also know that you cannot do firmware updates when booted from a system installed on a RAID. Boot Camp will not create a Windows partition on a RAIDed drive.
Use Disk Utility Help from the DU Help menu for more assistance.
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Can I add partitions on a RAID 0 setup?

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