K8N Neo2-F Hardware RAID question

Hi guys,
Question for you. I have a Hitrachi 160GB SATA drive and I installed x64. After all is good and well I went out and got a second identical drive. I would now like to have these two drives Raided with the hardware raid. When I go into the RAID setup after POST, I can see both, add both, and mirror both. When I reboot, all I get is a post and it just stops after showing that box where it lists everything in the computer and what has what IRQ's. No error messages saying no boot drive, no system disk, etc. I switch it back and I can boot with the one drive. I also noticed during the RAID config, it asks me if I want to erase the drive. I always say no because I'm scared that it will erase the primary drive that I need to keep and not the new one for mirroring. Can anyone help me or confirm I'm doing this right. Thank you very much in advance.
Matt
-MSI K8N Neo2-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
-AMD 64 4200+ and fan/heatsink that came with it - NO OVERCLOCK (YET)
-2 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K250 HDS722516VLSA80 -13G0254 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
-CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
-ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply 115/230 V CB IEC 950/ TUV EN 60950/ UL 1950/ CSA 950
-Windows XP x64 SP1
-BFG GeForce 6800 GT AGP

You windows installation don't have the nvraid drivers loaded sou you won't be able to boot that windows installation
with the xp64 disk put in a enabled raid array .
But perhaps you can fool the system by doing this .
Leave the xp64 HD as is (just as a regular sata say at sata 1 )
Connect the new disk to the other sata controller , say sata 3 ( as they are controlled in pairs )
Set sata 3 as raid enabled and create a raid-1 array in the nvidia raidbios with just this single drive in it .
Boot windows xp64 from the normal enabled xp-HD and it should detect new hardware is added and ask for drivers .
Install the nvidia raid drivers and reboot when asked .
Then check if you have raid manager and raid drivers enabled in the windows installation .
After this point you can proceed to do the thing you first tried .(but without clearing the disk)
Delete the workaround fake raid you made with the new disk .
Shut down and move the hd-connectors again so that you have the two drives either at sata 1+2 or sata 3+4 .
Make a new array that includes the xp installation with only this disk in it , leave the other one free .
Try to boot the system .
If it boots you use nvraid manager in windows to add the second drive and let the array rebuild (sync drives )
Note that rebuilding take several hours to complete .
Look in the nvraid user guide for details .
To fully understand the nvidia raid it's wise to read this from start to finish a couple of times ,
and to have a hardcopy of it printed out.
A copy of the nvraid userguide rev.20 here :
ftp://ftp.tyan.com/manuals/m_NVRAID_Users_Guide_v20.pdf

Similar Messages

MOVED: K8N Neo2 - WinXP and Raid driver problem

This topic has been moved to AMD64 nVidia Based board.
K8N Neo2 - WinXP and Raid driver problem

Quote from: SillySider03 on 18-June-05, 22:18:50
Try This.
Yes it worked... I did it a bunch of mins ago, ty a lot anyway

Few question above the k8n neo2 platinum and raid

hi
i have for now intel 3.4ghz and asus p4c800dlux and 4 sata drives :
2x36giga wd 10000 raptors in raid 0 (connected to the on board promise sata controller)
2x200giga wd 7200 jd sata that (connected to on bard sata ports)
i order a athlon fx-55 and k8n neo2 platinum for a oc (a have 2x512 corsiar pc4000pro and hydro cool 200 ) and its look that its going to be problem
"SATA ports 1+2 will not maintain a lock and you can and will corrupt hard drives placed on these channels if you raise the HTT above 220mhz."
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=ge...890&articID=228
so im in a problem, if i wont to do nice oc (and i will) i need to leave sata ports 1 and 2 not connected and buy a sata-pci controller for my 2x200giga , im right ?
in that case i need to connect the raptors in raid 0 in the sata 3-4 prots (near the agp) but:
the raid on the noe2 is "NV RAID (Software)" it means that there is no a controller like promise and the cpu need to replace the controller work, so its doing a lower performance.

If you had 4 huge drives I would be more sympathetic. To me every board is a compromise, resulting in me having to abandon something I might have done previoulsy. In you case ditch the two 36gb drives, and slum it with the 200gb drives. Remember that "overclocking" is not a right. There will be many users oblivious of the SATA 1/2 overclocking problems running 4 sata drives in RAID without a problem.

SATA HDD installation on K8N Neo2 Platinum, Non-RAID, Non-Bootable

Hi-
I’m a rank newbie on this forum (first post). I have a K8N Neo2 Platinum Mobo, which I’ve recently gotten up and running, with Windows XP-Pro SP2 installed on a single IDE drive. I would now like to add 2 SATA drives. I don’t need or want the SATA drives to operate in a RAID array, nor do I want them to be bootable. I want to use them independently for data storage. I read the following thread (I am posting here on a separate thread per the author’s wishes not to get his original thread too junked-up) :
Single SATA or Multiple Drive Array Setup FAQ
I have not yet plugged-in either of my SATA drives, because I don’t want to risk corrupting my existing boot (IDE) drive. I just had a few questions about the procedure given in the referenced thread, in the Single Drive Setup:
- Step 14 States: “Make sure the “RAID Mode” is Stripping and Striping Block at 64k or Optimal. Hit F7 (Finish)”. Is this correct for a single non-boot drive?
- Step 22 States: “As most of you know when you enter the Setup for Win2k/WinXP you will need to hit F6 to load additional drivers for other SCSI devices.” I assume this means I need to boot from the Windows CD. Is this true even if I already have Windows installed on an IDE HDD on this system? At what point will I need to hit <F6> ? Will I be prompted to do so?
- I have downloaded (from the MSI website) the NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER & NVIDIA Nforce Storage Controller (20 files, 1.3 MB total). Should I put these on a floppy? Or can I access them from a directory on my OS HDD?
- Should I go ahead and plug-in both of the 2 SATA drives I want to add to the system before beginning the driver installation? The only reason I would consider installing them one at a time is if it eliminated any confusion between RAID vs. independent (I want independent operation). If I do install them one at a time, do I have to install the driver twice?
Any help would be appreciated.
- the bbdude

OK Thanks JeanGuy and ssjkakaroto,
I have connected both of my SATA drives. They are enabled in BIOS but not set to RAID. I booted up to Windows on my IDE drive. In Disk Manager, the display shows Disk 0 (C: System), Disk 1 and Disk 2 as uninitialized, and my DVD (D:) drive. At this point, I could probably go ahead and run the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard to get these disks formatted and be dome with ot now. Before I do that though, I just have a couple of more questions.
- I had already loaded the nVidia nForce3 system driver prior to installing the SATA drives, but I went ahead and did that again after installing the SATA drives and restarting Windows. I used Live Update, which went out to the MSI site and found version 5.03 of the nVidia nForce3 system driver. I'm not sure how to find the "Nvidia 5.10 driver package which include the latest SATA driver", ssjkakaroto referred-to. The Live Update install procedure did ask if I wanted to install IDE driver and I said yes. It then asked to over-write what I already had there (I said yes to that too). As the file names streamed-by, I though I saw some filenames with nv... listed. So, bottom line, is I'm not sure if I have the lates and greatest nVidia SATA drivers installed. How can I find out what drivers are installed?
- As I mentioned in my previous post, I have also downloaded and unzipped the NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER & NVIDIA Nforce Storage Controller (20 files, 1.3 MB total) from the MSI site; however, I don't know how to "install" this now that I have the files. There are a couple of .exe and a .bat file (bit no setup.exe).
I may already have everything I need to partition and format these drives. I just want to bve sure I'm not skipping a step that is essential to optimal performance.
Thanks -
- bbdude

K8n Neo2 Plat Sata Raid 0 and IDE drive - Board won't detect IDE

I have my K8n Neo2 Platinum board configured just fine for 2 WD raptor sata drives in raid 0. However, I need to add more space so I went out and got a Seagate 180gb IDE drive. I plug it into the primary IDE slot and the board won't detect the new hard drive. I have 2 DVD-ROM drives working fine in the Secondary IDE slot. Why won't the K8n detect what is plugged into the primary IDE slot?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Jeff

Okay...
First, remove both of your DVD Drives and try connecting the new HD to the Secondary IDE Interface as master. Use 'cable-select'. If the drive then works, leave everything set to cable-select, and try installing the HD as master, and one DVD drive as slave, on the primary channel. Next, set the other DVD drive to cable select, and install it on the secondary interface as a slave.
If the drive is still not detected after removing both DVD Drives, then try installing the DVD Drives onto the primary interface. If they work, then you've most likely got a bad HDD. If they don't... your mainboard may be bad.

K8N Neo2-FX CPU compatibility question

Thinking about upgrading my Athlon 64 to a dual core, and can't seem to find out anywhere if the CPU I want to buy is compatible with my mobo (K8N-Neo2-FX). I don't see why not, but you never know. I'm looking at an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo (Model # ADA3800DAA5CD). The MSI compatibility chart doesn't even seem to know that this CPU exists (the only Toledo cores it lists are the 2x1MB L2 cache models, and this is a 2x512KB). I don't want to buy the CPU if it won't work - anybody know if this combo will work out okay? Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

Thanks guys! I guess I'll go ahead and get my chip. One other question that's arisen, though. I'm also looking at an eVGA 7800GS AGP GPU upgrade. From what I can see this card is BIG (I'm talking physical size). It looks like the HSF on the chipset of the Neo2-FX is pretty much right beside the AGP slot - does anyone know if this GPU will fit on this board, or does that HSF get in the way? Thanks again!

K8n neo2 moving from raid on ports 1,2 to 3,4 - format?

Hi, will i loose all my info on my hdds if i movied from raid0 on ports 1,2 to ports 3 and 4? (k8n neo2)
also, does raid0 limit ocking? i get reboots even by ocking more than 208mhz fsb
thanks for any info

Done it before and as said , move 1->3 and 2->4 .(this is exactly like i did)
Remember to change the enabled sata raid ports in ide raid setup in bios
from 1/2 to 3/4. Then set the boot order all over as raid will be last in the list after å boot with the change.
Nothing gets destroyed .

K8N Neo2-F/Athlon 64 question

Hi:
This may not properly belong here, but then again, it may.
Just built a system around the K8N Neo2-F (1.9 bios). The processor is an Athlon64 3200+ (Venice). To the best of my knowledge, this processor has a 2G clock speed; yet when I do any number of benchmarks, it reports as 1G. The exception to this is AMDs own clock speed tool.
Is there a reason this is happening? Perhaps a BIOS setting that I'm unaware of? I know there are some things that I'm not providing here to help people diagnose the problem, but I don't know what those could be. Let me know and I'll give as much data as I can.
Oh, yeah, the multiplier is set to 5x; that's as high as it goes.
Thanks,
Doug

Quote from: kakarocht on 04-October-05, 13:34:30
what are you trying do actually???
Just get some information. I wondered why my processor was being reported as having a 1Ghz speed. It was the Cool'n'quiet. It probably would've reported a higher speed had it been under a heavier load.
Ok, I am trying to make incremental improvements in the speed of the machine. The memory is at 2T by default; I think setting it to 1T could help. But being conservative by nature, I do wonder if I run the risk of destabilizing the computer by doing that.

K8N Neo2 - WinXP and Raid driver problem

I've K8n Neo2 Platinum version.
Tried to build up an array. But I cannot load the Nvidia storage controller (from floppy with F6 key) cause this file makes windows installer freeze after loaded all drivers (black screen with blinking underscore). What could I do? I've tried all solutions here with no luck at all

Quote from: SillySider03 on 18-June-05, 22:18:50
Try This.
Yes it worked... I did it a bunch of mins ago, ty a lot anyway

K8n neo2 heatsink and ram question

Hi there
i am planning to buy a whole new rig soon and the mobo id like to buy is the k8n neo2...
From what i have found using the search function, OCZ ram seems to work fine with all msi a64 mobos, so this shouldnt be a problem anymore i guess...
(ram = 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3700 EB Platinum Edition)
What i couldnt really find via the search function was which cooler is the best buy fot ose on the neo2 platinum...
Im thinking of a thermalright SLK-948U but i dont see any the K8N neo2 on the motherboard compatibility list :s
Since the list isnt updated that often, it might be possible that the heatsink IS compatible with this mobo and thats why im asking
is there anybody who has this combo or knows if its (not) working?
thx in advance :D

SLK948 works great on the NEO2 - i have one on my board and theres no fitting problem at all.

K8N Neo2 OC 3500 Newcastle questions.

Sorry I had to post guys, I know you have seen a thousand of these but...
I have done some forum searching and could not find the answers I was looking for.
first my system specs
K8N Neo2 Platinum BIOS rev 1.3
AMD Retail 64 3500 Newcastle
Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PT @ 2.5-2-2-10t
Antec 440w PS
1: Why am I getting the error "Warning! Now system is in safe mode. Please reset overclocking features in the setup menu" for very minor changes to the FSB or CPU voltage settings? If I hit f1 to continue, windows will load but all the settings I have made are back at the defualt position.
2: After I do make a OC change and save the setting it could take 45 to 60 seconds to post or actually load the BIOS. Is this normal?
3: I have tried to use the Dynamic OC that came with the BIOS. Any of the settings that actually boot to windows do not register any changes with the CoreCenter application or CPUz. Is this normal as well?
Again sorry for the Post guys, perhaps after I get these issues resolved we can discuss more important topics like "should I migrate to DFI" yada yada 8)

take a look here:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46730
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43033

Question K8N neo2 on-board RAID

Would the on-board RAID 0 setup be faster then a raid controller card with RAID 0? This is on a K8N Neo 2 motherboard.

In theory that controller card would be a better choice if it could be run in 64bits/66mhz
, but there are some other factors to be aware of and it comes to how many disks you utilize on the controller card .
Another thing in general is that raid cards performance differs a lot based on design and the controller it use .
On the other hand , concerning bandwith :
The nvidia ports is chip integrated and doesn't run from the pci bus that has a limiting total bandwith factor .
Though you must be aware of that the K8N series nvidia cards has:
Five 32-bit v2.3 Master PCI bus slots
So if slapping in a 66mhz 64bit card , if it works it would probably be running in 32bits/33mhz mode and reduce
the bandwith that can be utilized to 133mb/s (about 128 in pracsis) and it would be shared bandwith
with all other pci devices and IDE (buildt in on mobo like ide/sound/usb/fw .. and slot-in cards) .
Regards

K8N Neo2 Plat / OC RAID Corruption?

I applied a little OC - AMD X2 64 Winchester, MSI NEO2.. by dropping the HT
to 4 and upping the FSB to 220...
I have a HighPoint RocketRAID 464 PCI card w/ 4 HD's attached... I have set the AGP Bus to 67 - that should lock it and the PCI Bus-Correct?
After running for a day or so, I noticed some files missing on the RAID array... I rebooted, XP went into chkdesk and 'fixed'
the problem... the drive had become corrupt... I had also noticed the day before a large photoshop file was partially corrupt...
Question: Does upping the FSB stress the RAID card.... any solutions? thoughts? Any software that will tell me what the PCI bus is running at?
Thanks!

I have run HTT @ 270 with disks on a pci card and on sata port 3/4 without corruption.
AGP set at 66 .(the 67 thing was workaround with the first few bioses to avoid HTT dropping out of it's set fsb-speed).
PCI bus is always locked 33.3333... on nforce3 250/Ultra regardless of agp .
Your hd-file issue was probably caused by overclocked memory and bad settings .

Software vs Hardware RAID question

I want to mirror my data files (mainly music)to an external RAID 1 array. I already use Time Machine for my system disk and will probably keep it running off of an old Firewire 400 enclosure. I have seen many dual drive enclosures for Firewire 800 in 2 basic price ranges. For about $100 there are some nice aluminum ones with only RAID 0 and independent channels. For about $150 NewerTech makes a nice one with RAID 1 capability. Is the Hardware-based RAID in the enclosure a significant improvement over Tiger's software version? I've never used a software based RAID and don't know it's limitations. The NewerTech Guardian Maximus from OWC does have a feature to rebuild the bad drive, although it doesn't specify "hot-swapable". As an aside, if a multiformat enclosure includes a SATA port, is that port usable to get a SATA peripheral into my iMac (at reduced throughput) or is it for connecting the enclosure to your computer only. Thanks for any thoughts.

Where is your music stored now and why do you want to store it on a mirror raid setup?
The NewerTech Guardian Maximus from OWC does have a feature to rebuild the bad
drive, although it doesn't specify "hot-swapable".
They are not hot swappable because you have to take the case apart to change out the drive. RAID1 is where 2 drives are formatted to look like a single drive and the second drive mirrors the first drive duplicating the stored data. If one drive should fail then you can replace the bad drive and the RAID will "rebuild" just by mirroring the data from the other drive. This kind of RAID is good for redundancy but not any better for performance(often less). You also loose half of your total disk space of the 2 drives. For example 2 500GB drives in RAID 1 will look like a single 500GB drive which will have ~465GB usable storage space.
As an aside, if a multiformat enclosure includes a SATA port, is that port
usable to get a SATA peripheral into my iMac (at reduced throughput) or is it
for connecting the enclosure to your computer only. Thanks for any thoughts.
An eSata port is slightly different shape than internal SATA but they are exactly the same interface. The iMacs do not have any eSata ports on the back so there would be no way for you to connect the external via eSata. If you got a quad interface external case then you would just use the fastest interface you have being the FW800.
George

MS-7025 MoBo (K8N Neo2 Platinum) and RAID 5

Hi-
I would like to use this Motherboard to make a home data server with a terabyte or more of storage, and build a new gaming machine, which is its current use. . Will this MoBo support RAID 5? I think it uses the NForce 3 Ultra chipset, and the docs that I have read so far say that SOME MoBos with this chipset support RAID 5, and "some do not"-- it says to check with the vendor for the specific board.
If RAID 5 is not supported, could I get it by buying an add-on card?
Right now the board has 1 Gb of RAM.
Would a server benefit from more RAM than this (Say, another GB-- for 2 Gb total?)... I'm thinking that, for a server, more than a Gb of RAM may not improve performance, but I'm not sure.
Thank You!
Best,
Walter.

I have looked again at my Neo2 (nf3) and Neo4 (nf4) but both show only:
NV RAID (Software)
• Support up to 4 SATA & 4 ATA133 Hard drives
- RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, JBOD is supported
- RAID function work w/ATA133 + SATA H/D
Don't see any reference to RAID 5. You could buy a SATA RAID 5 PCI card and use it, just disable all nVidia RAID in the BIOS, but I would look at the RAID 0+1 using 4 disks first. I would use a dedicated IDE boot disk for the OS.
What OS are you planning to use for the server? Vista or Windows Server would need 2gb but XP should be okay with 1gb unless you plan to serve loads of music / video, as HD speed plus memory is more important than CPU speed/power.

K8N Neo2-F Hardware RAID question

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