new to raid

[ngh 0]

as the topic says im haven't used raid before but wanna try so i need some help

 

i;ve got the epox 8k3a+ mobo with a high point raid controller (i think)

anyway im going to format my 2 HDD and then raid them together on raid 0

 

my raid driver disk is somewhere in a pile of junk but i don't have a floppy drive anyway so i downloaded the drivers off the net so i was wondering if i can install these with cd just before i do the winxp installation (u know when it ask to press f8 or something to install raid and scsi drivers before it starts installing winxp)

 

also just wondering if someone can give me a basic walkthrough on how i first raid the two drives together and then install winxp on them

[duhmez 0]

if your mobo dies you wont be able to get your dta off unil yu get naother of the same mobo. , or a mobo with exact same chipset/raid controler.

You have been warned.

[Ali 0]

the very basic things to look for:

1. You should have a Raid Bios, usually you enable the raid controller in the BIOS. you hook up the HDD's to your raid controller, after the first bootup screen you will see a second screen where you will be prompted to press such and such key to get to the raid Bios. (Doesn't have to be the same for all Mobo's/ Controllers)

 

2. you get into the raid bios and setup ypur raid drive the way you want (i.e. raid0, 1, 0+1 etc.)

 

3. Here is the part that can dissapoint you a bit: installing windows XP: it askes you at the very beggining to press F6 to install SCSI or Raid Controllers (drivers) and it askes to to "Insert the Floppy into Drive A"!!! 8)

 

I have not been able to make that thing point to a CDROM drive or anything! JUST FLOPPY DRIVE A! that actually made me go to another computer and copy the drivers off the mobo cd to a floppy disk and then go on from there!!! that is why i have a floppy drive that i use only once a year! to install XP on my raid0 Controller! ;(

 

That is a same story with intel ICH5 boards and Intel D845PEBT2 with the Sillicon Image SATA RAID Controller.

 

therefor, (unless someone has a better solution) go get a floppy drive first! :x

[Brian Frank 0]

I believe there is a way to add the driver into your own custom XP disc, but I don't have a link, and it's more work than hooking up a floppy drive.

[Ali 0]

Or you could borrow a USB FDD from a friend or someone, use it, and then give it back!!! that's one option!!! depending on How easy it is for you to get the external FDD!!!

[Durt 2]

I am having problems... I am trying to install WinXP onto a notebook w/ onboard RAID. There is no floppy controller, obviously.

 

I have turned off the "USB device 29 ..." in the BIOS. "USB device 29 ..." needs to be turned off so the onboard card reader wouldn't interfere with the drive letters during setup. I had "USB device 29.." enabled initially and windows setup gave the two HD partions the letters H: and I: . By the way, legacy USB is still enabled in the bios.

 

I plug in my USB floppy drive to one of the USB ports that is still working.

 

I boot off of the WinXP setup disk, I hit F6 in the beginning so it will load the RAID disk.

 

When prompted, I select the WinXP driver for the FastTrack Raid controller. It loads the fasttrack.sys file just fine from my USB floppy drive.

 

I partition the drive... 15 GB C: partition for Windows, The remaining D: partion for data and programs.

 

Setup formats the C: partition, then gets the list of files for dumping onto disk.

 

This is where I get stuck... Setup then prompts for a Fastrack driver from the A: drive floppy. I can hit Enter until I am blue in the face, but it will not load the driver from the floppy.

 

How come winXP knew where the floppy was before when it is initially loading, but now it can't find it when it is dumping files to the RAID config? How do I fix this?

 

The only thing I can come up with is to slipstream the drivers on to a custom install. Unfortunately, that's a bit beyond my abilities.

[Ali 0]

what kind of Laptop do you have (it has raid? Wow) ?

 

is your floppy picked up as A: ?

[Durt 2]

It's a Sager 8790.

 

When I fire up the Repair console, there is no other drive letters assigned except for the D: drive (cdrom) and the C: drive (partion I formatted). No A:, B:, E:, etc.

 

Why Setup can find the USB Floppy drive the first time and loses it when it needs it the second time, is the big mystery right now.

 

In the meantime, I turned off RAID. Apparently WinXP had the drivers for the ATA part of the Promise card. So I installed WinXP without RAID. Eventually I would like to get it going though.

[dalawton 0]

I have the exact same problem and desperately need someone to help me. Cannot get the usb floppy drive to work the second time and have no idea how to continue. Look forward to answers.

 

 

 

[jercro 0]

Make sure that the legacy USB is loading by trying to access the disk from a dos prompt. You may need to assign a drive letter or driver from CMOS. I'm not sure how you assign Drive A to a USB drive in CMOS, but it should let you tell the Cmos that there is a floppy drive connected, even if not connected to FDD controler.