'Promise' On board RAID controllers
I've just put together a high spec system based on the Gigabyte GA-8INXP mobo which has an on board Promise IDE RAID chip 20276. I'm trying to config the 3 HDDs (80GB each) thus:-
One for the OS (XP Pro)
2 data disks in RAID 1 config for security of my data etc. The 2 HDDs for RAID plug into their own dedicated RAID sockets on the Mobo, the RAID controller having its own BIOS and drivers etc. Both HDDs are set to Master as required.
The HDD with the OS (which I have partitioned into 2 roughly equal 40GB drives) is attached to IDE 1 primary channnel socket.
All seemed to go ok on setup, the Promise BIOS was entered and the RAID 1 array was set up (only RAID 1 and 0 possible with this BIOS) and verified functional at BIOS level. At full boot up entering XP control panel disk management revealed that all 3 drives are recognised/ active but to RAID array is not detected by windows.
Now here is the good bit..... apparently the 20276 chipset is exactly the same as the chipset installed on some of Promise Technology's high end RAID controller cards costing >£250.00. These cards have RAID functions 0,1,5 etc as opposed to the one on the mobo having just 0 & 1, limited by its edition of BIOS lite!
Hence the on board RAID controller on this (and similar) mobos supposedly wont handle more than 2 drives.....
1) Surely it should be possible to get the onboard controller to handle the 2 data disks as designed in either 0 or 1 config and let the OS tie up the array the other drive to make the whole system work as I want?
2) If not any ideas on where to get the 'full' BIOS for this chip releasing the '5' RAID function, enabling the chip to handle the 3rd drive just as it would do if it was mounted in its own card in a PCI slot?
Cheers
B_L