Migrate C: from PATA to SATA RAID-1 8i875 Ultra (like 8KNXP)

[richardnau]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

Hi, all,

I've ben using my 8i875 Ultra for a couple of years now -- very happy.

Right now, I have Win XP Home SP2 on a PATA drive on IDE1. I also have
a pair of PATA drives configured as RAID-1 on the ITE controller. All
working just fine. No dual boot. No add-in controller boards.

For various reasons, I want to move my boot partition (c FROM the
current PATA drive to a RAID-1 array, which will be connected to either
the ICH5R controller or the SiI controller. If at all possible, I DO
NOT want to reinstall XP from scratch.

So far, I've
* enabled the SATA Raid controller in the BIOS
* the controller has recognised the drives and allowed them to be
formed into a RAID-1 array
* detected the array within Win XP, initialised it (using Computer
Management) and set up a partition
* confirmed that the array (which is not yet a 'boot drive', remember)
is all working OK
* used Maxtor's MaxBlast 4 to copy all files from existing c: to new
array (using the 'add drive as a new boot device' option)
* reconfigured the hard disc boot options in BIOS to make the RAID
array the first priority
* tried to boot.

Nothing happens. It gets to 'Verifying DMI data pool' and freezes.

If I put the boot order back to boot from the PATA drive, it all comes
up fine, and I can see all the files on the RAID array. Just can't get
it to boot!

Interestingly, I have tried the above sequence with BOTH the ICH5R
controller AND the SiI controller, and got EXACTLY the same results
both times: freeze at 'Verifying DMI data pool'.

There must be some little step I'm missing that is necessary to make
the array bootable -- but I just can't figure it out.

Other background:
P4 3.0GHz
2GB Dual ch DDR RAM
2 x optical drives on IDE2
Bios F10

Hints?

Many thanks.

Richard.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

richardnau@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi, all,

>
> For various reasons, I want to move my boot partition (c FROM the
> current PATA drive to a RAID-1 array, which will be connected to
> either the ICH5R controller or the SiI controller. If at all
> possible, I DO NOT want to reinstall XP from scratch.
>

>
> Interestingly, I have tried the above sequence with BOTH the ICH5R
> controller AND the SiI controller, and got EXACTLY the same results
> both times: freeze at 'Verifying DMI data pool'.
>
> There must be some little step I'm missing that is necessary to make
> the array bootable -- but I just can't figure it out.
>

That point just after 'Verifying DMI Pool data' is when control is handed
over to XP and it's motherboard drivers instead of the BIOS.

Sounds like the problem I just had moving from an SiS chipset board to a GB
Intel865PE board, using the same PATA disc. I did end up reinstalling from
scratch :-(

Have a look at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314082

A slightly more user friendly description of the process is at
http://www.mostlycreativeworkshop.com/article11.html.

It all looks very plausible but didn't work for me..

 

[richardnau]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (More info?)

Well, after many hours, I seem to have sorted this out.

Problem seems to be that the BIOS (tried F8 and F10 for 8i875) IGNORES
the ordering of hard discs and SCSI arrays in the boot order settings.

So whenever I had my old PATA disk connected, it would boot from that.
And whenever the ITE array was enabled, it would try to boot from that,
even if the Intel array was set up first in the boot order.

Solution: use two entries in the boot order screen,both for hard disc.
It eventually searches onto the new array and everything just works.

Huzzah!