First RAID build ( 1 ) problems, pls help.

[baddaddy]

This is my first time implementing RAID, and I'm hitting a hitch. First, the system:

1. MOBO Gigabyte GA-p35-ds3p
2. Drives: WDC 320 gb (2, identical)
3. Drives live in those bays where you can slide the drive out of the front w/o disconnecting wires.

Setup: RAID 1 using GB MOBO onboard "Gigabyte SATAII" port.

Issue: Let's call them "red drive" and "blue Drive". I set up the two drives as RAID according to GBytes instructions, and all appeared to work to the point of getting the OS installed. Then, after the OS installs, on POST I get a the "RAID degraded" message.

So, I start playing the peanut shell game to determine is it a drive problem, or a cable problem. Turns out, I isolate it to the "blue" drive. The "red" drive boots and works fine. The "red" drive in the "blue" bay also works fine. Also, the "red" drive alone works fine. The last two tests, of course, still give the "RAID degraded" message.

Now, the mobo "sees" the blue drive but doesn't believe it to be part of the RAID array. What I mean by that is that during post, when it's listing the drives, it shows the red drive with the notation "RAID" or something like that next to it, and shows the "blue" drive with the notation "non-raid" next to it.

I tried to "rebuild" the array (the ctrl-g option during startup), and that didn't work. It gave a rebuild failed message.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'm hesitant to indict the drive as I would think if the drive was truly doa, it would not register nice and clean looking during POST. I don't see an option in ctrl-g to "add a drive", only to rebuild the array, but that didn't work.

Also, I got impatient and went ahead and installed all of everything (office, programs, etc) on the red drive so if there is a solution that doesn't involve, "nuke the red drive and start over", I'd be very appreciative.

 

[neomaximus10]

i just set up a test raid computer, with a gigabyte motherboard, i had to make the floppy disk with the specific raid drivers (found on the motherboard cd), then you have to boot to bios, go to the integrated peripherals, and turn the raid on, and then also enable the 2 drives that you want to use on the raid, assuming it is sata1 and sata2, then set the boot device to cdrom, reboot, it should ask you to press f10 to enter the raid setup, go through the raid setup, make sure you set the 1 hard drive to a bootable drive in the con figuration program, after all thats done, you have to boot with the windows cd, press f6 to install the raid drivers FROM YOUR FLOPPY DISK, i had to select 2 different drivers from my disk, then you go ahead and install windows