RAID Arrays and WinXP Home

OK... I tried upgrading to Win XP 64-bit, but found there were games and applications that were screwy there and some items without 64-bit drivers, etc. So, I rolled back to a clean install of XP Home (32-bit).
After much effort, I was told today at a local techie-store that XP Home "doesn't allow for RAID arrays."
True?
I have 2 Hitachi 160GB drives I got last week at the afore-mentioned store for $112 US total! So, I am trying to make it all work, but am having no luck.
Any thoughts?
Scott in Los Angeles

There is a way to make some versions of windows do a software RAID, but the MSI board has a VIA and a Promise hardware array. Don't worry about what the 'techie' said.
Enable Promise controller in BIOS and set it for RAID.
Press Ctrl & F when prompted to set up your RAID array.
Boot to Windows CD
Press F6 when prompted and insert your Promise RAID disk.
Enjoy!

Similar Messages

K8N DIAMOND: New Raid array and old HD... I'm going crazy!!! Please

Hi guys
First, sorry for my poor english...
My problem is:
I bought two Raptor 36 Gb for my new raid array.
I have my old HD Hitachi 250 Gb connected on sata 1.
I connected my two raptor, on sata 3 and 4, I enabled all sata port and raid config for ports 3 and 4.
I restart PC, typed F10 and set a stripe array with two raptor. All run ok...
Restarted and boot with my copy of WinXP with SP2 and NF4 raid drivers.
Installation found my array and my Hitachi;
Hitachi with 4 partitions; C (os), D (driver), E (films), F (music)
I create one partitions on my raid array, and it takes I: letter... So I formatted and start to copy os...
Errors occurs when, restarting pc and resetting the boot to Hard disk (the order of booting is 1 - nvidia array, 2 - hitachi 250 gb), just before loading installation, It shows a black screen with an error: "there is an error in your hard disk bla bla bla.. try to control your connection or connect to windows help....bla bla..."
The Raid array works properly, infact I try to disconnect my Hitachi from sata port 1 and all installation works (I'm writing from Win xp on the raid array).
I tried to connect the hitachi on port 1 of silicon image controller.... same error..!!
I'm desperate... I have all my life on my hitachi...
I think that there's a sort of conflict in drive letter assignement... I cant find a solution ..
PLEASE HELP ME!!!

Glad it worked, I had a feeling it would.
Quote
One question for you.. on G: partition, there's a directory called "Windows", do you suggest me to format this partition??
You can format it if you want to free up space, but unless you moved things around the My documents folder and everything in it is on that partition, along with anything you might of had on the old desktop during that Windows install. You might have something you want there, I usually leave mine for a few month, and figure out if I have everything I need.
Quote
What I have to do, if I need to reinstall WIn XP on first partition of raptor array??
Things should be fine now as Windows marked the Hitachi drive as G. You should be able to reinstall without issue. But if you have a lot of sensitive info on the Hitachi, I would always disconnect the Hitachi if doing a fresh install. Once windows is done installing, hook it back up. But next time you shouldn't have to reconfigure NVRAID after disconnecting and reconnecting.

I would like to migrate from Aperture. What happens to my Masters which are on a RAID array and then what do I do with my Vault which is on a separate Drive please ?

I am sorry, but I do noisy understand what happens to my RAW original Master files, which I keep offline on a RAID array and then what I do with my Vault which as all my edited photos ? Sorry for such a simple question, but would someone please help my lift the fog ?
Thanks,
Rob

Dear John ,
Apologies, as I am attempting to get to the bottom of this migration for my wife ( who is away on assignment ) and I am not 100% certain on the technical aspects of Aperture, so excuse my ignorance.
She has about 6TB worth of RAW Master images ( several 100 thousand ) which, as explained, are on an external RAID drive. She uses a separate Drive as a Vault . Can I assume that this Vault contains all of her edits, file structures , Metadata, etc ?
So, step by step........She can Import into Lightroom her Referenced Masters from her RAID and still keep them there ? Is that correct ?
The Managed Files that are backed up by her Vault , are in the pictures folder of her MacPro, but not in a structure that looks like her Aperture library ? This means Lightroom will just organize all the Managed files, simply by the date in the Metadata ? Am I correct ( Sorry for being so tech illiterate ).
How do I ensure she imports into Lighgtroom in exactly the same format as she runs her workflow in Aperture ? ( Projects, that are organized by year and shoot location and Albums within those projects with sub-locations, or species , etc ). What exactly do I need to do in Aperture please to organize Managed Files to create a mirror structure of Aperture on my internal Hard Drive ?
There are a couple of points I am unsure about in regard to Lightroom. Does it work in the same way as Aperture ? Meaning, can she still keep Master Files on an external RAID and Lightroom will reference them ? If the answer is yes, how do you back up your Managed ( edited ) work in Lightroom ? ( Can you still use an external Drive as a Vault ? ) . Will the vault she uses now be able to continue to back up Managed Files post migration ?

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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RAID arrays and Windows

Not sure where to post this one. You have been very helpful before so I’ll try again.
The machine is the Media Centre in my signature.
Installed two new Maxtor SATA drives, set up as RAID 0, clean install of XP MCE. Boots on the RAID array. Not a single problem. Installed MSI drivers, XFS video card drivers and KCorp PCI network adaptor for wireless link. Download and install all Windows updates. All OK.
On a later start up it spends long time trying to detect RAID array, then RAID error. Automatically reboots and detects a healthy raid array. Tries to open Windows but screen goes almost black but faint Windows loading page with the short activity bar showing no activity. If left it eventually springs to life. Tried starting in safe mode, no problem. Restore to an earlier restore point, no better.
The RAID problem is intermittent. The Windows problem looks as if it stalls for a variable length of time before it gets going.
Don’t know where to go next. Any suggestions?

fafner: I wanted a large disk to hold recorded TV progs, videos, CDs etc and 160GB is the max for this mainboard. I went for 2x160GB Maxtor drives. As I was using two drives I reasoned I might as well use RAID 0 to get a single volume and a faster machine. In particular I read somewhere that RAID 0 halved, or nearly so, the start up time. Who wants to wait a couple of minutes for the TV to fire up?
Fredrik: The XFX video card drivers are in fact nVidia drivers which are the latest.
Doctor Stu: I have subsequently installed XP on both drives individually. On one it worked well, on the other same old problem: either the drive not found in the BIOS after the heading ‘Detect IDE drives’ or the screen fades as Windows starts up. Checked both drives with Maxtor’s Powermax disk checking utility. Provided the drive was connected to the SATA1 socket and the other drive not connected both passed the Full Test. I could not get Powermax to recognise SATA2 even though both were detected correctly in the BIOS. My conclusion is that the problem was a dodgy connection which I hope has been rectified with all the swapping around.
Is there disk testing utility that puts the disc under load similar to Mem86 for memory?
Will I try RAID again? I doubt it even though it did start up in far less time.
My thanks to all.

WinXP-64 bit corrupts existing RAID array

I've got an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard running Win XP Pro SP2 on two 36 gig SATA Raptors. Everything was working fine, but I wanted to try the 64 bit version of XP. Grabbed an old 80 gig PATA drive and threw that in the case. Unplugged the SATA drives so as not to risk messing with the existing working OS. Installed the latest 1218 x64 beta and it worked well.
The problem was that when I shut down and reconnected my old RAID array, windows wouldn't boot from it. I lost everything and had to rebuild Windows from scratch. So now I know to never unplug the SATA drives
Rebuilt WinXP on the RAID array and then tried rebooting with the PATA drive with the 64 bit OS. Came up with the "drive needs checking" screen, and proceeds to "fix" the RAID array while ignoring my frantic pounding on the Logitech USB keyboard to stop. Rebooted and yes, the new install was nuked. Okay, since it's gone anyway, reboot to the 64 bit OS and make sure it's got the 64 bit RAID drivers installed.
Reinstall WinXP on the RAID array, reboot to the 64 bit OS on the other drive and the same old scandisk comes and nukes it AGAIN!
So now the PATA drive is sitting on the shelf again, unless someone here can suggest what is causing this problem.
System Specs
Athlon64 3500
gig of PQI 3200 at 2-2-2-5 2.6
2x36 gig Raptors on ports 3-4
Plextor PX-716a DVD+_RW
Visiontek X800 Pro.

The first time you re-installed Win 32 on the raid that was a bit drastic. A repair ought to have done the job.
The problem was probably that you disconnected the array but that's where the boot.ini was and that file needed to be modified to add the path to the Win64 install.
Since you took out the array the Win64 install created a new boot.ini on the PATA drive. Even when you tell BIOS to boot off the array, Windows has a bad habit of looking at the IDE channels & using the boot.ini if it finds one there - but the file it found didn't point to the array of course.
So basically if you already have Win32 on the array I would leave that array connected normally when installing Win64 on the PATA drive and all should be well.
I've installed Win64 on the same array as my Win32 install and they co-exist happily. I reckon that's the most efficient way to do it. The main thing is to make separate partitions for Win32, Win64 and data files when you install Win32 in the first place. The two OSs can share the same data files, incuding stuff like email.

Advice needed installing XP Pro onto RAID Mirror with XP Home on IDE already

Hi Y'all,
I have the rig described below.
Currently, I'm running Win XP Home SP2 booting on the 80gig IDE drive, with another partition on it holding my files.
I want to clean install XP Professional SP2 (slipstreamed) onto the 120gig SATA Mirror RAID array and use that as the boot drive. This is empty but has been formatted and partitioned so the system recognises it as a drive.
Once that's done I want to wipe off XP Home and use the IDE drive as a pagefile and backup drive.
I had thought of doing it this way:
1. Prepare floppy with SATA RAID drivers v1.0.0.19 (Files: fasttx2k; txtsetup.oem; Fasttx2k.cat; fasttx2k.INF; fasttx2k.sys; README.TXT)
2. Erase all partitions on the RAID mirror but leave both physical drives installed
3. Remove the IDE drive
4. Boot from Win XP Pro SP2 CD ROM and install the SATA drivers at the F6 prompt
5. Continue WinXP install as normal onto the RAID drive
6. Reconnect the IDE drive after OS has installed
7. Select Win XP Pro as the OS to boot
8. After bootup erase Win XP Home partition
9. Partition the RAID drive to have 2 partitions, one (C:) for the OS, the other (D:) for my files
10. Use Files & Settings Transfer Wizard to repopulate the OS with my stuff (previously exported to a safe place).
11. Get on with life...
Can anyone please advise if they forsee any problems doing it this way.
Just to show that I am really confused, advice I've read in the Windows XP Forum says I should break the mirror before doing trying to install any OS to a RAID array and use just one of the physical 120gig SATA drives to install XP Pro onto. Once this has been done I should rebuild the mirror and the drives will automatically become mirrored once the data has been duplicated to the 2nd SATA.
Is this the only way to do this? Is this the best way to do this (does WinXP install badly to a mirror RAID that has already been created)?
Advice I've already read on the forum here has only confused me further because:
a) it assumes a level of knowledge that I don't seem to have
b) it doesn't deal with my exact circumstances.
All help gratefully received.

An update on the situation.....
I am trying to install Win XP Pro SP2 (slipstreamed) onto a RAID Mirror of 2 Hitachi Deskstar SATA drives on my MSI K7N2G-ILSR. This is the exact procedure I've followed:
1. Formatted (both SATA drives) as drive I: using Windows Disk Management tool in WinXP (The mirror is seen by the BIOS & Fastrak BIOS)
2. Started Win XP Pro install via CD in d:\
3. Pressed F6 when requested
4. Windows Setup loads normally
5. Options to install 3rd party drivers for mass storage devices & other things appear
6. Press S to start installing RAID drivers
7. Insert floppy into A:\ & press Enter
8. Select Promise Fastrak 376 Win XP driver
9. Get following error message:
File \WINXP\fasttx2k.sys caused an unexpected error (18) at line 2113 in d:\xpsprtm\base\boot\oemdisk.c.
10. Press Enter to continue
11. Setup doesn't recognise the SATA drive I: so it doesn't appear in the list of partitions on which to install XP Pro
I've tried it every which way.
The following with IDE1 HDD disconnected, i.e. no operating system installed:
1 SATA drive only (mirror broken)
1 SATA drive striped array
Both SATA drives (mirror functional)
The same with IDE1 HDD connected and starting Windows Setup from within XP Home...
The only difference is if I use the original Win XP Pro disc (without SP2 slipstreamed) when the error message changes to:
File \WINXP\fasttx2k.sys caused an unexpected error (18) at line 2108 in d:\xpsp1\base\boot\oemdisk.c.
In a thread here there is mention of an error in a file but it isn't directly related to my mobo, so I am reluctant to fiddle with the file unless someone can explain clearly what needs changing. I'm just trying to find the thread at the moment.....
This is the text contained within txtsetup.oem:
[Disks]
d1 = "Promise FastTrak 376 Driver Diskette", \fasttx2k, \
d2 = "Promise FastTrak 376 Driver Diskette", \fasttx2k, \nt4
d3 = "Promise FastTrak 376 Driver Diskette", \fasttx2k, \Win2000
d4 = "Promise FastTrak 376 Driver Diskette", \fasttx2k, \WinXP
[Defaults]
scsi = FastTrak_TX2K_xp
[scsi]
FastTrak_TX2K_xp = "WinXP Promise FastTrak 376 (tm) Controller", fasttx2k
FastTrak_TX2K_nt5 = "Win2000 Promise FastTrak 376 (tm) Controller", fasttx2k
FastTrak_TX2K_nt4 = "WinNT Promise FastTrak 376 (tm) Controller", fasttx2k
[Files.scsi.FastTrak_TX2K_xp]
driver = d4, fasttx2k.sys, fasttx2k
inf = d4, fasttx2k.inf
catalog= d4, fasttx2k.cat
[HardwareIds.scsi.FastTrak_TX2K_xp]
id="PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3376", "fasttx2k"
[Files.scsi.FastTrak_TX2K_nt5]
driver = d3, fasttx2k.sys, fasttx2k
inf = d3, fasttx2k.inf
catalog= d3, fasttx2k.cat
[HardwareIds.scsi.FastTrak_TX2K_nt5]
id="PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3376", "fasttx2k"
[Files.scsi.FastTrak_TX2K_nt4]
driver = d2, fasttx2k.sys, fasttx2k
inf = d2, fasttx2k.inf
[Config.fasttx2k]
value = "", Tag, REG_DWORD, 1
I've also tried the following:
Change Boot sequence to CD-ROM> SCSI> HDD-0
Delete txtsetup.oem from floppy - Setup then says it's missing
Copied original drivers from nVidia driver & utility disk
None of these things has made the slightest difference
Need further help please!

Z87 g45 gaming...raid 0 and an ssd. Not sure i understand

I have been reading up this while my part are on a ups truck somewhere. Not sure i understand.
I realize that for the ssd the Sata needs to be set to achi before I install windows. Then Install windows 7 pro on the ssd.
Then I am lost. I bought this board because of the feature of inboard raid setup. Maybe all boards have this? This is all new to me. Trying to learn.
If the Sata is set to achi, will that screw up the raid?
Planned on raid 0 with two WD 1tb blue drives.
I read the manual, but didnt make sense.
Will this show up as ONE drive +\- 2tb in My Computer?

Quote from: Goodteacher on 04-September-13, 11:51:05
I have been reading up this while my part are on a ups truck somewhere. Not sure i understand.
I realize that for the ssd the Sata needs to be set to achi before I install windows. Then Install windows 7 pro on the ssd.
Then I am lost. I bought this board because of the feature of inboard raid setup. Maybe all boards have this? This is all new to me. Trying to learn.
Nope. You Should set your MB SATA controller to RAID otherwise your OS dont know how to control it if you turn it to RAID mode after you have installed it in AHCI mode.
- In RAID mode it controls drives at RAID array(s), like they are set (RAID 0,1,5,6,10,...) and those that arent in any RAID array it controls like AHCI and so on OS installation it installs drivers and register for it like so.
- In AHCI mode it controls all drives like AHCI and so on OS installation it installs drivers and register for it like so.
Edit: So easyes thing is to set your SATA controller in RAID mode and install your OS thatway. Because, then you never have to worry about it as it has controllers to hole thing.
- But if you Install OS (Windows) in AHCI it wont have correct registery or drivers for that same controller if you someday want to use other drives in any RAID and so you would get BSOD on loading/starting screen.
Quote
If the Sata is set to achi, will that screw up the raid?
Nope it wont screw already existing RAID array, choose RAID to that controller again and you have your RAID array back. That is if you havent edit those drives in anyway.
Example: setting SATA controller back to AHCI is only way to upgrade drives Firmware if one is needed, as that software need to see the single drive in that array to do it.
Edit2: Seeing problem is on drives that are in RAID array and those that arent set in any RAID 0 array or so, should get thrue FW update just fine (there can be some exceptions on here) .
Quote
Planned on raid 0 with two WD 1tb blue drives.
I read the manual, but didnt make sense.
Will this show up as ONE drive +\- 2tb in My Computer?
Yes, on your setup, that SSD would show as one drive and that RAID array as one drive. So you would see 2 drives where choose your os drive if you have them already setuped before OS install.
- Every drive you add to RAID 0 array adds space without losing it and allso you get more speed after everey add to point where you get limits of cotrollers speed. That is, if you get there before you have populated all ports.
- Every drive you add to RAID 1 array would add more secure of your data, but you would get only the space to use that your smallest drive have as all drives have 1 to 1 copy of every file.
P.s. when you install the Windows I recormend to have only that drive installed where you want your sytem be in! or your files can be stripped in every drive and then if one drive fail you may get weard BSOD's that are hard to get to!
Most likely this mess happends when one of the drives has already have OS in it on onetime of its life (formating the drives wont make difference).
Edit3: i personaly have used RAID 0 years and never have hade a problems. But if one of those drives fail, then i lose all my data on that RAID 0 array and thats why i go with oldsaying from the time when PCs start to make in the homes "Allways backup your files ! "

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

Raid Performance and Rebuild Issues

Rebuilding a Raid array
What happens when you have a Raid array and one (or more) disk(s) fail?
First let's consider the work-flow impact of using a Raid array or not. You may want to refresh your memory about Raids, by reading Adobe Forums: To RAID or not to RAID, that is the... again.
Sustained transfer rates are a major factor in determining how 'snappy' your editing experience will be when editing multiple tracks. For single track editing most modern disks are fast enough, but when editing complex codecs like AVCHD, DSLR, RED or EPIC, when using uncompressed or AVC-Intra 100 Mbps codecs, or using multi-cam or multiple tracks the sustained transfer speed can quickly become a bottleneck and limit the 'snappy' feeling during editing.
For that reason many use raid arrays to remove that bottleneck from their systems, but this also raises the question:
What happens when one of more of my disks fail?
Actually, it is simple. Single disks or single level striped arrays will lose all data. And that means that you have to replace the failed disk and then restore the lost data from a backup before you can continue your editing. This situation can become extremely bothersome if you consider the following scenario:
At 09:00 you start editing and you finish editing by 17:00 and have a planned backup scheduled at 21:00, like you do every day. At 18:30 one of your disks fails, before your backup has been made. All your work from that day is lost, including your auto-save files, so a complete day of editing is irretrievably lost. You only have the backup from the previous day to restore your data, but that can not be done before you have installed a new disk.
This kind of scenario is not unheard of and even worse, this usually happens at the most inconvenient time, like on Saturday afternoon before a long weekend and you can only buy a new disk on Tuesday...(sigh).
That is the reason many opt for a mirrored or parity array, despite the much higher cost (dedicated raid controller, extra disks and lower performance than a striped array). They buy safety, peace-of-mind and a more efficient work-flow.
Consider the same scenario as above and again one disk fails. No worry, be happy!! No data lost at all and you could continue editing, making the last changes of the day. Your planned backup will proceed as scheduled and the next morning you can continue editing, after having the failed disk replaced. All your auto-save files are intact as well.
The chances of two disks failing simultaneously are extremely slim, but if cost is no object and safety is everything, some consider using a raid6 array to cover that eventuality. See the article quoted at the top.
Rebuilding data after a disk failure
In the case of a single disk or striped arrays, you have to use your backup to rebuild your data. If the backup is not current, you lose everything you did after your last backup.
In the case of a mirrored array, the raid controller will write all data on the mirror to the newly installed disk. Consider it a disk copy from the mirror to the new disk. This is a fast way to get back to full speed. No need to get out your (possibly older) backup and restore the data. Since the controller does this in the background, you can continue working on your time-line.
In the case of parity raids (3/5/6) one has to make a distinction between distributed parity raids (5/6) and dedicated parity raid (3).
Dedicated parity, raid3
If a disk fails, the data can be rebuild by reading all remaining disks (all but the failed one) and writing the rebuilt data only to the newly replaced disk. So writing to a single disk is enough to rebuild the array. There are actually two possibilities that can impact the rebuild of a degraded array. If the dedicated parity drive failed, the rebuilding process is a matter of recalculating the parity info (relatively easy) by reading all remaining data and writing the parity to the new dedicated disk. If a data disk failed, then the data need to be rebuild, based on the remaining data and the parity and this is the most time-consuming part of rebuilding a degraded array.
Distributed parity, raid5 or raid6
If a disk fails, the data can be rebuild by reading all remaining disks (all but the failed one), rebuilding the data and recalculating the parity information and writing the data and parity information to the failed disk. This is always time-consuming.
The impact of 'hot-spares' and other considerations
When an array is protected by a hot spare, if a disk drive in that array fails the hot spare is automatically incorporated into the array and takes over for the failed drive. When an array is not protected by a hot spare, if a disk drive in that array fails, remove and replace the failed disk drive. The controller detects the new disk drive and begins to rebuild the array.
If you have hot-swappable drive bays, you do not need to shut down the PC, you can simply slide out the failed drive and replace it with a new disk. Remember, when a drive has failed and the raid is running in 'degraded' mode, there is no further protection against data loss, so it is imperative that you replace the failed disk at the earliest moment and rebuild the array to a 'healthy' state.
Rebuilding a 'degraded' array can be done automatically or manually, depending on the controller in use and often you can set the priority of the rebuilding process higher or lower, depending on the need to continue regular work versus the speed required to repair the array to its 'healthy' status.
What are the performance gains to be expected from a raid and how long will a rebuild take?
The most important column in the table below is the sustained transfer rate. It is indicative and no guarantee that your raid will achieve exactly the same results. That depends on the controller, the on-board cache and the disks in use. The more tracks you use in your editing, the higher the resolution you use, the more complex your codec, the more you will need a high sustained transfer rate and that means more disks in the array.
Sidebar: While testing a new time-line for the PPBM6 benchmark, using a large variety of source material, including RED and EPIC 4K, 4:2:2 MXF, XDCAM HD and the like, the required sustained transfer rate for simple playback of a pre-rendered time-line was already over 300 MB/s, even with 1/4 resolution playback, because of the 4 4 4 4 full quality deBayering of the 4K material.
Final thoughts
With the increasing popularity of file based formats, the importance of backups of your media can not be stressed enough. In the past one always had the original tape if disaster stroke, but no longer. You need regular backups of your media and projects. With single disks and (R)aid0 you take risks of complete data loss, because of the lack of redundancy. Backups cost extra disks and extra time to create and restore in case of disk failure.
The need for backups in case of mirrored raids is far less, since there is complete redundancy. Sure, mirrored raids require double the number of disks but you save on the number of backup disks and you save time to create and restore backups.
In the case of parity raids, the need for backups is more than with mirrored arrays, but less than with single disks or striped arrays and in the case of 'hot-spares' the need for backups is further reduced. Initially, a parity array may look like a costly endeavor. The raid controller and the number of disks make it expensive, but if you consider what you get, more speed, more storage space, easier administration, less backups required, less time for those backups, continued working in case of a drive failure, even though somewhat sluggish, the cost is often worth more with the peace-of-mind it brings, than continuing with single disks or striped arrays.

Raid3 is better suited for video editing work, because it is more efficient when using large files, as clips usually are. Raid5 is better suited in high I/O environments, where lots of small files need to be accessed all the time, like news sites, webshops and the like. Raid3 will usually have a better rebuild time than raid5.
But, and there is always a but, raid3 requires an Areca controller. LSI and other controller brands do not support raid3. And Areca is not exactly cheap...
Keep in mind that a single disk shows declining performance when the fill rate increases. See the example below:
A Raid3 or Raid30 will not show that behavior. The performance remains nearly constant even if fill rates go up:
Note that both charts were created with Samsung Spinpoint F1 disks, an older and slower generation of disks and with an older generation Areca ARC-1680iX-12.

Does "AirPort Disk" work with RAID arrays?

I currently have a RAID 10 array consisting of four USB hard drives all attached to a USB hub. I use it with three different macs (two leopard, one tiger) and have never had any problems. I know that you can attach multiple USB hard drives to an AirPort Extreme Base Station via a hub, but will it recognize a RAID array and make it available as a single volume over the network?

...but will it recognize a RAID array and make it available as a single volume over the network?
Why did you ask that question if the device has never appeared as multiple drives?
I understand that the AEBS is NOT a Mac.
(a) Some RAID devices are hardware RAID devices. These devices use several hard drives but appear to the outside world as a single hard drive.
(b) Some devices allow you to install several hard drives and then these must be pieced together into a software RAID and then appear as a single hard drive. OS X has the ability to do this.
If this device operates like the description in (a) it should have no problem connected to the AEBS.

Moving RAID Array from old to new workstation

I've completed building a new rig. Win10 is working. I have a RAID 0 array of 2-750GB drives in the old rig. I've installed 2-1TB drives in the new rig. Drive manager shows both old and new HD's but not as a single RAID array (RAID-OLD,
and RAID-NEW, as I have named them during the BiOS RAID naming. Could I have some guidance about this? I also have the contents backed up on a USB-3 external drive, but would like to continue with both of the RAID arrays and not go through transferring
data via USB.

Hi CWO4 Mann
For hardware, we need the driver to drive it works in Windows system. When you move your RAID to new system, ensure you have installed appropriate driver.
I suggest you download the driver in Windows 10 Technical Preview, install it in Windows 8 compatibility mode to check if it works well.
Alex Zhao
TechNet Community Support

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.

Xsan 2.3 qualified RAID Arrays

Hi there - I've been searching for documentation on "qualified RAID arrays" to work with the new Xsan 2.3 in lion. As Apple says in their release of lion that "Lion also supports industry-standard multipathing and failover, so Xsan can be used with a variety of Fibre Channel RAID storage arrays." (http://www.apple.com/macosx/server/) at the bottom. I pulled up mr. Manual and searched "qualified RAID Arrays" and I get to the section in chapter 3 "Supported Storage devices", and warned to make sure to use only an apple certified RAID array... For the latest information see www.apple.com/xsan/
So I click there... and it still only has the Promise Vtrak system labeled that was supported in v2.2.... Anybody had any luck finding a list of other supported arrays? Anybody currently running any other fibre arrays?
Would love to know! Thanks Everybody!
Kyle

Well and it's not to say that the Promise's are bad - that's not what I'm saying at all, I just want the option. I'm just looking for other people that either have done the same research I'm doing - or are personally using a different array. There are many other arrays out there that are just as reliable and fast that have a much nicer price tag than Promise's stuff. Currently we are living off of 3 XserveRAID arrays, which is fast enough for our 3 workstations. But we're looking to add 5 more (1 final cut and 4 animation stations using AE and Maya/nuke). We are running an OLLldddd Xsan version (like 1.4.2 maybe?? don't have it in front of me) but Everything is needing a giant face lift... and with each lion box allowed to use Xsan the only thing holding us back is After Effects being compatible with Lion. Maya and nuke boxes actually can use AFP to get to the SAN and would be fine.
Anyways. I'll give you credit for a helpful answer - but I'm looking for more concrete choices
Thanks

NAS Raid Array

I have a NAS Raid Array and when I try to set up time machine, it does not come up in the options list for storage devices. Where is it?
Thanks,
Scott

A disk image is treated by the OS as a local file. So look into how to create a growable sparse image (specify a size of 1 TB or something and if it's a sparse image the initial size will be small). This trick also works for Aperture Vaults. The caveat being that the file will be opaque to any non-Apple clients... on the NAS it will just look like a huge "block" called <name>.sparseimage. Fire up Disk Utility and search the help on creating images, or go to Apple's Knowledge Base:
http://search.info.apple.com/
And search for sparse image.
One example is here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1527.html
Note you don't have to use encryption on the image... and it's faster if you don't.
One of the main issues in using a NAS is the file system of the NAS. HFS+ supports all manner of characters in the file name. You can have spaces, and many characters which are "illegal" on Windows (NTSF || FAT32) or Linux/UNIX (UFS, EXT2, EXT3, ReiserFS) file systems. So if you try and run Time Machine over an SFP or AFP backup to a NAS that uses some other file system, you've got issues. Hence the reason not to support any NAS other than OS X Server (which is obviously running OS X and thus has HFS+).

RAID Arrays and WinXP Home

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