SATA RAID boot problem.............

[Flybywyre]

GA-8KNXP
P4 3.2
1 GB DDR400
3 x SATA Seagate 120 (2 on RAID 0 )
XPpro

Having finished this build for a friend I am having problems booting it up now that I have the RAID 0 configured. Everything is recognised by the system and all seems to be well. XP pro is loaded on both the RAID 0 and the single drive, all of which are SATA. On booting up it gets as far as the Windows XP logo with the blue bars moving across the middle of the screen as it is loading but then it gets stuck, resets itself and starts all over again. This loop occurs when either the RAID O is selected as first HD boot, or the single drive is selected. The only way I can get it to boot is by selecting SATA RAID DISABLE in the BIOS. It then boots up normally from either drive.
Anyone got any idea's ?
Regards
FBW

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Flybywyre,

It sounds like you do not have the proper WinXP drivers for the SATA RAID.

Are you booting off the RAID Array or a Single Drive?

If you are booting off the RAID, you should have hit F6 during the WinXP Install and loaded the SATA RAID Drivers for WinXP then.

If you did not, then you might want to run a Repair of WinXP with the WinXP CD, and make sure you hit F6 and load the drivers.

Take Care,

Richard

[Flybywyre]

Hello Richard.............Are you booting off the RAID Array or a Single Drive?
If I try to boot from either I get the same problem. All drivers installed OK (Si3112r)

[ORAC]

Update your BIOS and download updated drivers from here (http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/FAQ/FAQ_GA-8KNXP.htm).

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Flybywyre,

Was WinXP a fresh install in this computer or did you use the hard drives from another computer that was already running WinXP?

If it was from another computer, you will need to do a repair with the WinXP CD.

Take Care,

Richard

[Flybywyre]

Latest drivers and BIOS installed...........
The SATA hd's are all (3 of them) brand new Seagate 120 GB. As I type this I am reinstalling the OS on the RAID 0 array, for good measure I have physically disconected the single SATA HD.
Here's and interesting question. All the indications (disk manager, SATARaid GUI, my computer etc) all tell me that all three HD's are installed, formatted and working. The RAID utility feature tells me I have one set of RAID 0 set up.
I can only boot up when the BIOS is set to SATA RAID FUNCTION DISABLED............
However everything seems to be working fine and the housing that contains the 2 RAID disks is warm and you can feel it vibrating (computer case open and the seperate HD housing on the floor at the moment)
Could the BIOS be giving me duff information ? How can I tell if the RAID 0 is working ?
Regards
FBW

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Flybywyre,

How did you setup the array? I found that a 16k Stripe works best for most drives.

Take Care,

Richard

[ORAC]

Two things worth trying,

1. Sounds strange, but try changing your BIOS boot order so that SCSI is first.

2. Try mapping your SATA port to IDE 1, and put your IDE drive on one of the other IDE ports.

[Flybywyre]

Thanks for all of your replies. Pleased to report that the re-installation of XP on the RAID array did the trick and everything is working fine. A few looks around some other sites shows that loading XP on to a RAID array does not always go smoothly. In fact my initial problem with this build was the XP installation looping half way through the set up. Again others have had this problem with no real reason as to why.
RAID was set up using "Si RAID configuration facility" activated on the F4 key. 16K chunk size.
Thanks for all your help
Regards
FBW

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Flybywyre,

I am glad to hear you are all set. :ok:

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. How long did the Install of WinXP take with RAID 0? I am going to guess the install completed in 10 minutes or less.

[goates]

Seeing as people are talking about RAID arrays and I'm planning on setting one up soon I thought I would take this opportunity to ask for any tips. Is there anything in particular to watch for? I have an Abit NF7-S motherboard, 2 Seagate 80GB Barracuda drives and will shortly have a 160GB Maxtor IDE drive (I don't really need all of the space, but they were pretty cheap). I've heard that it is safer to put the OS and general data on a single drive, and applications and multimedia type data on the RAID array, to guard against losing all data on the RAID array.

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

goates,

Hard Drives are getting so reliable that there is little extra risk running on RAID 0.

"When you have a Striped Array and I drive fails, you have lost your data", is the main argument against using RAID 0. I always reply, "what happens with you use a single drive and the drive fails?" You lose your data too.

I have run RAID 0 for years without issues and enjoyed the added speed you gain in Disk Access. Windows is all about Disk Access.

I do have a backup drive in my comp and I back my data up to, should a drive fail one day. Any data I cannot live without is now backed up to a DVD.

If you want speed, a pair of 10,000rpm Western Digital SATA Drives on an SATA RAID 0 Array with a 16k Stripe is about as fast as you can get.

Take Care,

Richard

[goates]

Thanks Richard. That's kind of what I was thinking, but didn't have any direct experience to back it up. I guess the issue was that with 2 drives you double your chance of having a hard drive fail. In a RAID 0 array this would put your data at more risk. I've never scene a drive fail though (Apple usually builds good quality computers... ;) ).

While I would love to get a couple of the Raptor drives, up here they're a little too pricy. I would need something more than the 36GB drives (I filled an 80GB drive pretty quick), but the 74GB models run well over $300 Canadian, and shipping from elsewhere isn't cheap either. For now I think the Seagate drives will have to do.

Thanks again,

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

goates,

I run a pair of 36Gb Raptors. If you need the extra space, stick in a 200Gb Drive to keep all the extra data. You can use it as a backup disk and data storage.

Then you can keep your Raptors clean to run the OS and the programs you use. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[Flybywyre]

Richard..........
From start to finish about 30 minutes which included changing the default keyboard and language settings etc.
Goates...........
The one tip I can give you is to follow the RAID set up procedure to the letter. If in doubt post on here for a pointer. GOOD LUCK!
Regards
FBW

[goates]

Thanks for the tips Richard and FlyByWire. I now have a RAID 0 array set up with 2 Seagate SATA drives, and a third drive as a backup and for playing with Linux (I don't feel like messing around with RAID under Linux just yet). It's amazing how much sbappier the computer feels. I would love to have 2 of those Raptor drives, but I think that will have to wait a little while. :D

One queston I do have is that the RAID array is marked as the D: drive, even though it has Windows on it, while the 3rd drive is the C: drive. Will this cause any problems? The only reason I can see for this is that the 3rd drive is attached to the motherboard's primary IDE connector, while the other use the SATA connectors. So far everything seems to be working alright.

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

goates,

Well I prefer to always have my OS on Drive C. What I do during the install is I only have the Array and an Optical Drive attached. Once the install has completed, I then have the Array as Drive C, and the Optical Drive as Drive D. For the rest of my Hard Drives and Optical Drives, I add them on one at a time after I have completed the install, that way Windows will assign the next available Drive Letter to the hardware just added.

In my case I have:

RAID 0 = Drive C

DVD+/-RW = Drive D

Backup Hard Drive = Drive E

You could always do the install again in order to get the drive letters you want. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. Enjoy the speed. :ok: