RAID0 problem

[Krumm]

I've been trying to do RAID0 with two new HDDs on my existing system. However, in the bios of my p5k deluxe, i only have the option to make all drives AHCI, IDE or RAID

When I put them in RAID I can set it up in the Ctrl-I menu (after bios). However vista64 refuses to boot.

Do I need to buy a RAID controller to do this? Or is there a workaround?

[LegacyOne]

I think you would have to do a reinstall or repair of vista.

[Lucio]

If you put the HDD into a RAID array (or remove them from a RAID array), you basically destroy any data stored upon them. Thus if you've swapped them into an array you'll have to reinstall Vista.

[stevie lee]

AFAIK when you create a Raid Array, it formats the hard drives into whatever Raid you select.. this destroys all the data on the drives.. you can add drives to an already existing array, but i think this is limited to specific types..

and on some Raid like type 5 and 6, you can replace a certain number of dead drives, before you lose the data on the Raid array..

wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redunda...ependent_disks



this was learned from reading various stuff on HEXUS, so don't blame me if its wrong, blame HEXUS.


consider this before doing raid on vista: is it an OEM copy you have? i think Raid will count as a hardware change so you will have to phone microsoft to get it re-activated, thats if it asks after installation..

[Krumm]

I seem not to have explained it properly...

I already have a perfectly good hdd with vista and all my stuff on it. I want to leave that alone.

I have acquired 2 NEW hard drives which I want to do RAID0 on.

but due to circumstances which I explained in my first post, it's not working properly

oh and yes, i have already read all the wiki articles on raid.

[stevie lee]

aah sorry about that...

have you checked you are plugging the new SATA's into the corrrect ports on the motherboard..

from the asus website..

Southbridge
- 6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
- Supports RAID 0, 1, 5 an 10.
JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
- 2 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
- Supports SATA RAID 0,1 and JBOD

I'm not sure which are which on the board, but i assume you need to have both new hard drives on the same controller.. either southbridge or JMicron.. i dont know which is better/faster/more reliable though..

or

Vista is probably seeing it as a hardware change so may need a re-install or a repair..

after the Raid has been setup try booting in safe mode - if that works you could check to see if Vista is recognising the new raid in device manager or explorer..


before doing that lot though... if you unplug your 2 new hard drives, does vista boot up?

_____________________
EDIT: just noticed that the southbridge has e-sata listed, so you could ignore that bit about which ports the cables are plugged in.. too tired, I'm off to bed...

[GoNz0]

you may have to set the vista drive as raid 0 with 1 disk if it only allows all or nothing, of course this may mean a reinstall of vista

[Paul Adams]

What happens when you boot up?
"Missing Operating System"?
"NLTDR bad or missing"?
Boot menu appears but it fails after a selection?

It could be that the BIOS has set the boot order to RAID0 first, so it expects to find an active partition on the raid set to boot from...

[Krumm]

you may have to set the vista drive as raid 0 with 1 disk if it only allows all or nothing, of course this may mean a reinstall of vista

It's not possible to do raid with one disk! even I know that.

the boot order is:
DVD drive
disk 0 (small 3gb hdd with linux)
disk 1 (with vista)
disks 2+3 (RAID0)

There is no error message when i bootup in RAID mode. The vista loading bar goes through about 2 cycles and then stops. Then the system reboots instantly.

edit: I use GRUB to select which OS to boot on, however in RAID, it gets as far as loading it, and then gives and error (something like "error 17")
When i get rid of GRUB, it does the vista error thing.

edit2: i'm using the jmicron controller for my IDE devices (dvd drive and 3gb hdd). This is not affected by changing the RAID/AHCI/IDE setting.
there are 6 sata ports on my mobo, 2 of them black - i believe this means that they're controlled by the jmicron controller, however no matter what port i plug any sata hdd into, the jmicron controller cannot detect it.

[GoNz0]

well thats rather strange then as i used to have a board with the same setup, all raid or nothing and it would simply install 1 drive as raid 0 and the other 2 as raid 0

so it can be done, just not sure if your controller can do it.

[Krumm]

well if you can do it, it means nothing, since striping obviously can't be done on the same disk. however i see what you mean

i just checked booting in RAID mode when the 2 new drives are unplugged. same effect.

if i'm going to have to reinstall vista if i do raid at all, then i might as well do raid5 across all the drives

[GoNz0]

yeh it didnt really stripe the drive, but had to say that to make it function due to the crummy all or nothing.

it looks like your going to have to backup your data to do it and install the single drive as a raid drive, it should in theory work then

that or buy a £20 raid card from scan

[Krumm]

hah! yes i might do that if RAID5 doesnt work.... i'm off to save my documents and reintall vista...

[LegacyOne]

I think this is a known problem where you have the OS on one drive and wish to do a RAID with two other drives.

This problem only happens to on-board RAID controllers when changing the SATA mode from SATA (IDE) to RAID.