RAID 0 Questions

loxwoodloxwood
edited February 2004 in Hardware
Hi

I'm planning to use RAID 0 on a newish pc. The parts are:

Asus SK8V
2 x 120gb, SATA 7200 rpm Maxtors
Windows XP Home Recovery cd.

As this is not something I've done before I have a few questions and will be grateful for any help.

1) The SK8V has two options for RAID. VIA RAID or Promise RAID - which one should I use given that I only want RAID 0?

2) Does it matter that I only have a Windows recovery cd (the hdds are the ones supplied with the pc)?

3) I've worked out the process to be as follows - reconnect SATA 1 and 2 to SATA_RAID 1 and 2 on the mobo, run pc and hit tab for the RAID set up, create RAID 0 array, run the recovery cd and the RAID drivers floppy and then reinstall my backed up drivers. Is this basically correct or am I missing something? Also here, will I need to reboot the machine after setting the array or can I go straight to the recovery cd on the same boot?

4) What block size should I use (I don't want to push things)?

5) Partitions have gone over my head I'm afraid, what do I need to do here?

Pointing out anything else I'm missing will also be nice :buck:

Thanks a lot for any help.

Comments

  • JustinJustin Atlanta
    edited February 2004
    I am doing the same thing with a Athlon 64-FX51 on an ASUS SK8N Board with a pair of Seagate 80GBs. All these parts are new and I am building from scratch. Installing Windows XP Home non recovery. What steps should be taken?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited February 2004
    Not sure exactly how you are backing up or anything. I use pro not home and have no idea what your "recovery cd" contains. When you create a array it wipes everything on that drive clean. Its empty. period. So be very very sure everything important is backed up elsewhere.

    With XP pro I boot off the cd and install from there. The stuff you want to keep should be on another disk or dvd or something.

    @!&*!!(*! No one told me it was all gonna be gone for christ sake... All my emails, family pics... school work and my 60gb of stolen MP3's and Porn !! AHHHHHHHHHHH
    Let me knwo if I can help ya set it up etc.. I hate XP home and use pro always for the repair installs alone its worth it.

    Tex
  • loxwoodloxwood
    edited February 2004
    Thanks Tex,

    I'm aware everything will be wiped but that's not hopefully a problem as most stuff is reinstallable (games etc.) and I've moved the rest (music, docs, Norton install etc.) to another machine. It's still new enough to make this easy. Other than the drivers (backed up to a cd) I don't there's anything else that is essential to working of the pc that I need to back up - just stuff I've put on since it arrived.

    What I'm unsure about re the recovery cd is whether it will recognise the new hard disk set-up as I think (not sure) they only work with the original hdds.

    Any help with this and my other questions will be great.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited February 2004
    Are you very sure a recovery disk will install a fresh OS? XP has ERD's. They are "Emergency Recovery Disks" that have a backup of the essential system files and registry etc... to allow a quick "recovery" of a existing system that becomes damaged.
    To install a fresh OS you need a real cd I'm afraid.

    Don't start this until you know what you hold as a recovery disk is able to boot and install a clean OS. I'm betting you can't. You could well "repair" your existing install though. Thats a lot differant then a fresh install and thats what you use a install cd for.

    Send me a PM or email and lets "chat" about your options offline. I have a couple ideas.

    Tex
  • loxwoodloxwood
    edited February 2004
    Thanks again for the help Tex - I've sent you an email.

    For the forum, I've had it confirmed that the Win cd can install a clean OS so that is good news. I've also figured out the VIA/Promise issue. Any help to my other questions will be useful.

    Cheers
    Tony
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