Setting up RAID 5 with Intel Matrix Storage Manager & XP

Hello All,

I am new to all this RAID stuff so bear with me here....

I am trying to set up a file server to store media and what not. I bought a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 motherboard and 4 1.5 TB HDD. Hooked everything up including an extra 250 GB HDD for the OS (Windows XP). I installed XP on the 250 GB HDD without a problem. I then pressed Ctrl + I to enter into the Intel Matrix Storage Manager BIOS configuration to set up the RAID array. I added the 4 1.5 TB HDD to an array and it took FOREVER to initialize (over 24 hours, is this normal?). It finally finished so I went to My Computer and I see no array. I thought the array would show up as a storage device in My Computer. Is that not correct? Do I have to format the array? If so, how do I do this because I don't see an option to format the entire array in the Intel Matrix Storage Manager?

I used Gparted to format the drives but this formats them individually so they show up individually in My Computer. I want them to show up as one drive so the data is stripped across all 4 drives. So the end result should be 1 drive for the OS (250 GB HDD) and 1 drive for stroage (4 1.5 TB HDD showing as 1 - data stripped across all). How do I achieve this?

Thanks in advance!!!

-Jon-

Thanks for your reply!

I do have the SATA controller configured as RAID in the BIOS, I double checked.

I tried your first suggestion and the drive showed up. So I guess this means XP 32-Bit doesn't support drives greater then 2 TB? I googled it and it seems like there is some confusion on that point. If I install a 64-Bit OS will that solve that problem?

Thanks,

-Jon-