wd800jd & wd800bb together

West-SixWest-Six
edited November 2004 in Hardware
Originaly when I built my system I wanted to use the Serial ATA WD Caviar® SE - 7200 RPM 80 GB because of the 150 MB/s data transfer rate, but after much struggle trying to install a OS that I liked (98 worked) I broke down and went to my local computer store and bought a EIDE WD Caviar - 7200 RPM 80 GB. So now I have 2 HD's but I'm only using the one IDE, can I set these 2 up in a raid 0 or maybe as 2 seprate drives. I didn't think this ATA would be so much trouble. Btw I have a asus k8v SE with dual SATA RAID. Thanks.

Comments

  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    You can't do a bootable RAID array between an IDE and a SATA HD unless you have a controller that expressly supports it. You could make one as a software array, but it wouldn't be bootable. The reason you can't install Windows 98 on a SATA HD is because the OS needs a driver to see the SATA controller, and thus the drives hooked up to it. Since the 9x core installers don't have the option to preload a driver, you can't install 98 to a SATA HD. My advice would be not to use 98 anyway - both windows 2000 and windows XP are just as fast, can see more RAM, and can be installed on a SATA drive. (windows 98 can only see 512MB of ram and can only effectively utilize 256MB of that 512MB)

    In order to do that, you'll need to find the driver diskette that came with your motherboard, or determine what kind of RAID controller is on the motherboard and then download a floppy image that creates the driver floppy. Then, when the Win2k or XP setup asks you "Do you want to install any third-party drivers" right at the beginning, push the button it says to do so, and follow the instructions to install the driver from the floppy. You would then be able to install 2k or XP onto the SATA drive.
  • West-SixWest-Six
    edited November 2004
    Okay, I had the drivers for the hard drive on a floppy disk when i went to install XP onto the drive it said "there was nothing on the drive," like it was empty or something, its a brand new 80gb SATA drive. Like i said above i succesfully installed win 98 SE onto the drive, you said i couldn't but some how i did it, its more like I can't install xp onto the SATA.
    Did i need to install the RAID controller instead because windows xp knows the HD but dosnt know how to comunicate with it??
    So what you're saying is that I cant install a RAID between an IDE and a SATA. Unless i get some software that can do it after windows starts. But... can I run one as a primary and one as a slave so i have 160 gb mass storage??

    Its a little late to set up my RAID now because I recently installed XP home onto the IDE, and to do a RAID both drives have to be the same model and both empty, if i remember right.
    Is there a huge advantage to having a RAID 0? Because I might buy another SATA drive so the two can can work "in parallel, interleaved stacks." If I do that do I have to reinstall xp or can it detect them in BIOS and let me setup the array there? Thank so so much for your time.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    a RAID array is a single logical drive made out of more than one hard drive. Without special controllers, a bootable IDE/SATA array is impossible, because since you need software to run the array, the OS won't have a clue what it is, because the needed drivers are on the drive. The drives don't have to be the same model - you can make an array out of a 120 and a 250GB drive if you want, but they need to be on the same controller for it to be bootable. The advantage to RAID 0 is speed - the rate a RAID 0 array can stream data is (number of drives * single drive speed). If your RAID 0 array is hardware controlled, it will be bootable - but again, you'll need a driver disk to get Windows 2000 or XP setup to recognize it. As for being able to intall 98, it's possible that the BIOS can see single drives hooked up to the SATA controller and reports it to the OS as a standard IDE device - the controller on my MSI mobo does this. However, take note that it will not work if you configure a RAID array - you just won't be able to install Windows 98 on it. The IDE drive, on the other hand, will work with any OS.

    My previous points still stand - Windows 98 is officially an outdated piece of software (MS no longer supports it, and drivers are provided entirely at the discretion of manufacturers of hardware). The RAM limitations I stated are quite true, as I myself have run into the issue. I attempted to use Windows 98 on a system with 768 MB of ram, and it simply refused to run properly.
  • West-SixWest-Six
    edited November 2004
    win 98 sux thats y i bought xp. it must of thought it was an ide drive. i didnt know about the ram issue that is interesting.

    one more question still lurking in my brain - can i run these two drives seprately (example: C: D: ). :)
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    yes, that would be the normal way of running the drives. In their most basic form, adding a drive adds another letter, so if you have 2 hard drives, you have C: and D:, if you have 4 hard drives, you have C:, D:, E:, and F:, etc.

    This doesn't hold all the time though - if any of the drives have more than one partition, you end up with more drive letters than you have drives, but partitioning usually isn't necessary unless you're a power user or you're trying to protect your data in a single-drive system.
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