Help setting up raid array

Can someone please help me setup a raid array. I bought another SATA hdd and I would like to set it up in raid but I'm clueless. Any help is appreciated.

First I apologize for being a noob raider. Well, I have a new 200gig sata I want to add and I want best performance not just extra storage, so would raid 0 be the answer? I'm clueless. Also, I enabled raid in my bios now I get a install new hardware wizard. I try to install the drivers with the CD that came with mobo but it fails every time.

Similar Messages

Help setting up RAID on Neo4-F

I have this motherboard
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=651
and 2 identical 80Gb seagate SATA HDD's. I want to set up RAID 0 and need help with the same. How do i start.

Quote from: Kniwor on 14-January-07, 23:02:50
thanks, I downloaded the user manual and got it there too, thanks anyway.
also if you need further help or advice have a ask

790fx-gd70 need help setting up RAID 0

I can't get Windows XP to install in Raid0. I set up what appears to be a valid array and windows setup locks up every time. Tried installing on single HDD and everything works fine. Can anyone tell me which 2 SATA ports would be the best to use for the RAID array? Also what should the settings be in the BIOS? I'm also assuming that having 2 SATA DVD burners hooked should not be causing a conflict?

Some more input would be nice, about what your system looks like.
If it locks up without saying "media" or "disk" not found, the problem may very well lie elsewhere.
But you will be angry if your question isn't answered:
"RAID Function
- SATA II 1~6 support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 or JBOD mode by AMD® SB750
- SATA II 7~8 support RAID 0, 1, or JBOD mode by JMicron® JMB322
MSI Reminds You...
• The RAID setup floppy disk is optional depending on the districts. You can download the files from the website to make the setup disk. "
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171&prod_no=1740

Newb Needs Help Setting Up RAID 0

Hi, I am a newb and this is my first post. I just bought 2 80 gig Maxtor uata/133 drives and plan on putting them in a RAID 0 configuration. I have the K8T-Neo FIS2R motherboard. Would I have to put them in a master and slave configuration on one ide cable connecting to the ide3 slot? Will that work or is the ide3 for a SATA-ide RAID config?

No, u were correct.
Make 1 master, 1 slave
Attach em to IDE3
Activate Promise Raid controller in BIOS
Set up a raid array in the Promise RAID setup that comes by at post
That's it.
Keep the floppy with the promise drivers at hand while installing XP, if u want to set it as ur boot device.
Best is to set it up first get everything working, be4 reinstalling, to rule out possible errors, while still having a working computer

Z68 G3 - Need help setting up RAID + Smart Response please.

Ok, this is the first time I am going to be setting up RAID. I have two new 64 GB SSD's hooked up to SATA 1-2 (The first 2 white SATA 6.0). I go into BIOS, and I set the settings to RAID, and then I enable SATA 1 + 2. I save and reset, and during the post, I press ctrl I. I see the raid settings with the raid devices... like its going to go into RAID set up; however, it then shows the logo screen for msi m/b and then goes to command and does nothing after that.
What am I doing wrong? Do I need to install the controller drives via floppy drive? Bad thing is I don't have a floppy drive, but I can buy one. Is there any way to install the controller with out the floppy? Can it be done via USB?
I just built this new system today, so I am very anxious to get it up and running, so please reply fast hehe Im waiting =D

Never mind, I wasn't pressure Ctrl I correctly

Help setting up Raid 5.

I purchased the following item http://www.span.com/product/5-Bay-SATA-to-Multiplier-eSATA-CF-B8253PM-Enclosure- Removable-Caddies-for-5x-SATA-HD--Port-Multiplier-eSATA-~27841 after a few recommendations to help me with my video storage and now having real trouble in setting it up in the right way.
I have an http://www.caldigit.com/fasta-6gu3/ card in my machine and have 5 x 2tb drives installed within the enclosure. My Mac is maxed out with a 2TB drive in each bay and an SSD running OSX.
Can anybody point me in the right direction as the CD which came with the enclosure has out of date drives on and wont install.
Thank you.

Hi Fred,
1. Test and verify your 2TB clone. If at all, clone the clone to somewhere else.
2. Connect the new 2TB drive, erase it and the other 2TB drive (thus both drives you want to use to create your "main" 4TB drive) in Disk Utility.
3. Create a striped array. From the DU helpfile:
Select one of the disks that you want in the set, and click RAID.
Click Add , and type a name for the RAID set.
Choose a format from the Volume Format pop-up menu.
Choose Striped RAID Set from the RAID Type pop-up menu.
Drag the disks you want to use in the set to the list on the right.
Click the Options button to specify an optimal block size for the data stored on the set.
Set the block size to match the size of data stored on the set. For example, a database might store small units of data, so a small block size might be best. A video processing application might require fast throughput of large amounts of data, so a larger block size might be best.
Click Create.
4. Clone over from the 2TB clone to the new 4TB array.
5. Repeate steps 2 and 3 to create the 4TB "clone" drive.
6. Clone back from the "main" 4TB drive to the new 4TB clone array.
You will find lots of info in the DU helpfile on RAID options. There's also a good article on Wikipedia (search for RAID). Plus loads of posts here (do a "site:discussions.apple.com" search on Google).
/p

Help setting up Raid

I am just learning bout RAID, and it gets kind of confusing for me. I currently have 3 external drives, one for time machine, one for iTunes, and one for general storage. I would rather consolidate and get something maybe like the Lacie 4big Quadra, or some other kind of 4 bay array. I need help figuring out if the set up I want is possible. I would like to still have one drive for time machine, one for iTunes and one for storage, but then the fourth drive would be a mirror of the time machine drive. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and let me know if I didn't explain it very well.

Agreeing with the others generally, it's usually not the best idea to back up a backup.
First, anything wrong in the original will be copied (and perhaps magnified) to the copy.
Second, you're depending on a single app; all backup apps have their advantages and disadvantages, and none is absolutely, positively perfect in all circumstances.
Your best bet may be to continue using Time Machine as your "primary" backup, for it's advantages of quick hourly backups of what's new or changed; easy browsing and retrieval of selected items; and ability to "roll back" your entire system to a previous state, even if it's a different version of OSX.
Then use CarbonCopyCloner (which I use this way) or the similar SuperDuper to make a bootable "clone" of your internal HD (and perhaps copy some of the other drives as well). That gives you the best of both worlds -- another copy of everything current, and the ability to boot and run your Mac from the clone.
Then take it a step farther: get a pair of portable externals for the clone; use one for a week or so, then take it to your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and swap with the other. That way, you're also protected from fire, flood, theft, and direct lightning strike on your power lines.

Please Help Setting Up RAID!

I currently own a LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme 2TB external drive, and it's almost full with data from video editing projects. I wish to purchase another identical drive and set them up as a Mirrored RAID so that I will always have an automatic, real-time backup of my data.
I have three critical questions:
1.) When I set up the Mirrored RAID using OSX's "Disk Utility," will my existing 2TB of data be erased, or is there a way to initialize the RAID while preserving my 2TB of data?
2.) What should the block size be?
3.) Should I use the automatic rebuild feature? How does this feature work if I do not have a third, "spare" disk in the RAID?
Thanks in advance for all of your help! I really appreciate it.

I currently own a LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme 2TB
external drive, and it's almost full with data from
video editing projects. I wish to purchase another
identical drive and set them up as a Mirrored RAID so
that I will always have an automatic, real-time
backup of my data.
As the previous poster mentioned, the purpose of mirroring is to protect against hardware failures. Since what happens to one volume in the set automatically happens to the other mirror in the set, anything that scroggs the data on the one disk will automatically scrog the data on the other.
In other words, RAID is probably not the solution you're looking for. The solution you're looking for is probably Retrospect (or some other desktop backup software).
That having been said, I'll go ahead and answer the rest of your questions...
I have three critical questions:
1.) When I set up the Mirrored RAID using OSX's
"Disk Utility," will my existing 2TB of data be
erased, or is there a way to initialize the RAID
while preserving my 2TB of data?
Creating a RAID set requires erasing the disks. The best thing to do would be to backup the disk using Disk Utility, create the set, and then restore.
2.) What should the block size be?
Since you're working with video, you should go bigger than the default. I'd go with the largest.
3.) Should I use the automatic rebuild feature? How
does this feature work if I do not have a third,
"spare" disk in the RAID?
Automatic rebuild works like this:
You have two disks in your set. One fails. You pull it out. You get a new disk and put it in the same slot, it rebuilds. There is no "hot spare" option in Disk Utility.
Thanks in advance for all of your help! I really
appreciate it.

Need help setting up Raid HD with 10.5?

I have a 2tb external HD, my G5 sees it as a 1x2TB (not 2x1TB), I am running out of space and I was thinking about getting another 2TB HD.
Is there a way, using Leopard, to mount the two drive as one 4TB?
Thanks
Fred

Hi Fred,
1. Test and verify your 2TB clone. If at all, clone the clone to somewhere else.
2. Connect the new 2TB drive, erase it and the other 2TB drive (thus both drives you want to use to create your "main" 4TB drive) in Disk Utility.
3. Create a striped array. From the DU helpfile:
Select one of the disks that you want in the set, and click RAID.
Click Add , and type a name for the RAID set.
Choose a format from the Volume Format pop-up menu.
Choose Striped RAID Set from the RAID Type pop-up menu.
Drag the disks you want to use in the set to the list on the right.
Click the Options button to specify an optimal block size for the data stored on the set.
Set the block size to match the size of data stored on the set. For example, a database might store small units of data, so a small block size might be best. A video processing application might require fast throughput of large amounts of data, so a larger block size might be best.
Click Create.
4. Clone over from the 2TB clone to the new 4TB array.
5. Repeate steps 2 and 3 to create the 4TB "clone" drive.
6. Clone back from the "main" 4TB drive to the new 4TB clone array.
You will find lots of info in the DU helpfile on RAID options. There's also a good article on Wikipedia (search for RAID). Plus loads of posts here (do a "site:discussions.apple.com" search on Google).
/p

Need help setting up Raid 0

I just got my 875P Neo and am trying to install my two Seagate 120 SATA drives. I'm not sure if Im supposed to plug them into SER1 and SER2 or do I connect them to SER3 and SER4 for the Promise controller. I want a Raid 0 configuration but I cant seem to get into the Raid Config Utility. If I hit the Ctrl-I when prompted on SER1 and 2 it does nothing....if I hit the Ctrl-F on SER3 and 4 It does nothing. I assume I have a setting or 2 off in the bios. It sees the 2 drives but wont allow me to configure t hem. Can anyone enlighten me before I go nuts? ?(

Ok, Ive talked to tech support and have gotten as far as seeing the hit Ctrl-I, when I do hit Ctrl-I nothing happens...I either hang and never enter the raid setup screen or it goes right by it to looking for a boot disk. It shows the 2 drives and their size but Im not able to setup the drives. Tech support suggested I flash the bios and emailed me the newest version. THe only problem is the instructions tell you to not flash the bios from the A drive and this is a new sysytem with no hard drives for me to copy the flash upgrade to....Man I have a headache ;(

Need Help Setting Up Raid Card with Windows xp pro 64 bit

I need a 64 bit driver for my k8t neo-fis2r motherboard. I tried to use the disk that came with the board, but I keep getting an error. please help.

go to the via website and download the via 5.00a package, it contains a driver for the onboard via controller!
dont try the promise one, it wont work! tried it several times! we have to wait for an updated driver to be able to use it!

Raid array removed, hard drives now wont work?? help

Hi all,
I had a KT266 pro2RU motherobard with 2 ibm 40gig hard drives that were in raid mode 0,
I took the 2 drives out of the computer and wanted to use one of them in another computer on a standard drive controller (single drive not raid) and i cant seem to access the disk to format it or install windows xp on it?, it keeps saying write access denied?,
I am thinking that i should have unmounted? the raid array before taking the drives out to put them back to normal but dont have the raid system any more, is there any way i can make these 2 40 gig drives work now?, or has it overwritten the HD bios or something?
If anyone can help i'd appreciate it
Cheers

i would try fdisk on it or partition magic if you have that
http://www.bootdisk.com will get you an me boot disk has f disk

New Builder needs some info K9A Plat. RAID Array help

This is a new build AMD 64x2 6000+, K9A platinum, Lite On DVD Re Writeable SATA, 2x74Gig WD Raptors in Raid 0, Asus X1950 pro Thermaltake 700 W PSU Crossfire cert.
BIOS registered my drives, Built array PC Rebooted, Installing Win XP pro Hit F6 install drivers, Format drives, Then before Install It says that :setup cannot copy the file ahcix86.inf.
If I skip it, it will install XP but when I try to boot from the hard drive It starts to load XP but crashes to the blue screen of death
*** Stop: 0x0000007BC ( 0xF78A2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
Has anyone got this error string?
First RAID array I would very much appreciate any help given.

Hi!
Looking at some info on Google and Microsoft site, I cannot find the BC error code, only the error code ending with B. It indicates an error with the boot device. It can be caused by several things.
Check that you are using the correct device drivers to install Windows
Also, check the installation CD. It could be that the disk was damaged and that you are missing a crucial file because of that
You can also try installing Windows again and choose to recover the previous installation.
If this all does not help, try installing Windows on a single HDD (no raid) to see if that will work.

System won't boot from Windiws XP boot disk after setting up RAID 0 array???

After connecting my two Western Digital Raptor on SATA ports 1 and 2, and finally being able to launch the Bios option ROM "Intel SATA Raid manager" (had some problems associated with an LSI 4i megaRAID adapter in a pci slot), I was able to put the two disks in RAID 0. After exiting the Raid manager, the DMI pool was updated, and I was expecting the computer to boot from the XP installation boot disk in the optical drive. Instead I got the message: "Disc boot failure. Insert system disc and press enter.". This is very strange, as I installed XP earlier with the Raptors functioning as IDE drives without a problem (so IDE was selected in the BIOS for SATA drives instad of SATA as in this case). As a result I am unable to install Windows XP (professional).
My system configuration:
Motherboard: Platinum power up edition
Bios version: W72461MSv7.3
CPU: Intel Core2Duo 6700
Memory: Corsair, 2 GB in matched pair DDR 2, now on 2 volts
Harddrives: 2 western digital raptors of 150 GB in RAID 0
Optical drives: LITE-ON DVD-rewriter and reader from same brand (also DVD)
PSU: Corsair 620 Watt
Now removed: LSI Megaraid 4i adapter (pci) with 4 Samsung spinpoint harddrives of 4 in raid 5
XP professional
Boot sequence: CDROM, floppy and harddisk in this order
BIOS settings:
USB keybooard and mouse disabled
JMB361 option rom disabled (not using it)
Onboard lan boot rom disabled (not using it)
Sata mode set to RAID
All other settings "optimal" using F7 in BIOS
Usinf F11 during startup doesn't help: the CDROM is not displayed in SATA mode, only floppy and harddisk.
Using Microsoft XP professional boot floppy's did'nt help either. System restarted after loading first floppy (ther are 6 in total), and no result.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
Hans

so your problem is TWICE as important, and you start another thread.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=104173.0

Raid array being seen as 2 individual drives

Hi. Here is the issue as posted in other places. Still searching for the answer to this one.
Specs:
K7n2 delta2 platinum with b50 bios
2x1gb crucial pc3200 2.5cas ram
AMD Barton 2500
2 x 160gb 7200rpm 8mb cache SATA Samsung Hdd's
Thermaltake 430w psu
Gainward fx5700 ultra graphics
OS's: original xp corp, slipstreamed xp corp sp2
raid drivers: nvraid.sys v4.27, 5.10, 5.11 (also the needed nvatabus.sys with those)
I am NOT overclocked.
fsb 166
1:1 ram/cpu
no spread spectrum or other garbage
ddr400 patch disabled
PSU gives presumably stable reading (according to what I see), with amperage ratings above the required.
checked and rechecked cables for bad ones
ran mulitple scans on drives, all come up drives OK
I HAVE installed into Raid 0 already, this is not an issue of hardware failure as far as I am concerned.
So here is the scenario
I have properly set up the array, using correct bios settings and the raid setup utility, for a raid 0 array of those 2 hdd's listed. When booting into xp, either version, I have used all 3 of the driver sets listed. I have been reinstalling to do some performance tests on different configurations.
Anyway, for the last few nights I have been trying to get the windows setup to see the raid 0 array as one 300gb drive. It does not, no matter what I try. It sees them as 2 drives, each being 160gb (or thereabouts). These drives are matched, same firmware, same lot, so that should not be an issue.
I have used numberous tools to delete the mbr on the drives, both in an array and as single drives. I have done the same as well as tried an install and formatted each drive individually, still the same effect when the raid array is recreated.
Basically, I can find no good reason why the array is seen as individuals and not as an array. It is interesting to note, that even though xp setup sees the the array as 2 drives, I can complete the text based portion of setup. However, rebooting to start the GUI portion of setup, it will not boot. Obviously becuase the bios has the controller as the nvraid controller and it is supposed to be a raid 0 array, so I expected that.
Short of rewriting the mbr, either by deleting it or by changing each drive by formatting/partitioning/installing an OS on them, I cannot think of how to fix this. I know the drives and xp cd's work because I have already installed with them.
I understand what to do in the bios portion, and in the raid setup utility portion. I know that I can boot into windows as a single drive and use the nvraid tool to set it up, but that is not the way it should be, and that is not the way I am going to learn WHY this is happening.
Roger that. First set in bios enable raid (in this bios I have to enable IDE array, then choose which controller to actually enable raid on, which happens to have been SATA 1 & 2).
Second, upon reboot, I use the F10 key to enter raid utility. Then, set to striping, set stripe size (which was one of the things I am testing), and add the drives to the array. Next step is to create it. It asks to clear disc data, and it is done.
Have deleted that array as well as just cleared it. Have deleted it and reboot and rebuild it. Have deleted it, reboot, change bios back to non-raid, reboot. Reboot. Change bios back to raid enabled. Reboot. Rebuild array in raid utility, reboot. Run setup, only see 2 hdd's, not one array.
Umm, yep, that is about it.
More to the story now.
From some other posts I tried this.
1. destroy array. reboot. disable raid in bios. reboot. verify sata's visible as singles in bios.
2. power down. pull plugs on sata's. reboot. no drives visible.
3. pull power. jumper clear cmos. wait 60 seconds. re-pin jumper. power up.
4. verify no drives. verify default bios settings. all is good
5. plug drives in. reboot. seen as singles. erase mbr on both drives. reboot
6. enable raid in bios, and choose sata 1 & 2 as "enabled". reboot.
7. use F10 key to setup raid. Here is the interesting part. Even though I deleted the array prior to all of this, and removed the drives to force an ESCD update, and cleard the cmos with the board jumper, and then before raid was enabled, cleared the mbr on the drives, when I started the raid utility, the array was already set up. That is the problem, whatever that is. I have read snippets where it is claimed that this chip or bios or whatever stores some kind of a table on this stuff, but this is a bit out of hand.
That combination, IMO, should have cleared anything out. But, the saga continues.
Thanks for you help BWM
[Edit] BTW, I have finally found a utility that will see a raid array and allow me to clear the arrays mbr. It is called SuperFdisk and is at ptdd.com. So far the only one that see's the 2 drives as 1.
Yeppers.
Started with v5.10 which came on a floppy with the mobo. Told setup to use both, nvatabus.sys and nvraid.sys. Even switched which one of the 2 I picked first, just to see.
Same thing with v4.27 and v5.11. Also tried it with just the nvraid.sys and just the nvatabus.sys (which obviously does squat for raid, lol)
Trying some new things now. Post in a little bit.
I am officially at 'Wit's End'.
Here is what I have tried now.
1.pull drive cables. pull power. jumper clear cmos. wait. power up. no drives
2.plug sata 1 in. boot. drive detected.
3.boot to command.com, run MHDD, which is a nice russian utility similar to Spinrite. Used this to clear the mbr at hardware level, and do a complete erase.
4. reboot to command.com. run superfdisk. erase mbr.
5. pull plug on sata 1, and plug in sata 2 with sata 1 cable. repeat the erasure steps listed above.
6. pull plug on sata 2, no sata plugged in. reboot
7. change bios to raid enable on sata 1 & 2. power down
8. plug in sata 1 & 2. power up.
9. inspect raid utility. no listing of any arrays. reboot
10. in raid utility, build array. did NOT clear discs. reboot
11. attempt install. single drives found again (used both drivers).reboot
12. in raid utility, optioned to CLEAR discs (funny, rebuild option is never valid).reboot
13. attempt install, both drivers, still seen as 2 individuals.
Things to note. When creating an array when presumably there are none, it assigns the raid array an ID of 2. Upon reboot, the ID is now 1. Don't know what difference that makes.
Also, tried the install listed above with APIC functionality both off and on. Also, when on, set MPS to both 1.1 and 1.4. In addition to this, each variant I tried manual HAL layers of, in this order, ACPI (the one that actually spells ACPI out), ACPI Uniprocessor, MPS Uniprocessor, and let it choose it for me.
So, here I sit in a barca-lounger at 'Wit's End', with a warm cup of java and a dinner mint.

Here is the final product on the floppy disk that I used to successfully install a stable raid 0 on the MSI K7N2 Delta 2 Ultra 400 Platinum ms-6570e motherboard.
On root of floppy, from driverset 6.70. (after much testing, I used driver pack 5.10 for my nic and smbus. I used the realtek sound drivers off the cd for audio. I have used every driver pack I could find, and while some did offer better I/O or read/write latency, this set in general provided the most stable environment. The only drivers I used were these floppy drivers for SATA, the nic and smbus just mentioned, the sound just mentioned, and updating the nvide drivers to mside drivers)
<from sataraid directory>
disk1
idecoi.dll
nvatabus.sys
nvraid.cat
nvraid.inf
nvraid.sys
nvraidco.dll
<from legacy directory>
nvata.cat
nvatabus.inf
I used the txtsetup.oem from the sataraid directory, but edited this:
[Files.scsi.RAIDCLASS]
driver = d1,nvraid.sys,RAIDCLASS
inf = d1,nvraid.inf
dll = d1,nvraidco.dll
catalog = d1,nvraid.cat
[Files.scsi.BUSDRV]
driver = d1,nvatabus.sys,BUSDRV
inf = d1, nvraid.inf
dll = d1,idecoi.dll
catalog = d1, nvraid.cat
To this:
[Files.scsi.RAIDCLASS]
driver = d1,nvraid.sys,RAIDCLASS
inf = d1,nvraid.inf
dll = d1,nvraidco.dll
catalog = d1,nvata.cat
[Files.scsi.BUSDRV]
driver = d1,nvatabus.sys,BUSDRV
inf = d1, nvatabus.inf
dll = d1,idecoi.dll
catalog = d1, nvata.cat
Now, it is important to note that I installed or attempted to install at least 50 times. Bare minimum. I noticed when I use this custom driver disc that in the GUI portion of setup, XP asks me for files from the disc. I tried lot's of different things to alleviate this, and denied some of them.
One thing that really bugged me was that the bios would see my #2 optical, slave on secondary IDE channel. A dvd/rw drive. And I could even start the setup from it. But, once I got about 3/4 through copy file stage on text setup portion, I would hang. Becuase the drive was no longer accessible. Booting from the master would get me to the desktop, but the slave optical was nowhere to be found. Updating the ATA/IDE controller to the ms ide drivers would get it visible, but I kept having issues with stability after I did that.
The most stable method I found was to use my above listing of driver files for the floppy, and when in GUI mode setup asks about NVCOI.DLL, I skipped it, ignored it, and did not let setup install it. That actually got me to the desktop, with access to the slave optical as a "removable drive". It even knew what the hardware was. It just could not access it. On a reboot however, back to not seeing it. This method however did allow me to update the nvide driver with the mside driver with no stability issues. So, for me it was a raving success.
Here are some links regarding the SATA RAID driver workaround:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:jHbX5bNfGx4J:www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t51140.html+nforce2+nvraid.sys+ms+ide&hl=en&client=opera
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=292&Itemid
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:J9UhG2Kd8W4J:www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D32751+xp+2+sata+raid+0+seen+as+individual&hl=en&client=opera
Early on one problem I noticed was that in text setup mode of xp installation, there were long pauses that I have never seen before. I noticed that with both ide and sata installs. Also I noticed that when booting there was a really long pause when the xp logo is first seen in a sort of dim state till when it became bright and vivid.
Come to find out that this is a more or less typical scenario. Most instances that I read about were all pointing to the nvide driver. So, I found if I just updated the PATA controller to the standard ms ide driver, that went away and the whole system ran better.
It took awhile to figure out that if you install a driver with the nForce2 chip, you had to uninstall it or you will have issues. Herein was the main problem I encountered with the SATA RAID installs. The nvatabus.sys driver was required for an SATA RAID install. Omitting the ata driver was impossible. And for awhile I had no success updating the ms ide driver once I was to the desktop without major instability. Here are some links regarding the drivers for this chipset:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/latest-drivers-for-nforce-3-vt60240.html
In my browsing I came across some pretty interesting articles regarding ACPI. One thing I started playing with was the different HAL layers that xp installs on it's own, vs. me picking one manually (F5 key). I must have started the setup at least 50 times to figure out this: that this particular board does not give me the bios settings to install xp with anything but the ACPI Uniprocessor Hal. For instance, the MPS Uniprocessor HAL is much more responsive, but it lacks the IRQ's needed for setup to see the raid array. I booted to each one, some locking the system up, some booting OK. The one I found the best performance with early on was the one that spells out ACPI, not just initialized. (sorry, I don't want to look it up).
I seemed to be getting closer, but I could not find the needed bios settings to properly manage my ACPI, and since I was trying for RAID, I could not use the one that did work. Here is a link for that kind of stuff.
http://www.fceduc.umu.se/~jesruv98/info/acpi/acpi.html
Another thing that I did not like was being forced to use the dynamic overclocking feature of this board. I have a 333mhz barton core, and I have ddr400 ram. In optimized (fool proof) mode in bios, I was running asynchronous. I did not want that. So I set it down to run at 166mhz, with very slow and conservative settings on everything. Unfortunately, if I did this "manual" method, I was forced to use the dynamic overclocking. I thought I had that figured out. So I set everything to "optimized". But, as it turns out, the system had terrible stability without the dynamic overclocking set to at least Private. What this meant is that I could not rule out that my stability issues (corruptions and hangs and bsod) were from being overclocked even a tiny bit or not. And as if that were not enough, this bios has a special set of settings you must unlock to see. And one of those is paramount in achieving a stable system. It is called the DDR400 patch, and it is enabled by default. So, by pressing SHIFT+f2 AND CTRL+F3, these settings are now available. Like I said, I had to disable that DDR400 patch setting.
I also found out from the first day that my board shipped with the latest bios. I flashed the 2 prior versions with no success in more stability. After about 6 weeks of getting whipped on by this board, I found mention of some modded bios's for this board. I have used modded bios's in the past, some worked wonders, others required some serious effort to recover from. What I found out about this board is that there are 2 players who make the modded bios's. Here is the first index I found from a german website. This one actually is for the older B4 version only for the Platinum.
http://storage-raid-forum.de/viewtopic.php?t=2824
And here is an english forum for pretty much the same thing
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/bios-mods-for-k7n-and-k8-boards-vt55014.html
These links have a bit more information, and I decided to go with these. I tried versions b61,b62 and b71. I found b71 to work the best for me. Mind you I am not into overclocking or what-have-you. Just a rig that performs as well as it was advertised to do. Try these out for the bios information:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=385480
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=84715.0B62
Here is a page that had a bunch of misc stuff I found interesting:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:QkvLeKcbwjQJ:www.amdzone.com/modules.php%3Fop%3Dmodload%26name%3DPNphpBB2%26file%3Dviewtopic%26p%3D75383+nforce2+ultra+nvraid+driver+freeze&hl=en&client=opera
In the end, I have, I think, conquered this board. My findings can be summed up as follows, all in my opion only I guess.
1. There are some ACPI/APIC issues with this board or this chipset. I believe it also included drivers and some can be attributed to XP.
2. There are some major bios issues with this board.
3. There are some major driver issues concerning SATA/RAID. I am not sure who get's the boob prize, nVidia or MSI.
The only way I have found to get RAID 0 installed and stable is to modify my bios (which is a modded beta version), modify my driver disk for SATA/RAID, modify my install sequence for those drivers, modify my drivers within windows after setup, use different drivers from different driver packs for different pieces of hardware, and modify my HAL layer after everything else is done, to achieve peak performance.
If I had not spent soooo much time trying to get a stable install, I would have built up an Unattended CD, which has some possibilities for forcing non WHQL drivers. But, hey man, I am totally burn out on this board. And all it was for is a spare LAN box for when I go to a lanparty. Sheesh. Murphy's law.
Oh, and I also found out, with my own eyes, that the Soyo KT600 Dragon+ that I dumped for this wonderful board, is way faster. Faster read/writes, faster throughput on the nic, faster booting, much faster installs of xp. As a matter of fact, I could get my KT600 to get a consistent thruput on the network to my older KT266a board at 99%. That is pretty fast. 2 of these Platinum boards, on a sweet switch that is tweaked, will only go up to 91%, no matter how much I tweak them. The gigabit connects via a crossover cable at about 38% of full bore. This is tweaked stuff, but still. I listened to the hype. Dual channel memory, giglan, etc etc.
I hope this may help anyone else out there who is still fighting with these issues.
Out.
sul

Help setting up raid array

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for