Adding 500gb Sata HD + Raid0 setup - Help please

HD Problem

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Ok,

I bought a Seagate HD (Barracuda 500GB 7200).

Here is the problem. I can't get Windows XP sp2 to recognize it. It doesn't show up in the Disk Management proggy at all.

I currently have 2 Seagate 200's in raid0 which is almost tapped out and I thought I could just buy another HD and add it to my system. I assume this can be done :). My mobo has like 6 SATA connectorz and I set up the raid in the first 2 (1 & 2). I added the new HD to SATA 4 right above the raid0 ones. My mobo recognizes the HD and it shows when it goes through the bios post.

I went to the ASUS forum and looked around and the Seagate forum too and I really didn't find anybody with a similar problem. It came with a disk wizard program that sux bawls because it doesnt even recognize my new HD although my mobo does.

I need to be able to format it as well, which I assume the Disk Wizard proggy could do that if it could even recognize the damn HD in the first place. I think that the raid0 is preventing the prog. from recognizing my new HD.

I have a Nvidia Nforce 4 SLI Southbridge raid controller. (4 SATA plugs) Im using three of them currently. The Nvidia prog in windows recognizes my HD as well. It says healthy striping for my raid0 and free healthy for my new HD. I can then hot plug array to the left or create new array. I dont want it to be part of the raid setup if I can help it.

I also have a Silicon Image 3132 Raid controller that I have not messed with as of yet. The sata port is on the other side of the mobo and not convenient at all, but maybe I need to plug it in there.

ASUS A8N32-SLI Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 2.2GHz
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3200827AS 200GB - Raid0 already
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500641AS 500GB - They one I just bought
ATI Radeon™ HD 4850

Any suggestions?
 

Ignatowski

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some sata controllers are all raid or no raid.

since the controller see's the drive but windows doesnt i'd have to say this is the case.

set the 500gb drive as the only member of a raid 0 or jbod group and then rescan the disks in diskmanagement.
you should now see the drive.
 

HD Problem

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Thanks for the info,

But if I go into the Nvidia Mediashield prog I have two options for the HD: 1 Hot Plug Array and 2 Create Array.

If I select Create Array: I get the following options: 1 Mirroring 2 Striping 3 Spanning 4 Stripe Mirroring 5 RAID 5.
I can then select the stripe size from 4k to 128k. It will not let me select Mirroring because it requires 2 hds, but I can select Striping and Spanning. Spanning lets me select the drive again while if I select striping I can select any hd at all.

What is the difference from striping to spanning?

Can I create a new array with only 1 500gb HD? If I can do that and have it not be include in my raid0 then Im straight.
Also can the sata controller control 2 HD in raid0 with another in raid0? Man this is way harder to do than it should be.

I didn't want include in the raid, but I guess I have no other option?
 
Ok, first a raid array requires a minimum of 2 discs. So your new drive can't be in an array by itself. You can add it to the existing array, but I would suggest adding it as a seperate storage drive.

You should also edit the array in the bios. NVidia mediashield is a software raid controller. If you are using a controller card, you want to set it up in the card's raid bios.

However, none of this should stop windows from seeing your new drive. If you have a working drive plugged in correctly, it should show up in disc management. You then need to allocate it and format it there.
 

Ignatowski

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yes you can set up multiple raid 0's or spans on a single controller.

just pick spanning 64k sector size and only check the new disk. it will not interfere with your existing raid set.
also if you primarily use this for large file storage ( movies/games) format the partition with 64k block sizes and you'll get slight better performance out of it.



with a single drive striping or spanning work the same.
on multiple drives striping puts part of each file on every drive ( raid 0)
on multiple drives spanning attempts to balance usage between drives but not on a strict basis. if you lose a drive from a span you will still have some files. if you lose a drive from a stripe you will have nothing. but striping gives more throughput than spanning.


this is entirely incorrect. every raid controller i've ever worked with allows raid 0 of a single drive. hp/dell(lsi)/adaptec/3ware all allow this.



and yet he can see the drive in the bios. he can see the drive in media shield. but disk management doesnt see it. because the controller is all raid or no raid. raid 0 or spaning of 1 disk is the work around for that. if he didnt have it plugged in correctly ( how the heck do you plug a sata drive in wrong) it wouldnt show during post or in mediasheild.



 



You really need to read up on your raid array's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

"RAID combines two or more physical hard disks into a single logical unit by using either special hardware or software."

You can't have a single drive in a raid array.

I never said the drive was plugged in wrong. I simply laid out the scenario. If it's plugged in right, and the drive is functional, then it should show up in disc management. And trust me, just b/c it's SATA doesn't mean it's hooked up right. I've seen people forget the sata data, or power, or plug it into the wrong port, it could be plugged into a raid card with no drivers installed on the raid card.....there are possibilities......when something isn't working right, you have to start from the beginning.
 

HD Problem

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I just wanted to say that the problem has been solved and thank you for your input. You were right about the raid controller. I went into the Nvidia Mediashield prog. and set up the single drive as a standalone Spanning and after I did that I check the Disk Management program and the new HD appeared. I then formatted it and the rest is history. Thanks again for your help I guess I really didn't have any other way to it. When I boot now it says I have 2 Healthy raid arrays, my original Raid0 and my new single drive, which is kinda weird but hey it works.