RAID and IDE inputs...

CaxusCaxus
edited August 2004 in Hardware
So i have 3 IDE inputs. One is obviously going to be used by my DVD drive and my CDR drive. What i need to know is how to set up the RAID drives with the remaining two if i also want to keep my original drive for backup storage.

Should i have both the identical RAID 0 drives on one IDE with one as a master and the other as a slave or should i have each of them on their own and then slave the older drive to one of them.

Also which jumper settings should i have everything at? My hard drive manual didn't say anything about RAID settings. Are they both supposed to be on cable-select?

Comments

  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited August 2004
    That board is little wierd. Only one of the PATA 133 channels is hooked up the the raid controller (the one near the bottom of the board). So if you have all PATA hard-drives then you've got 2 choices:

    1) Buy 1 PATA->SATA adapter and put one raided drive on the PATA133 connection on the bottom of the board and the other on one of the SATA connections.

    2) Buy 2 PATA->SATA adapters and put both raided drives on the SATA connectors.

    For the other drives the setup should depend on your usage style. What's important is that only one device can transmit on a PATA Bus at once so you want to have your configuration such that you have the drives that transfer the minimum between each other are on the same channel.

    I'd do:
    Primary Channel: backup hd as master (or both cs), dvd-rom as slave (or both cs)
    Secondary Channel: cd-r as master or cable select

    For info on your board:
    http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=496
  • CaxusCaxus
    edited August 2004
    That board is little wierd. Only one of the PATA 133 channels is hooked up the the raid controller (the one near the bottom of the board). So if you have all PATA hard-drives then you've got 2 choices:

    1) Buy 1 PATA->SATA adapter and put one raided drive on the PATA133 connection on the bottom of the board and the other on one of the SATA connections.

    2) Buy 2 PATA->SATA adapters and put both raided drives on the SATA connectors.

    Does this mean that i have to put both RAID drives on that bottom channel, one as master and one as slave? Or are you saying I can't even do it unless i get an adapter?
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited August 2004
    From MSI Site:

    "• Promise 20378 On-Board
    • Supports 2 serial ATA plus 1 ATA133
    - RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 is supported
    - RAID function work w/ATA133+SATA H/D or 2SATA H/D
    • Connect up to 2 SATA device and 2 ATA133 devices"

    So you have to buy one of the adapters if I read that right. (I don't have the board myself). Maybe it'll work but the performance will definitely suffer with two modern HD's on one channel. The connect part I think refers to JBOD (non-raid) mode. You can certainly try a master slave configuration though and report if it works :).
  • CaxusCaxus
    edited August 2004
    Yeah it was a bit weird with them on the same channel. So if i get those adapters will that essentially turn my hard drives into SATA hard drives since i've heard that none of them are real SATA anyway?

    I assume that with the adapters i'll have to just install it as a SATA with SATA drivers and everything.

    Also, is it ok to have two harddrives stacked directly on top of eachother? Theres not much room for anything else in my case.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited August 2004
    When you use the adapters you are basicaly allowing your normal IDE drives to mimic a sata drive. They will be connected through the sata ports and thus you will need to install the sata drivers. Only the faster 10k raptors really show any specific speed advantage over pata drives currently. In fact its sorta weird that some of the sata drives actually have tested slower then their pata models when all other factors are equal.

    You say "right on top" of each other? Heat begins to be a problem in this situation. Can you install a fan in front of them or anything to get some airflow across them at all? Often the bottom of a case has provisions for mounting or adding a fan in front of the drives.
  • CaxusCaxus
    edited August 2004
    I called two different computer stores and neither one had heard of any PATA > SATA adapters. So is it impossible to have a RAID array on a K8T NEO unless you have two SATA drives?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited August 2004
    No your simply dealing with ninny's at your local computer store. Its possible. I ran four of the Highpoint converters to run four maxtor ide/pata drives on a hpt sata four channel controller.

    For numbnuts try telling them you need a ide to sata converter. No little store will have them. Fry's and CompUSA usually have them or just grab some off ebay.

    Tex
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited August 2004
    Yep what tex said :). If you have any friend's with NF7-s's they also came with a single PATA->SATA adapter so you might be able to bum one off of them.
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