One for Richard (MSI IDE RAID)

[Mac the Knife]

Hi Richard,

I want to set up a mirrored IDE RAID on my K7N2 Delta.

I already have a WD1200JB as my main drive on IDE1 [4 1ary partitions, NTFS,FAT32,NTFS,Reiserfs(for Linux)]. I hooked another WD1200JB up to the IDE RAID connector (IDE3) and the Promise BIOS kicks in and sees it on boot. Ctrl-Y and 1 for Auto Setup and it wants to build a "Performance" (RAID 0) array which I don't want. Can't get it to change to "Security" (RAID 1).

Try to do it manually - "Define Array" but it complains "Need a minimum of two disks"

What gives? I get the impression from Googling around that I should let it go ahead and let it run (Ctrl-Y to accept) and then take it from there, but I'm ever so slightly paranoid about creating a striped RAID array when I certainly don't want to.

The instructions in the little book that comes wwith the mobo are pretty unhelpful.

Thanks - Mac

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Mac,

Only IDE3, SATA1, and SATA2 are on the RAID Controller. IDE1 and IDE2 are on the IDE Controller.

So you cannot mirror anything on IDE1 or IDE2. If you had a WD120JD on one of the SATAs and your WD120JB on IDE3, then you could mirror them.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. Try connecting both WD120JBs to IDE3 (One as Master and the other as Slave) and see if you can setup RAID1 that way.

[Mac the Knife]

Aha! Thanks Richard,

Many things now start becoming clear. I'll try again, this time hooking the original WD120JB up to IDE3 and a WD120JD to one of the SATA connectors.

"P.S. Try connecting both WD120JBs to IDE3 (One as Master and the other as Slave) and see if you can setup RAID1 that way." Sadly, I don't think that this will work, as most IDE RAID systems only allow one device per channel.and the MSI book seems to imply this.

There is no reference to RAID or IDE3 in the BIOS that I can see, particularly in the boot device order. How will the BIOS figure out where to boot from (or will it always try to boot from the RAID array first?).

Cheers

Mac

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Mac,

In order to boot from the RAID Array (which includes IDE3), you need to set SCSI in the Boot Order in the BIOS. ;)

Take Care,

Richard