How do I connect 2 Raptors in RAID? Please help!!
Please someone help, I have built computers but never have I put 2 hard drives together in RAID!
I have an Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Ultra Motherboard.
I have 2 36gb Raptors the one I got is used and it had stuff on it so with XP I deleted the partition, not sure how to format it without loading Windows onto it.
Both were set to Master via the Jumpers I think...It doesnt tell you where to put the jumper settings.
I have RAID utility 2004 NVIDIA and when it sees both hard drives (in the bios I select RAID SATA on and select the SATA 1 primary and secondary and SATA 2 primary and secondary options) in the RAID menu it lets me put the 2 hard drives it sees into the box to the right, above it has options like Mirror, striping and Mirror Striping, on the right it says Optimal and then 64k, 32k etc not sure what this means.
When I put the 2 hard drives across I chose Mirror in the first selection and the next selection Optimal, then some more options came up asking to delete stuff and am all confused!
All I want to do is get the 2 hard drives to pair up so it shows as 1 without losing any of my data - is this possible?
However what I plan to do is really put my important files and music onto the secondary hard drive then format the main one because I have Windows Vista coming tomorrow.
So does anyone know then for now how to show the other hard drive as a secondary please? Do I just move the jumper somewhere else?
I have an Abit Fatal1ty AN8 Ultra Motherboard.
I have 2 36gb Raptors the one I got is used and it had stuff on it so with XP I deleted the partition, not sure how to format it without loading Windows onto it.
Both were set to Master via the Jumpers I think...It doesnt tell you where to put the jumper settings.
I have RAID utility 2004 NVIDIA and when it sees both hard drives (in the bios I select RAID SATA on and select the SATA 1 primary and secondary and SATA 2 primary and secondary options) in the RAID menu it lets me put the 2 hard drives it sees into the box to the right, above it has options like Mirror, striping and Mirror Striping, on the right it says Optimal and then 64k, 32k etc not sure what this means.
When I put the 2 hard drives across I chose Mirror in the first selection and the next selection Optimal, then some more options came up asking to delete stuff and am all confused!
All I want to do is get the 2 hard drives to pair up so it shows as 1 without losing any of my data - is this possible?
However what I plan to do is really put my important files and music onto the secondary hard drive then format the main one because I have Windows Vista coming tomorrow.
So does anyone know then for now how to show the other hard drive as a secondary please? Do I just move the jumper somewhere else?
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Comments
If you setup a hardware raid in the Raid bios...you will lose all the data on the 1 drive...no way around it. The raid will initialize and blank both drives out.
You would have to reinstall Windows with this option.
I do not think Nvidia has a utility that runs in Windows to allow you to build the raid there...I will have to look into that.
EDIT:
Ok...do you have the 6.86 drivers from Nvidia installed?
Install both drives in the system and enable raid in the bios, but do not setup the raid array by pressing F4 or F10, whatever it is during boot, just start Windows with both drives installed.
Now go to Start > Run > type "nvraidman" and press enter.
Now you should see the 2 drives, but no raid array. From there you should be able to create the Raid 1 array, just make sure you are using your current C drive as the master and then mirror to the other empty drive.
I have just come back on after having to reinstall windows XP *cries* now my 2 hard drives have windows xp and when I start the PC up it asks me which windows I want to start *Cries even more*
I my documents and music luckily are intact but all my programs on the menu are gone :-(
Please help me! How do I get rid of the 2nd windows option?
I am getting Vista tomorrow so all I want to do right now is to have the 2 hard drives show seperatly with 1 Windows only.
I copied over my files to the other hard drive so I dont mind losing all the data on my main C: drive now.
Would it be best to get Vista then deal with the other hard drive?
Load the utility I talked about and create the array from within Windows. Done deal.
Did you already move important data over to the 2nd Drive?
You have totally confused me as to what is where on each drive, 1 of them should be the same as it always has been, regardless of you installing Windows again, unless you installed on the same drive and over wrote your old Windows install.
Ok here goes.
In the Windows setup it saw my current hard drive and the new one, I chose to install Windows on the new one.
When I start up I get an option to choose Windows XP twice.
My C: drive is the drive with all my stuff on it but it has the old windows XP on it and have lost all my stuff that I installed like norton etc.
So whats happened is that option 1 is my F: drive? So if choose option 2 when the PC starts up are you saying that should be previous Windows XP that I originally had?
If its booting up using F: Drive then that means my old C: drive is no good for starting windows then.
Here is what I am going to do:
I have a dvd burner, I bought some dvd writeable discs and will find some software to allow me to copy my 5gb worth of data onto say around 2 discs.
I will then format both hard drives.
Windows Vista is arriving tomorrow now so once I get that I will install it on SATA 1 which is my main C: drive.
Once that is done I would like some assitance please on trying to understand how to pair the 2 drives together because I want the best performance.
You will need the Raid Drivers on a floppy (should have come with mainboard, disk is labeled NF4 Raid Drivers) so you can Press F6 (although with Vista this may have changed, I have never installed it) and point it at the floppy so Windows can see the Raid Array.
I don't understand how you lost all the stuff on the old drive by installing Windows on the new drive, all the old stuf should be there, just unplug the new drive and the PC will be just like it was, it should boot off the old drive and you should see everything.
The only way everything is gone is if you did not install to the new drive, but installed to the old drive by mistake.
Ok I went into an option that allowed me to get a dos prompt I then formatted my new drive F: but the problem is when I boot up it still gives me 2 options to start windows XP!
I now have to keep choosing option 2 because that is my main hard drive with all my stuff :-(
I can see both hard drives though, the second one has only 1 file called RECYCLER whatever that is.
Is there anyway of not getting the 2 prompts?
Also not got Vista yet but I think I will leave the other questions perhaps for the guys over at Nvidia forums? They will probably be more familiar with my motherboard.
But hope you can help to get rid of the 2 options and make it just boot as normal.
I have told you twice how to setup the raid when you get Vista, but it will wipe out your current drive when you initialize the drives in the Raid bios, so make sure you have your stuff backed up.
To get rid of the 2 prompts you need to edit the boot.ini file which is in the root of C:, but it is hidden. Do you know how to "unhide" the protected operating system files?
Please help me here I dont know :-( I went into C: and did unhide system files is that right?
I have just backed up my files on DVD so am set to reformat the WHOLE PC.
Make sure there is a "Green Dot" next to "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
Uncheck the box next to "Hide Protected Operating system Files" and click yes on the warning popup that happens.
Now click "ok" to close the folder options window.
Now in left side of Explorer, click Local Disk C:.
In the right hand pane, it may say "the files in this folder are hidden" or something...just click "Show the files and Folders"
Now you should see the Boot.ini file, right click it and choose "open with" and select Notepad.
Now you are looking at the boot.ini file.. it should look something like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
You may have 2 listings for the multi(0)disk...... line.
You want to leave the one that says disk(0) the other one should say disk(1)...right?
Delete the one with disk(1) and save the file.
Now it should boot normally.
You are really helpful and I really appreciate it!
Ermm mine looks different this is what it says:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
We need to not remove the wrong thing here...we can render the system unbootable if we do.
When I get the 2 options I select option 2 that is my default system.
So does this then mean in the selection I should remove the first line or second line? I need to be careful.
Is the best way to find out which one to delete is maybe perhaps remove the second hard drive and keep my default then check again?
If you let it just sit, does it boot to Windows or does it say something like "no operating system found"?
Ah I see what you mean, I will have to reboot now then to find out.
Ok so what if I dont touch anything and I get the error?
Or what if I touch nothing and it defaults to my correct hard drive?
I will reboot now and hopefully there will be an answer to when I return :-D
Ok there is a problem.
When I get the screen that gives me the 2 options it clearly says that it will automatically select the highlighted option once the timer runs out, now the highlighted one is the one that is corrupted i.e. has no operating system.
The second option is the default correct one and it does not automatically choose, I have to choose myself.
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
and
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
Emmm I hope you are 100% sure, but I might go for installing Vista tomorrow instead and that should fix it all I hope.
I hope you dont mind me coming back and asking on how to Raid the 2 drives please.
I have backed up my work onto a DVD so am ok to format everything, the second hard drive as mentioned earlier is now formatted, the only thing next is wait until I get Vista (it better turn up today!) and then format my C: and install it, I want a fresh new start.
In the BIOS I have the RAID options but has many options, for IDE and SATA but obviously I only want the SATA ones, but there is a list with like 4 options to enable RAID for SATA I will clarify what they are once I get home.
However when I was able to go the Sata RAID option in the other screen it showed both hard drives 0 and 1 and allowed me to move them over to another box (the hard drives were highlighted in red) then there were options like Mirror, striping and mirror striping, then in the next box above that options were Optimal, 64k, 32k, 16k, 8k something like that.
This is where I am confused all I want to do is just have these hard drives linked together for the best perfomance I wish it was simple but to me it looks really complicated :-(
Select Striping.
Select Optimal for stripe size
Add both drives to the array, then tell it to continue/save (I think its F7 or F6) Then it will show a summary screen and make sure that it says its bootable. (Press B to make it bootable if it is not marked as such)
If you want Raid 1 (Mirroring):
Select Mirror
There will be no selection for sizes on this one.
Add both drives to the array and the steps after that are the same as above.
I have options 2 SATA 1 options then 2 SATA 2 options, when I enabled the 2
SATA 1 options for primary and I believe secondary RAID I then went to the screen and pressed F10, it showed my 2 hard drive and already had selected MIRRORING and also said STRIPING I think it let me REBUILD ARRAY but is this what I want to do? Do I want to rebuild the ARRAY?
What did you want to accomplish in the first place? Raid 1 (Mirroring) or Raid 0 (Striping)?
You should have setup the raid first, then formatted and installed.
:woowoo: