How do i setup a RAID 0 array??

What sata should i connect my 2 drives to using the ich driver.

All the SATA ports are controlled by the Intel chipset by the looks of it:
• SATAII controller integrated in Intel® P67 (B3) chipset
- Up to 3Gb/s transfer speed.
- Supports four SATAII ports (SATA3~6) by P67 (B3) PCH
- SATA3~6 ports support RAID 0/1/5/10 mode by Intel P67 (B3) PCH
• SATAIII controller integrated in Intel® P67 (B3) chipset
- Up to 6Gb/s transfer speed.
- Supports two SATAIII ports (SATA1~2) by P67 (B3) PCH
- SATA1~2 ports support RAID 0/1 mode by Intel P67 (B3) PCH
Stick with the SATA II ports unless you have SATA III drives.

Similar Messages

  • How do I create a RAID array

    I want to RAID the two drives in my G4. The upper (boot disc) is 80GB and the lower is 30GB.
    How do I set up the RAID (striped) to use both discs?

    To set up my RAID I had 3 hard drives, one ATA and 2 SCSI. With the startup system on the ATA drive I used Disk Utility to set the two SCSI drives as a RAID 0 array. Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the system to the RAID array. I now boot from the RAID and use the ATA drive to back up the system. Without the 3rd drive you would need to boot from the installation DVD and use Disk Utility to set up the RAID array, which will erase all data on your drives. To be honest I'm not seeing a huge speed increase with the RAID array; you might be better off using one drive as a system disk and the second to store data, music, video, etc.

  • Completely messed up Raid-Array and Partition! How to delete and create new Raid-Array​?

    Hello,
    I am using Ideapad U310 and tried to clean install Windows 8 and use my SSD as CACHE and Hibernate-Partition.
    So, I was able to get to the Intel CTRL+I-RAID Config Menu and there I was able to create and delete my RAIDS.
    Unfortunately I did not setup the Partition Size correctly, thus I only have a 50 GB Partition combined with my SSD and my HDD. This is what it looks like in the Intel Storage Manager:
    As you can see both, my SSD and HDD appears, but only have small partitions on the right. And Windows 8 only recognizes this small partitions, as you can see here:
    And now I am NOT able to get to the Intel RAID CTRL+I-menu before Windows starts, where I could delete this array.
    My Partitions are "empty", so I dont care if anything is delete. I just want to use raid with FULL CAPACITY of my harddrives. But how can I delete the RAID Arrays and reconfigure them correctly?
    When I change in the BIOS from RAID to AHCI I am able to install Windows 8 again with the whol CAPACITY of my SSD and HDD. But then I will not be able to use the RAID via Intel Storage Manager...
    Hopefully someone could help me.
    Thank you in advance.

    Hi
    Please see this thread
    http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-Y-U-V-Z-and-P-​series/The-Guide-on-How-To-Reformat-Repartition-AN​...
    Hope this helps
    Ishaan Ideapad Y560(i3 330m), Hp Elitebook 8460p!(i5-2520M) Hp Pavilion n208tx(i5-4200u)
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  • Ide3 Raid Array

    to setup a raid array on ide3 do i connect the 2 drivers on the same cable.
    do the drivers need to be set both as master or mast/slave
    Please advise
    Regards
    Enzo

    Thanks for the quick response, though it's not satisfactory for me (of course).
    Actually before installing the new KT4 Ultra I owed the KT266 Pro RAID motherboard. It's true this board has two controllers for the RAID option. Nevertheless because after reading the manual of this new board I was convinced I could connect two hard drives on the IDE3-channel. This is the reason I decided to go ahead and to upgrade to this new mainboard.
    I guess I have to go back to my employer and fall back again to my KT266 (MS6380).

  • 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.

  • Please help me arrange my hard drive setup, testing out different Raid arrays.

    Hi folks! If I could bother you for your time to help me figure out what the best options are for my computer setup that would be much appreciated!! I'm editing mostly RED footage so 5K and 4K files.
    Here's what my computer build is right now:
    Asus Rampage IV Extreme
    i7-3930K CPU (OC'd to 4.4ghz)
    64GB ram
    GTX 680 video card (2GB model)
    Windows 7 Pro
    Mostly Premiere CS6 and After Effects
    Here's the fun part and the part that I'm still baffled by regardless of how many videos and searches I've done online, what to do with my hard drives!?
    Right now I have my Mobo setup in Raid mode with these plugged in to the motherboard;
    2 x 250gb Samsung pro SSD's on 6gb/s ports (Raid 0) (Windows 7 OS)
    2 x 300gb WD Velociraptors 3gb/s ports (Raid 0) (empty)
    3 Ware 9750-8i Raid controller +
    8 x 3TB Seagate Barracuda drives ready to rock and roll.
    Now based on everything I've read, I'm leaning towards setting up 4 x 3TB drives in Raid0 for my footage (making constant backups with synctoy onto an external Drobo)
    4 x 3TB drives in Raid0 for exporting footage. (with continuous backups)
    That leaves me wondering where's the best place to setup Media cache, cache files and project files and anything else. Also I've left the OS pagefile on the SSD's but wondering if I should set that up somewhere else?
    Using Crystal Disk mark, I'm getting these results so far:
    OS on Samsung Pro SSD's in Raid0
    The 4 x 3TB drives in various Raid setups:
    Raid0
    Raid5
    Raid10
    Velociraptors in Raid0
    All this is due to many months of recent work on a computer build that would get bogged down and editing became painfully slow. I'm trying out a proper dedicated Raid card instead of just 2 drives in Raid0 off the motherboard hoping this will make a big difference.
    Any expert advice on here would be greatly appreciated!!!!

    Let's start with the easy part:
    C: SSD for OS, programs & pagefile
    D: 2 x Veliciraptor in raid0 for media cache and previews
    With 8 disks available on the 3Ware controller you can go many different directions and they depend on your workflow. Let me give two extreme examples and then you may be pointed in the right correction for your editing practice.
    Workflow consists of quick and dirty editing, usually one day or less and multiple export formats each day (example Vimeo, YouTube, BDR, DVD and web), or
    Workflow consists of extensive editing, usually a week or longer and exports to a few formats at the end of the editing (example BDR and DVD only).
    If your typical workflow looks like 1, your idea of two 4x raid0 arrays can work, because the load is rather nicely distributed over the two arrays. Of course the drawback is that there is no redundancy so you depend very much on the backups to your Drobo and restoring data after data loss can be time consuming, coming from the Drobo.
    If your workflow looks more like 2, then you can consider one 7x raid5 array for projects and media and a single drive for exports. That means that your raid5 will be noticeably faster then either of the 4x raid0 arrays you considered and offer redundancy as well. As a rough rule of thumb, a 4x disk raid0 will be almost 4 times faster than a single disk, a 7x raid5 will be around 5 - 5.5 times faster than a single disk. You profit from the extra speed during the whole editing week or longer.
    The export to a single disk may be somewhat slower, but how long does it take to write say 25 GB to a single disk? Around 160 seconds. If you use a hot swappable drive cage, you can even use multiple export disks, say one for Client A, another one for Client B, etc. In your initial idea of a 4x raid0 that time may be 40 seconds, so you gain around 2 minutes on the export, but lose that in the whole editing week.
    Just my $ 0.02

  • Quick RAID array setup question

    I had to upgrade one of the RAID arrays of one of my clients the other day. I had not setup the RIAD previously, but when I looked at how it was setup before it had 6 disc's in the array and one not part of the array.
    Now I assume who ever set it up before assumed that the 7th disc would be the redundant disc. After looking at the way it worked and doing some calculations from what info RAID admin provided me with I came to the conclusion that the way it was set up would be 6 disc's used as the array with one being a parity drive so if a drive failed that one would take over. On top of that they had another disc that was basically useless as it was not incorporated into the raid at all.
    The way I have set it up is that all 7 discs are part of the array so they have 6 disc's working with one fail over that would be the 7th meaning no disc's are wasted.
    Which way is correct is my question.

    I assume your predesessor left one disk as a hot spare.
    Whenever a disk from a raid set fails, the raid set will be rebuild with the hot spare disk. The bad disk can be swapped and will be the hot spare from then.
    Configuarions like this will give you the highest availability, but will cost you the most. Netto you will have the amount of 5 out of 7 disks. (1 for parity and 1 for hot spare).
    Note that in a raid5 set the parity is spread over all raid disks. There is not such a thing as a 'paritydisk'. The term paritydisk is hust for mathmatics purposes.
    Regards
    Donald

  • K9VGM-V (How Do I Setup Raid 0)

    Hi guys, I have a K9VGM-V board, very pelased with it, no probs so far.
    I am gonna buy myself 2 new sata hard drives (identical ones) and would like to set them up in a Raid 0 array, only prob is I have never attempted a Raid array before.
    I will be installing Vista Ultimate 32 bit (please guys don't laugh!).
    Would anyone be able to guide me through the process, what drivers i need etc.
    Your help will be highly appreciated.
    Thanks
    Adam

    You can see how to proceed here: http://www.msicomputer.com/support/sup_tshoot.asp#3_4
    also if your HDD's are SATA2(most probably) you will need to limit them to SATA1. What brand and models are they?

  • How do i monitor the health of my Raid array?

    First, I want to thank Harm, Bill, and all the countless others who continue to give great advice on this forum.  My question is how to I monitor the health of my raid array and how to determine which disk is acting up.   I am using a 3-disk soft raid 0 off my motherboard (gigabyte ud3p).  Seems to work pretty well but occasionally has a hiccup in certain programs.  I wonder if it is a sign of an impending problem or if it is just because it is a soft raid.  I've tried several HD diagnostics (Crystal Disk Info, Active@, HD Tune, etc.) but aside from temperature, they don't give any info about the impending death of my raid 0.  I have the SMART feature turned on in bios.
    To premtively address the critics about the raid 0.  I only do about one video a week and do a backup every night.  So i figured it (and when) it crashes, i'll just lose a days work. The motherboard is suppose to do a raid 5 but it performed really poorly.  My system is configured with additional drives (SSD boot, Raid 0 scratch, and final video) as recommended.  Any advice would be appreciated.
    michael

    The problem with almost all raid controllers is that they do not support SMART. So that is out. With software raids you are even more limited.
    With hardware raid controllers you have web based interfaces that show some basic information, like this:
    but software raids do not. There are two ways to determine possible problems, at least that I know of:
    1. Use drive cages with LED's for the individual drives to show activity and inspect them visually.
    2. Use old-fashioned manual labour to feel vibrations, temperatures and hear clicks on individual drives.
    With only 3 drives in the raid, the chances of guessing correctly are 33.3% to start with and they only increase with manual inspection. A far easier job than in the case of 6 or more disks.
    Sorry I can not offer better suggestions.

  • What Is the Best Raid Array Setup for Photoshop?

    I'm considering going to a Raid Array both at the Scractch Disk Level 2X Solid State 90GB Drives, and also at the stroage level 3X Hitachi 2TB HDD.
    Which Raid Array setups should I use for each?

    Something to consider:
    An advantage of RAID 0 is that you get all the space of both drives, while multiplying the throughput.
    While RAID 0 also multiplies the possibility of failure, you can offset that by buying high-MTBF enterprise class drives.  The Western Digital RE4 is an example (and is the model I use in my RAID).  Such drives are not really that much more expensive than their consumer-grade counterparts, and the difference is well worth it, IMO.
    Do good backups - e.g., to a large external USB drive (e.g., Western Digital MyBook), and you'll be covered against loss of the entire array.
    -Noel

  • K7N2 how setup IDE RAID ?

    Yup, again someone asking about the 3rd IDE cnnector of the K7N2 Delta-iLSR.
    I want to create an array for my 2 WD 80GB HD's, I have one connected to the IDE 1 and one to IDE 3. I've read here that I have to press ctrl + f at boot to create an array but when I try to build an array it says that there's only 1 drive available for the array ? How can you build a stripe array for performance when you can only connect 1 drive ? My previous RAID experience was with my KT3 Ultra-ARU mainboard and there I was able to connect 2 drives and build an array of 80g (2 hd's of 40). Now I want to build an array of 160 (2 hd's of 80) but I don't understand why you need a hacked BIOS do do so ? Why place a 3rd "RAID"ide connector on the board if you can't use it ? I assume that when I build the array with only one drive there's not going to be a performance increase...
    So my question: how can I create a stripe array with me 2 WD 80gb hd's without the use of any hacked BIOS ?
    thx !

    Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that... But why did MSI put it there in the first place ? Seems a bit odd, doesn't it ? Anyway I have flashed the hacked BIOS and have the 2 drives connected on the 3rd IDE and everything runs great !
    thx once again.

  • MSI Neo2-FIR P35 failed...How do I retain my RAID 0 setup?

    Hello everyone!
    Just a few days ago I turned my PC on, left the room, came back, and found my 'MSI Neo2-FIR P35' dead
    Back in 2008, I thought it would be cool to setup my two Samsung 320GB Spinpoint HDs as a RAID 0. I remember when I was piloting my RAID, all data was wiped after I attached it to a different motherboard.
    I read that the RAID can be retained if you use a motherboard with the identical 'RAID controllers'. But honestly, I haven't seen any details about the controllers to compare motherboards.
    I want to save the data I currently have!
    1) Will the RAID, and thus the data, be recognized if I use another MSI Neo2-P35 motherboard? If so, will the OS boot as if nothing ever happened?
    2) Is it possible to attach the RAID to any newer MSI motherboards?
    3) Does someone have any other advice on how to save my HDs?
    Hope someone can help!

    Hi Svet,
    Thank you for your reply!
    Quote
    yes it should
    Ok that's good to know! I found the same mobo yesterday, but I just learned that it was sold to someone else 
    Quote
    place them in another board who use the same raid controller
    So, in case I can't find another MSI neo2-FR/FIR P35...How do I know which RAID controller a motherboard has?
    What will I be looking for?
    "4 SATAII with 2 eSATA ports with transfer rate up to 3Gb/s"? OR "Serial ATA RAID 0/1/5/10"? The latter seems very generic...
    Quote
    is it confirmed that the board and not something else
    Well To be very honest, I haven't placed my CPU in another PC because I don't know anyone with a 775 socket. So it hasn't been confirmed yet.
    But, when i first built my PC I had some DOA parts. This MSI mobo has a smart way of showing what the problem is in case it can't boot through LED-light combinations, but none of these lights are shown... When I connect the power-supply, I do see a RED standby light, even though I think it used to be GREEN . And when I press the power-button nothing happens... occasionally I see the blue LED light of my GPU blink.. but nothing else happens.
    My mobo specs:
    • Intel® ICH9R Chipset
    - Hi-Speed USB (USB2.0) controller, 480Mb/sec, up to 12 ports.
    - 4 SATAII with 2 eSATA ports with transfer rate up to 3Gb/s.
    - PCI Master v2.3, I/O APIC.
    - ACPI 2.0 compliant.
    - Serial ATA RAID 0/1/5/10.
    - Integrated AHCI controller.

  • Problem Installing 817 on Windows 2000 with RAID Array

    I am having a problem installing Oracle under windows 2000 which has 2 x 60 GB discs configured in RAID array. When I run the setup program the cursor goes busy for about 10 seconds and returns back to normal and nothing happens !. No errors nothing.
    However when I run the Object Manager in the ods_preinstall directory it starts but in the log file I get the following error message:-
    02/14/02 09:46:18 : (892) : Error in IO Control call for disk PhysicalDrive0 (Error 21)
    02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : The count = 28
    02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : The signature is 0x443aa035
    02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : Error: First Partition of the disk must be an extended disk
    02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : Found the partition: 7
    Any idea whats happening....? Has anyone seen this before. Do I need to do something special in teh RAID..?
    TIA
    Martin

    Here are some possible solutions:
    1. The installation notes state that you must be logged on as Administrator to be able to install 9i. Are you logged on as the Administrator? Being logged on as user01 with Administrator priviledges isn't the same as Administrator.
    2. Is the disk full? If I remember my installation correctly, I needed 3 times the size of the files. The documentation will tell you how much space you need.
    Hope these two questions help
    Regards,
    Michael

  • 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

  • [VIA] K7T266 PRO- RU motherboard: Windows XP on a RAID ARRAY (fasttrak100 LITE)

    Hi All!
    I have a
    MSI  K7T266 PRO- RU motherboard, BIOS is the latest, official from MSI website,
    Problem short description: Windows XP (sp1 or sp2 english, I tried both)
    will not install when I set 2 x 40 Gig = ~80 Gig Stripe Array.
    detailed description:
    motherboard K7T266 PRO- RU  BIOS 1.9 AMI BIOS.
    AMD ATHLON XP 1700 + "Palomino" microprocessor, at default speeds.
    one piece of 512 PC 3200 RAM, can tell details later.
    Power supply: 400 W CODEGEN model : 300X.
    HDD-s : one IBM deskstar, fully functional, and a SEAGATE barracuda. seagate SEATOOLS, IBM DFT 32 no errors both.
    I set in the FASTTRAK 100 LITE "PDC20276R" (written on the chip) bios a STRIPE array. Powerquest drive magic , or the Windows XP CD handles it fine , as a 80 gig disk.
    I downloaded ALL available versions of the FASTTAK 100 LITE driver from the MSI website.
    (only tried: MSI driver FASTTRAK 100 lite, the only available driver on the MSI website, and various drivers from www.promise.com) ( http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=15&category=driver&os=0&go=GO ) (but I guess they WONT support my raid controller on the motherboard)
    Windows XP CD , booting, Press F6 for additional RAID /SCSI drivers, I put in the floppy, choose WinXP fasttrak lite driver, windows continues, even formatting the 80 GIG disk, copy files- access the FASTTRAK.SYS driver, EITHER it says: no fixed disk present, press F3 to exit windows setup, or windows setup continues, copies files, reboots, and then STOP ERROR
    http://www.martin555.dyndns.org/stop.jpg
    please, help me with the following:
    how to install XP on a raid array.
    is it worth, will it be little bit faster disk load times etc?
    is it secure if I trust the HDD-s?
    any clue, how to overclock the AMD 1700+ athlon XP palomino to its maximum, but still stability?
    AND : I read a lot about some MOD-ded BIOS called " KUNIBERT"  , which makes the LITE raid to a FULL RAID and some other extras? where to get it and what to do?
    email me if you can    martin5   "at"   freemail.hu
    THANKS !

    pardon me, dump? my english is not very perfect.. you mean to trow away, replace to something better, more stable power supply, more powerful?
    you must see... first I would like to resolve the "installing XP on a raid array" problem,( how is it possible, is it worth, will it speed up hard disk access and load times... etc... ) and after that maybe I  will OC the machine...
    it is now , with a 8 cm ventillator and a large aluminium cooler 39 Celsius IDLE and goes to 45 Celsius during EVEREST benchmarking test. (temperatures on 1700+ default setting and OC-'d to 1900+. just experiencing with it. ) (I saw the toms hardware guide movie , smoking processors..)
    cheers, Marton.

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