Raid-0 or striping

[Guest]

I currently am trying to set up a fresh install of XP proffesional using 2 IBM Deskstar 60GXP 60Gb hd's in a raid-0 array using Promise Fastrak TX2. I know this is also called striping. This is the first raid setup for me, so i don't know much.. I need to know how to configure the hd's (master/slave) then how do I partition the drives. (pri dos\extended dos..etc) Then I know you have to go into disk management in XP and stripe them, but I can't ..it's greyed out..My ideal setup would be about 15gb for system on a c: partition then use the rest of the space joined with the second hd. I don't know if that can be done but I want to get these drive striped together so I can get faster throughput. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I will be checking back here everyday..also feel free to email me...mlau318@hotmail.com.

Thanks in Advance

Matt

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Matt1970 on 01/24/02 07:47 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[camieabz]

Either Master/Master or Master/Slave, it doesn't matter. I use Master/slave, in case I decide to add stuff later, I have a free channel.

Jumpers on both drives set accordingly (for BIOS to recognise).

Fdisk: Set on each drive a primary partion of maximum drive space (60GB and 60GB).

Now you configure them in your RAID 0 array.

Then go back to Fdisk and you have 1 120GB (although Fdisk can't register it) disk. Partition as required.

<b><font color=blue>The Cisco Kid</font color=blue></b>

 

[Guest]

Thanks for answering my post. One thing though...how do I set them in a raid 0.I thought you have to stripe them together with the OS (Win XP). There is know way to do it with the promise card..(good card..Bad documentation). I saw under disk management under admin tools that you hade to make the disks dynamic in order to stripe them together..this is the wall I ahe run into. Any other thoughts?

Matt

 

[Lars_Coleman]

Your actually looking at two different things in your post. You are talking about the software RAID available within Windows 2000/XP and you are talking about a software/hardware RAID with your Promise Controller. You don't want to mess with the software RAID from within the OS if you have the controller.

When you boot up you will see the Promise FastTrak BIOS post. At that time you should see something along the lines of "Press <Ctrl F> to enter the Fastbuild (tm) utility". So I would do just that. Your going to create the array from there. I actually thought the User's manual was pretty good to tell you the truth. I mean, it doesn't need to be to detailed because they don't really have that great of features with this card.

Once you create the array, just get into Windows XP under disk management, and you should see 120GiG volume. From there I would partition and format it using NTFS.

<font color=red>People and hard drives are like bandwagon fans and sports!</font color=red>

 

[svol]

I recommend that you put the harddrives one different IDE channels (one primary, one secondary), this will increase performance.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .