What to do, What to do....

[Farabomb]

Well, Alex is bored again.

I've been having problems with XP on and off (all end user related) and I think it's time to do a clean install. I don't mind rebuilding everything. Got real used to it using 98.

I used to run a 30g RAID0 array in the KT7-RAID and I noticed a difference in OS and games but after it went south and stupid me didn't have a good image to bring it back. I lost 30g of mp3's and was only able to recover 1/2 of them. After that I stopped using RAID. Now I think I'm going back. I have close to 200g on my network now so I can make backups no problem now.

Now I have:
ASUS A7V266-E | ABIT KT7-RAID
AthlonXP 1600+ | Athlon 850
2x 256 cru 2100 | 3x 256pc133
WD 100/72 40g | WD 66/54 10g
WD 100/72 120g | 2xMaxtor 100/72 15g
TDK 24/10/40 CD-RW | HP 8/10/24 CD-RW
Creative 12x DVD that can't read a CD
A sound blaster, some n.i.c's, and a vid card or two
The ASUS will be my main box and the ABIT will be my server/seti cruncher

Now, what I was thinking was to build a raid array in the ASUS with the 2 maxtors and partition it with a 10g system drive and put everything else on the 20g remaining. I mainly use my computer for games, a little photoshop and other things I'm not at liberty to say ;)

I tried to install XP onto the RAID when I first got it but it was giving me so many problems I gave up and put it on one disk. I never really thought that my new board (ASUS) was faster than my ABIT and it's allways been bothering me. Now I'm going to find out if the RAID makes a difference.

If anyone has a better suggestions let me know. Or should I just leave the damn thing alone and deal with it? Also, I have to learn how to use vB code so I can use all those fancy buttons we got.

[Player0]

Im not sure what your question is? hehe.

As long as your RAID0'ing two similar drives, you should notice a big improvement over a single drive, if your doing things correctly.

As long as you remember to install the RAID drives when Xp first installs, you should have no problems with that either.

I highly recommend the use of a 3rd, non-raided drive as a back up for your data. Just back up the important stuff on your raid array to this spare drive. So in case your raid breaks again, or you fry the servo motors on your 200g array like me, you dont loose to much ;)

Having a good backup plan is essential if you have data you dont want to loose, and is even more important when doing raid0.

[lechumbl]

Hi Fara,

You have three options:
(1) Do nothing)
(2) Make a RAID0 array and have a fast system, and use the extra drive for image/backup.
(3) Make a RAID1 and have mirroring. Then you don't need the third drive.

Problem is, if you want speed, then you want RAID0.
If you want security, then you want RAID1.

Now what would I do:
I would take the two drives and make a RAID0 array and run fast. I would use the third drive for image/backup.

See, best of both worlds.

Also, the OS, whether it is Win9X or WinNt, or WinXP, will recognize the RAID array as one drive, so you should not have any problems installing it.

I hope this is not a repeat of Player0's answer, I think it is a little different. If not, sorry Tom.

Take care...

[Farabomb]

As per usual halfway through posting I forget my orginal question ( I am at work and all these distractions..)

I'm going to RAID the 2 maxtors and have the 40g for backup. That's only if I can get XP to install on the thing. I tried and tried and I kept getting weird errors but now I'm not going to crack. I going to get XP on the RAID or I'm getting a new board.

Or something like that

Crap. Work calls..... I'll be back

[mdzcpa]

What your proposing to do is quite similar to what I have going on with my home LAN.

First, I have a Gaming Rig dedicated to.....yes, gaming:) It also receives the latest in cutting edge hardware and cooling. It serves as my test rig too. That box runs a single RAID 0 array made up of 2 Maxtor ATA 100 7200 40g HDs. I save my games into a specific backup folder every few days. I have no other critical data on that machine.

I then have my "main" Multimedia/Server rig I'm typing on now. It has all the hand me down parts from the gamer. As such it is probably more up to date and powerful than the average joe's computer. I run 2 harddrives on this rig. One ATA 100 7200 20g for OS and Apps, and an ATA 133 7200 40G for my "network" hard drive where I not only back up my data and game saves from all systems in the network, but I keep all my MP3's, MPGs, Pics, and my entire library of drivers, utilities, apps, benches, etc.

I have a 3rd rig for SETI and network drive back up. It also has two drives...one ATA 66 5400 10G for the OS and a few apps, and a ATA 100 7200 40G as a back up to my main network drive. I back up the network drive from the Multimedia/Server Rig to the SETI rig about once a week or so. (Must keep those 1,648 MP3s safe and sound ;) )

Finally I have the Kid's rig. It has only one ATA 100 7200 30g drive. No critical back up there. (Nothing a pair of 5 year old twins would need backed up).

All systems run Norton 2002 and are run on scheduled scans. The network drive (years of saved stuff) is backed up regularly. I also regulalry back up my favorites, address book, cookies, email history, etc from my Multimedia/Server rig to the network drive.

All in all it is a pretty save system. I was hammered once by the klez virus which mutated before Norton could pick it up. Although it killed my main drive in the Multimedia/Server rig, and poluted the network drive in the same box, the network back up drive in the SETI rig saved the day:)

I hope this gives you a few ideas. Everyone does it different I suppose, so have fun with it.

[lechumbl]

Hi Fara,

What are the "strange" errors?

Once we know that it MAY help get ya going.

I am at work too, but the only distractions here are the ladies..........never mind.

Take care and go home..........

[Farabomb]

Thanks Lee and I will take you up on the offer.
I just have to get home. We just got a new server here and the guy can't find his A** with bolth hands and a map. If he keeps going the way he's going I won't have to work tommrow.

[mdzcpa]

Farabomb:

By the way there is a trick to getting XP installed with RAID on the ASUS A7V-266E with certain BIOSes.

I'm not sure this is your problem, but maybe it will help.

When I had my A7V-266E it took me all day to figure it out. And now that I know what happened I feel like an idiot.

First, when booting from a Windows XP CD the video goes to a black screen until the generic video driver is loaded. This is a problem since it masks the "Hit F6 to load third party SCSI or Raid drivers". And that is a mandatory step if you want to run the board in raid.

You can get around this black screen and get the drivers loaded by hitting F6 every second during the initial bootup from CD. Once you hear the beep sound that you've hit the F6 key too many times then stop. Then when the CD activity stops hit "S" to specify additional raid drivers. Put the floppy in with the latest Promise raid drivers. Hit enter, and it reads from floppy looking for the driver. Hit enter and it reads the floppy again getting the driver. Then hit enter again and the install continues and everything is fine.

Remember your punching all those keys while the screen remains black.

I think ASUS fixed this problem with a BIOS update, but I'm not sure. The real problem is that the "built in" driver in XP will not recognize the Promise controller at all. So the Driver must be loaded via F6.

For the life of me it took me all day to figure out why my screen was going black. Then coming back with an error message regarding an unreadable disk.

Hope this helps.

[Farabomb]

I'm home now and I'm at the same place it stopped me before. After hitting f6 and it doing what it has to do. It says insert disk. Ok no prob. Then it tells me it has a driver and it's better ( ha ha ) I've tried it with the driver that comes with it, and the one I have. No matter what it still can't find the disks. This is what pissed me off before.

and the bios allways going back to default is starting to piss me off.

[Player0]

Thats my biggest problem with Asus actually hehe. The BIOS resetting if you shut down before BIOS finishes loading.

You did create the array in the RAID Bios correct? And are using the XP drivers (you may need to download new ones to create an OEM disk compatible with XP).

[mdzcpa]

And I'm sure you checked this already, but you do have the jumper on the mobo set for RAID, correct?

[Farabomb]

Player0, Yes I set the raid to proformance/desktop and it shows in the raid bios that I had to turn back on :( Sometimes the asus bios reseting has saved my arse, but now :aargh!:

Mdzcpa, Yup that was the first thing I did before I hit the power. Execpt I forgot to plug the drives in. Doh.:rolleyes:

Still nothing. Acually I'm trying 2kpro right now to see if that sees it.

Edit: No go with 2k Pro

[Player0]

Weird problem. See if it works with 98/ME. If it dont work with 98/ME, something is wrong with your setup :)

[Farabomb]

Well first let me find a copy of 98. I might have burned all of mine. I might have to put the 40g back in and get a little JK2 FFA fix before the night is over. Any way to copy my 40g onto the RAID and have it work?

[Farabomb]

*Bump*

Would it be possible to ghost/other prog my 40g onto a raid0 array?