$100 question

[raging_redneck]

HI, I put together a system is it reasonably fast.
System Spec's
GA-i845PE667 Ultra
Pentium4 2.5 OC'd 2.85ghz w/533 FSB
512mb Mushkin PC3200
2x Wd 80GB special edition Raid0
Radeon9700Pro
Soundblaster Audigy
Pioner DVD-RW A03
52x24x52x Liteon CD-RW
Windows XP PRO full version
Ok now for the question I want to know how to set up Raid In windows , the people at Compusa said I had to pay them $100 for them just to look at my computer , and more for settings it. But the thing is, I don't like people touching a computer that I built because I think they are going to do something bad to it. I'm not looking to reformat my machine at the moment but I would just like to know how to set raid up in windows for reference.Oh and if you are wondering what I got in 3dmark I got 15,970 for my score.
Thankyou for taking the time to read this

Everyone get your shot guns the redneck is on the rampage!!!!!!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Do you mean software or hardware raid.
Does your motherboard support hardware raid? (i.e. extra raid channels)

<b>Despite the huge top speeds, amazing acceleration and incredible G-Forces of Top Fuel Dragsters, a standed riced up Lancer often has a larger rear wing.</b>

 

[alltaken]

yes his motherboard does have a raid controller chip

(i am getting the same board--well the 8PE667 ultra2)

i don't know how to set it up but i do have a question to add

can you use the raid channels just as extra ata channels with no raid??

also check out the manual or the website they might tell you!

have fun

 

[lhgpoobaa]

yes they should.
Just make sure the controller is enabled in the bios and off you go... drives detected.

Ive got my two hard drives on the raid channels, one drive per channel on the onboard highpoint controller (epox 8k3a+)
runs wonderfully.

<b>Despite the huge top speeds, amazing acceleration and incredible G-Forces of Top Fuel Dragsters, a standed riced up Lancer often has a larger rear wing.</b>

 

[zepper]

When you get your mobo, the RAID instructions will be on the CD that comes with it. Since GA uses Promise, they will be quite easy to follow and you can DL a copy ahead of time.
.bh.


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Perhaps the only reason for your existence is to act as a warning to others...

 

[raging_redneck]

the Ga board is a great board you can overclock the cpu 400mhz over what it is set to but the bad thing is, the transisters are very close to the cpu so becareful what size heatsink you use.
Yes you can use the the raid channels as ATA, but you can only have 1 cd-rom or cdrw on each channel.
THE GA i845pe667ultra is the best mobo I have ever worked with. I've built 4 computers and the bios is very easy to navagate.

 

[raging_redneck]

Ok maybe I need to clarify something, there is a way that you can manually enable raid in windows but I dunno how to do it, the nice folks at Compusa said I had to pay them $100 just for them to look at the thing, and extra for setting raid in windows. I'm not shure if the software enables it, but I would just like to know how to enable it manually if in the future the software doesn't do it for me.

 

[melb_angel19]

Software raid? I wouldnt use that... Hardware raid is alot better and more sturdy

<font color=purple><i>Melb_angel19</i></font color=purple>

 

[BrayPowell]

I just received the board yesterday.

It comes with a separate manual for configuring RAID.
You will first need to use the Promise FastTrack tools to set up your array. (Very easy, took 1 minute.) You will also have to set an attribute in the main BIOS that will tell the system that you are using the RAID IDE connections as RAID instead of ATA (i.e., regular ATA / IDE hard drives).

If Windows (XP) is on a nonRAID drive, all you will need to do is start up windows, it will detect the new hardware, you will put in your driver CD, and Windows will install the drivers.

If, however, you want your RAID drive to be your Windows boot drive, you have problems. In theory, installing Windows to the RAID drive should be the same as installing to a regular drive. The only extra step is that at the start of the process, you need to tell Windows you are installing to RAID (i.e., you will press F6) so that Windows can install the appropriate drivers.

Problem 1 is that Windows expects these drivers to be on a Floppy and Gigabyte does not provide a floppy.
Problem 2 is that Gigabyte's Web site tells you to create a floppy from the CD by using drive mappings that do not exist.

I have gone into the CD and have taken a couple of guesses. I even found what I thought was the right driver.

Unfortunately, after the initial Windows install and re-boot, I have been confronted with something to the effect of "unreconginized disk...." (I am currently at work.)
In my sleep deprived state, I focussed on how I was partitioning the RAID drives.
After further thought, I believe the problem is more likely to do with the fact that I had the wrong driver.

If anyone has a quick solution to this problem, I would love to know; otherwise, I will keep experimenting and sooner or later a solution will be found. (If I do, I will post.)

I would not pay CompUSA, if they had the answer, they would just give you the floppy with the correct drivers. Why pay for them to do the experimenting. In addition, if you are building systems, you will need to know for the future.

 

[raging_redneck]

Ok, I had a simular problem with the gigabyte board.
Now what you need to do it get a floppy disk you need to put the .oem file on it and then you need to copy and paste the Raid file on the disk, and there you go it should work.if it doesn't work then put in another thread