YES Adding raid drivers without hitting F6 finally

TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
edited December 2003 in Hardware
what a struggle. It should of been much easier then this. But I think I finally have it down. Its harder if they are not signed and windows xp shipped with drivers it seems. A lot easier if they don't have drivers.

I now have a huge 1.7gb bootable XP installation on a DVD with SP2 slipstreamed and a bunch of driver updates, registry tweaks and additional programs like Office XP, Nero, Photoshop etc.. that install with the XP install.

XP installs automatically and only stops to ask me the disk/partition to install to.

Sweet.

I need to write a guide.

Tex
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Comments

  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Please do write a guide! That really sounds like great stuff not to mention making life easier. ;)
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Yeh, pity I don't have a dvd writer to do massive ghosts, though :(

    If you know of any cost-effective solutions, hit me up.

    A guide would be awesome, nevertheless.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    That would be a fantastic guide.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    Actually if you can overburn and winrar your apps down you can squeze a lot on a single cd. Strip out the extra stuff and get down to just the I386 directory and use winrar to scrunch the other apps. I'll play later and see how far I down scruch it down.

    I know you poo-poo them but I got my burner which burns both dvd-ram and dvd-r for 50 bucks. If you just wanted the older dvd-rams that burn 2.6 per side dvd-ram's you could get one for maybe 30 bucks. I have two cheap ones and one of the 50 buck ones on my 3 servers. For myself I burn 2.6 dvd-rams as they are reusable and trust me I burnt a ton getting to this point... I was gonna burn dvd-r's for other people for compatibility. The 30 buck ones burn slow but install great. I am trying to get the correct install switchs oin a couple more apps to finish this baby. Then I'll do a XP with SP1 and the hotfix rollup and dx9 and WMP etc... for those that don't want the SP2 beta yet.

    Its so slick I wish I had done this ages ago.

    And prime..... If you even have a dvd-player and not a burner I could fix ya up.

    Tex
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I have a dvd-burner. That's not a problem. The only problem is that 90% of my client machines just have the basic CD-ROM. Although DVD-ROMs are so cheap now, that they are starting to become standard.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    For your clients you just do a more standard cdrom. I was talking for you personally. If I winrar it down I bet I can at least get xp and all its fixs/updates with office and stuff like adobe reader. Stuff that everyone would want. I could even have the script ask you on each app if you wanted to install it I guess. The beauty is when its for your own stuff you can have the serial numbers for XP and Office all entered automatically and prune a bunch of the XP games, and crap you don't want out of there.

    Tex
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    *cough* ;)
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    ginipig wrote:
    Yeh, pity I don't have a dvd writer to do massive ghosts, though :(

    If you know of any cost-effective solutions, hit me up.

    A guide would be awesome, nevertheless.

    You can fit a ton on a cd if you can overburn. Mine will get over 900mb on a cd with overburn. And a cheap dvd-ram burner like mine is 30 bucks. A nice one that burns dvd-ram and dvd-r's is maybe 50 to 60 bucks on eBay. Its worth it for sure. The dvd-ram cartridges can be used over and over.

    Tex
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    DVD-RAM is great for archival purposes. I keep hoping it'd catch on en masse.
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Doh! I just realised that I can't install an additional dvd+r alongside my dvd,cd-rw.

    Or can I?....

    Hehe, a little while ago, I thought that 2 HDD's was the max. :crazy:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I'd get rid of the DVD. Because the DVD+R (Booooo +R) can read DVDs also.
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Okie.

    Two more questions popped into my head:
    1) Which would you recommend I buy?
    2) Do you know if open-source o/s's ( namely FBSD,) support dvd-burning?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    1) Pioneer DVR-106
    2) Not a clue. I dislike the open source initiative.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    Thrax wrote:
    DVD-RAM is great for archival purposes. I keep hoping it'd catch on en masse.

    But if it burns dvd-ram and dvd-r who cares? The new multi-burners do dvd-ram dvd-r and cd-r's. Some do the +r's as well. I really don't care if its main stream as long as I have enough media. Used cost is barely more then a cdrom drive and can do so much more.

    There are more home dvd players recording dvd-ram then I have ever seen. Crap they have a Pioneer home unit for hooking up to a TV on eBay that records dvd-r and dvd-ram for 60 bucks. WTF ?

    Tex
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Very few actually do DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM on the top multi-format burners is almost non-existant.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    And actually I find them on ebay searching for "dvd-ram". and I am shocked at the number of new models from differant vendors I find there actually. eBay is really dead over the hollidays but usually there are three to six brand new multi-burners for sale that do dvd-ram, dvd-r, and cd-r's also.

    My older ones don't do cd's but for 50 bucks I have been thrilled so far with what I have. Wish they were faster but...

    And they have a good number of home dvd-ram units geared toward the TV crowd showing up it seems? Is this a growing market?

    Tex
  • dak125dak125
    edited December 2003
    Sounds awesome Tex, I'd really appreciate a guide. The DVD Burner is coming shortly. The only thing that might prove to be an issue are partitions and the fact that I had to do my raid setup not the normal way.

    OHH and another question/problem. Would using a corp version of xp prove to be a problem?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    version of xp does not matter. You enter the serial number in a script file. I run the corp also. You can set it up to automaticaly partition and format drives so there is no interaction... you start it and come back with it done or it stops and prompts you for partions and stuff just like a normal XP install. Right now mine always stop and you create partions or choose partitons etc.. Just like a normal install. This is the only non automated part of my installs. Its all in answer files so you can set it up however you want.

    I am no rocket scientist most of this is easy and well documented. Only the raid drivers as a boot device is goofy really and doesnt follow the MS documentation. You gotta sort hack them in but its not that hard.

    I am trying to get the switchs for like 4 of my apps I can't make silent install. They still prompt you for crap when the install runs but I'll get them also. (grin)

    Here is a list of the apps I install now with sp2. With sp1 you would need all the pre-sp2 hotfix and dx9 and wmp updates also but thats easy. In fact they have a hotfix rollup that includes most of them in one.exe anyway.

    My progs

    Office XP Professional with Frontpage
    Adobe Reader 6.
    Nero 6.0
    WinRaR 3.2.
    AdMuncher 4.51
    XP Customizer 1.85
    Reg Cleaner
    Reg Crawler
    Sandra 2004
    Ultra iso6
    Winrar
    XQ-setup
    systemworks 2003
    Photoshop6
    Registry Tweaks (my collection of registry mods)

    Everything but the raid drivers is a piece of cake and I can post scripts you can download and modify for your own use. If you can write bat files you can do this very easily.

    I actually use the install of XP to copy in a ton more programs into my install source directory and my "drivers" install directory that I don't want to normally install but I want them on the machine when I boot to install manually.

    Tex
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Umm, Tex (a la King of Raid,) :respect:

    I have a really basic question:
    When two drives are setup in raid-0 array, how is the data distributed between the two during writes? I understand that they're recognized as '1' drive, but where does the actual data lie?

    For instance, lets say my computer got hit by lightening (knocks on wood,) and 1 of my drives in raid-0 dies. (my computer is too leet to allow additional damage :thumbsup: )

    Now, if I were to take the surviving hdd, and scan it for remnants of files, will I find 1/2 of the original file? Sounds dumb right? You'd be surprised how many dumb things I've uttered in my lifetime. :grumble:

    Still, I'm curious. Will I be able to retrieve data off the 2nd hdd, or does damage to one render the other obsolete?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    Look at it this way. One drive dies and your gonna commit suicide. You have nothing. Lets say your copying a 100mb from your cd to your raid array. Your stripe is 16k. Its breaking up that 100mb into 16k pieces and it writes one to the first drive and the next 16k to the second etc.. back and forth. So if one dies there is no way to recover sh*t. Thats why you should never run anything on raid-0 your not willing to lose. I suggest regular backups of key data.

    Now picture a big raid-0 array with 8 disks. You lose one and its all gone still. And with 8 disks your EIGHT TIMES as likely to have a disk failure also.

    I run big scsi raid arrays and every server also has a 120 or 80gb ide drive to backup key data to. And I run a gigabit lan and copy stuff also to other computers so in reality I am backed up multiple places so unless my house burns down I'm OK. And if my house burns my data on these drives (pron) is the last thing I will be worried about.

    Tex
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    woah!

    Which reminds me, after I get 2x raptors, and some additional jb's I'll have a spare 80gb ata100 drive. I wish there were some way for me to get more than 6 hdd's (2x 3hdd trays,) so that I could actually put that 80gb somewhere. My case has 2 extra 5" bays up top, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to make use of them.

    Regarding the 80gb, would you recommend that I backup my o/s+critical files on that, and then safely tuck it away some where?


    :topic: Concerning that '(pron)' comment: I'm sure you invested a lot of time into maintaining/sorting/obtaining the database. I know I did. It's harder to hide it on a pc than you might have been led to believe. My girlfriend 'stumbled' across some pretty raunchy material. Needless to say, I'm a better man for it (albeit deprived of some 'alone time'.)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Actually, I find that if you archive it, rename it to drivers.cab (With an s), stick it in system32, make it hidden, create a hidden administrator account, and set the permissions for drivers.cab only to that account.. She wouldn't be able to open it even if she did find it. heh.
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Super-Stealth Tactics :rockon:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    ginipig wrote:
    woah!
    I wish there were some way for me to get more than 6 hdd's (2x 3hdd trays,) so that I could actually put that 80gb somewhere. My case has 2 extra 5" bays up top, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to make use of them.

    Regarding the 80gb, would you recommend that I backup my o/s+critical files on that, and then safely tuck it away some where?

    You have empty bays right? You have any open pci slots? If so your in buisness. Add a cheap ide controller and hook up more drives. And even if you have no pci slots you can hang hardrives off usb or firewire ports as well.

    You can mount 3.5 drives in 5' bays.

    Regarding backups. Some swear by ghosting images religously. I ghost once when its first set up and fully configured and I backup stuff nightly but only whats in the "My Documents" folders. Downloads, installs, mps3's get backed up maybe weekly as I can live without having a hissy fit if I lost something from there. Emails and stuff is a differant story and its backed up nightly. Used to be a nightmare with my family putting sh*t all over the place. Now they know that if its anyplace but in the own Documents directory I am allowed to blow it away at my discretion. Amazing really how easily trained they become and thus how easy it is to backup.

    My stuff is differant as I have servers on a domain and I can copy from one machine to another also. You also realize that if you have multiple computers there is software that can keep two directorys on differant machines synchronized? When changes happen to one directory it dups them to the other machine etc.. Can happen on a schedule or realtime.

    tex

    And my better half doesnt care about the pron at all. Doesnt want the kids in it but thats really not to difficult on a domain really. there are tons of ways to secure it unless your talking from real computer hacker guys or the feds or something.
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Tex wrote:
    You have empty bays right? You have any open pci slots?

    Yep, I'll be looking into some sort of converter. My case's bays are different though. Each has two plastic things that you mount on either side of the peripheral, that you supposedly slide in 'easily'. I don't know about everyone else, but I had a lot of trouble sliding them in. It seemed as though they were too big. I had to shove both my cd-rw + dvd-rom in quite hard. I know I'm missing something here.
    I ghost once when its first set up and fully configured and I backup stuff nightly but only whats in the "My Documents" folders...
    Are you using any program other than Norton? I've got it as part of my norton systemworks suite, but I've yet to test it out.
    Amazing really how easily trained they become and thus how easy it is to backup
    I had no idea you had kids. Congrats man.
    You also realize that if you have multiple computers there is software that can keep two directorys on differant machines synchronized?
    The thing is, I've got different o/s's running on each machine: one has freebsd, the other Slackware. I'll probably have to look into it. I think that'll need to remote mount, dump+restore, with a crontab to handle scheduling.
    And my better half doesnt care about the pron at all
    Well I guess it's ok in your situation, seeing as how you've pretty much got everything under control. I'm still stuck in the 'twilight zone' part of the relationship. :werr:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    ginipig wrote:
    Yep, I'll be looking into some sort of converter. My case's bays are different though. Each has two plastic things that you mount on either side of the peripheral, then 'easily' sliding it in. I don't know about anyone else, but I had a lot of trouble sliding them in. It seemed as though they were too big. I had to shove both my cd-rw + dvd-rom in quite hard. I know I'm missing something here.

    *** Lots of computer cases are like that. Do you not have any more of the rails that attach to the side?

    Are you using any program other than Norton? I've got it as part of my norton systemworks suite, but I've yet to test it out.

    **** I use ghost and Drive Image 2002

    I had no idea you had kids. Congrats man.

    *** I'm 47 and lived a wild life in my younger days.. I probably got kids I don't even know about. (shudder...)

    The thing is, I've got different o/s's running on each machine: one has freebsd, the other Slackware. I'll probably have to look into it. I think that'll need to remote mount, dump+restore, with a crontab to handle scheduling.

    *** And I use a DLT tape to backup my critical Linux stuff. I don't backup the OS though. Just the Oracle crap. Most of it is also mounted onto the network with Samba so it looks just like a normal Windows share and I deal with it the same.

    Well I guess it's ok in your situation, seeing as how you've pretty much got everything under control. I'm still stuck in the 'twilight zone' part of the relationship.

    *** You never really escape from the "Twilight Zone" bud. For YEARS when she says something really strange weird you will continue to hear that twilight zone music in the back of your brain
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    dooh dooh dooh dooh, dooh dooh dooh dooh....
    I've got a total of 6 of those clips for 3 bays. I don't even know what I'm searching for online. Tried "5 inch 3 inch converters" [neg], tried "hdd storage converter" [neg], tried "hdd 5 inch cage" [neg]. Oh well, I'll probably have to browse through several indexes.

    I think my neighbor has a copy of Drive Image; I'll probably pop in for a bud and a browse tomorrow.

    I'm 21, and I'm pretty sure I've got a kid or two somewhere that I'm not aware of.

    I've got the samba thing going on b/w my freebsd and my main rig, but that's just for storing the horrendous amounts of digital photos that my girlfriend insists on keeping.

    And finally, regarding the twilight zone:
    I vow to be the first male to ever shatter that bind. Just watch me.
  • ginipigginipig OH, NOES
    edited December 2003
    Forgot to mention:
    Thanx for the pointers Tex. I'll probably count on you for future advice on all things raid-tweak, if that's ok with you. It's been an enriching conversation :)

    Go Short-Media!
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    I'll find ya a HD mounting kit. Or.... You could go snazzy with one of these. I bet they go for 5 to 10 bucks on ebay.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3449698913&category=51064

    Tex
  • dak125dak125
    edited December 2003
    ginipig-those drive rails that you are having trouble with are amazing IMO. It took a couple of trial and errors to realize how to mount them but now they're quite easy. If your rails are like mine there will be metal tabs at the end. Make sure that the metal parts are pointing away from the drive and toward the case. You should be able to slide the drives right in and hear a click. Mine don't budge. If you need some pics taken or something just lemme know. -DaK
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