Hi, Iam having a raid 0 problem. I currently have two 160gb maxtor 7200 rpm hard drives, I set up the striping in the bios and the bios tell me that the raid currently contains about 300 gb. Then when I try to install xp on this raid 0 drive it only shows another drive that I have which is 500 gb. Also Im not sure how to install the raid drivers. I dont even have a floppy drive anymore. Any thoughtsss? Thanks

It is the height of absurdity that the bleeding edge, state of the art hard drive management system requires that the drivers be installed using an obsolete floppy drive that the majority of new computers don't even have.  I tried RAID 0 to improve performance on my gaming rig.  When a tiny glitch occurred in my OS, I lost everything.  Couldn't even fix it because I didn't have a floppy drive any more (I had to borrow one to install the original RAID drivers).  My advice:  Borrow or buy a floppy drive and use the XP CD to create a RAID driver floppy.  When you are done, remember that to repair an XP installation will require the use of a floppy again.  All this extra effort will save you a second or two in bootup.   Woo Hoo!

"All this extra effort will save you a second or two in bootup.   Woo Hoo!"
 
If I remember correctly, RAID-0 hardly helps with boot-up times.  I have RAID-0 and a C2D (new install of Windows as of two weeks ago) and my brother's 2.8GHz P4 with an 80GB drive boots just as fast, if not faster due to the fact he's not running a RAID BIOS.  And benchmarks I've seen show that it's not RAID-0 that helps with boot times, but spindle speed and access time, like adding a Raptor for your boot-disk vs. RAID-0.  I thought it was pretty interesting myself.
 
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/0 [...] age10.html
 
But to answer your question, like Fletchoid did, you DO need a floppy disk to install your RAID drivers for Windows to see the array.  G'luck

actually you can embed the drivers on to the CD.  there is a program called NLite.  You can google it and find it.  It is pretty small.  Once you install you basically need to insert you xp cd and then step through the options.  Choose integrate drivers.  You should probably not do anything else but you could include service packs or things like that even so it is worth taking a look at.  Then at the end it will burn you a new cd with the drivers preloaded that you install from

Make a slipstream XP installation disk.
 
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/H [...] stallation

Ya know, you can pick up a floppy drive for around $10....you may not need it often, but what the heck for 10 bucks why NOT have one?

Ok, we don't need to say that RAID-0 sucks.  Given that it does (except for some high-end video apps), may we ask why you are bothering with it at all?  High-end video apps?  If this is a professional need, then adding a floppy should be the obvious choice.  If it isn't a professional need, the question stands.  Is there a better solution?

if you aren't sure how to install raid drivers you have no business being anywhere near a raid array, let alone using one for your boot.
 
step... away... slowly...  
 
raid 0 doesn't suck, it's good for when it's needed.  what SUCKS are noobs who here "oohh! raid = cool!" and run home and try to make it work without knowing jack sh!t and inevitably end up calling tech support and griping about all their pron that they just lost.

This is actually one of the few things I like about Vista over XP.
 
XP requires that you either add third party drivers using A FLOPPY or slipstream them into the installation.
 
At least the Vista install lets you put the drivers on other forms of media, like a flash drive...

My TF2 load times dropped from >45 seconds to 10 when loading maps by going to raid 0. Anyone that says it has no effect has no idea what they're talking about.

RAIDing older gen Raptors makes it so that they have good sequential transfers along with blazing fast latencies.
 
-mcg

 
With perhaps the exception of the all knowing, all seeing valis, all of us start out as noobs.  What takes a person from noob to power user, is the willingness to experiment, try new things, go out on a limb, and push the limits of their knowledge.  Occasionally this ends in disaster, but in the end leads to someone who is very knowledgeable about computers, who can help his/her friends with their computer problems.  Gee, isn't that why they invented forums, so noobs could get help from people who know a bit more than they do??  Lets hear it for the noobs with enough guts to try something new, whether they succeed or not.  And lets also have a jeer to those who crap all over someone because they had the nerve to try something a bit beyond their knowledge level.

 
 
Hear, hear, well put!!!!

Hi valis!  

 
And Anyone who thinks that going RAID-0 accounted for a 4x performance increase has no idea what they are talking about.
 
Most likely you had bad drivers before or other configuration issues to have such slow performance.  You data may have also been  on the inside portion of the drive which is may be 4x or more slower than the outside.
 
You may have had other hardware changes as well.
 
Most people on here are not saying "no effect", but rather a very limited one in real world use.  RAID-0 does not have a 4x+ increase in performance.
I will stop short of calling your numbers made up, but if they are not the reason for the differnece would be mostly formerly bad drivers, change of AV software, location of data on the drives, and other hardware changes on the system.

Windows RAID solutions aren't nearly as good as getting an actual RAID controller-card... you'd honestly benefit more from a faster drive, like a WD Raptor (10k RPM) or a Seagate Cheetah (10K and 15K RPM)... of course, you're concerned about losing all that space... so:
 
use the 10k/15k drive for O/S, programs and games... then use windows to put the 2 160's into RAID1 to backup your stuff...
 
that's just my 2 cents... but what do I know... I've only used this solution for years now (glad I did, too... a backup harddrive crashed and I always screwed the pooch)