2nd Try - RAID0 install sequence advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Colonel Blip
  • Start date Start date
C

Colonel Blip

No responses from 1st try so here is another go at it.

Hello, All!

I have 2 disks, 3 partitions each, one with XP the other with W2k (i.e. dual
boot). I've got the following set for drive names:

Disk 1 Disk 2
C (w2k) D (xp)
E (prog) G
F H

I am installing two new SATA drives as raid0. My intention is to install the
drives, setting them up with their raid drivers and installing XP, using 4
partitions so it would be:

Raid Drive, call it disk 3
C (XP)
I (prog)
J
K

After this I want the other two drives to also be available (IDE drives) so
my thought now is to unplug while I do the new drive install/setup, make
sure the bios is set to boot on the raid drive first, and be able to run w/o
the other two drives.

Then I would install the Disk 1 and have it available as the dual boot
(after mods to the boot.ini on the raid drive). However, since all of the
registry info and program pointers on Disk 1 OS can not be changed and I
can't have two C drives I'm wondering if I should set the Disk 1 OS
partition as something else, say 'X' drive?

One other thought I had was to simply Ghost my current Disk 1 and restore
the image to Disk 3 and then install Disk 2 as the dual boot and use Disk 1
as a backup.

I'm looking for suggestions on acceptability of this approach or how better
to achieve the end result.


Thanks.

Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
 
Colonel Blip said:
No responses from 1st try so here is another go at it.

Hello, All!

I have 2 disks, 3 partitions each, one with XP the other with W2k (i.e.
dual
boot). I've got the following set for drive names:

Disk 1 Disk 2
C (w2k) D (xp)
E (prog) G
F H

I am installing two new SATA drives as raid0. My intention is to install
the
drives, setting them up with their raid drivers and installing XP, using 4
partitions so it would be:

Raid Drive, call it disk 3
C (XP)
I (prog)
J
K

After this I want the other two drives to also be available (IDE drives)
so
my thought now is to unplug while I do the new drive install/setup, make
sure the bios is set to boot on the raid drive first, and be able to run
w/o
the other two drives.

Then I would install the Disk 1 and have it available as the dual boot
(after mods to the boot.ini on the raid drive). However, since all of the
registry info and program pointers on Disk 1 OS can not be changed and I
can't have two C drives I'm wondering if I should set the Disk 1 OS
partition as something else, say 'X' drive?

One other thought I had was to simply Ghost my current Disk 1 and restore
the image to Disk 3 and then install Disk 2 as the dual boot and use Disk
1
as a backup.

I'm looking for suggestions on acceptability of this approach or how
better
to achieve the end result.


Thanks.

Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...

Whatever OS you boot to, be it one of the two IDE drives or the SATA drives,
will read the registry for whatever OS it is using. No need to worry about
the other registries as they won't come into play until you boot to their
OS's.

My advice is to leave the IDE disks as they are, install your SATA raid 0
disks and let the OS decide what drive letters to assign. It doesn't matter
if its C or K or even Z. Just as long as the boot.ini file is error free
everything should be just fine. Do you really need to have the RAID set
configured as a system disk? Think about it, if one of the hard drives fail
you're not going anywhere. Leave the W2k partition as the system disk. A new
entry will be added for the SATA disks when you install the OS.

I presently have an IDE drive as the system disk (C:) and a SATA RAID 0 as
the boot disk (G). Boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com all sit on the C drive.

Now you may not want to take my advice and go ahead and detach you IDE disks
and install SATA disks, then, reattach the IDE disks. This may work fine.
The SATA disk will be known as C: when you boot to it and when you boot to
the IDE disks the W2k will be known as C: and the SATA will be something
else like I:. That's OK as I have done it before. I just doesn't seem worth
it if all you want is the SATA disk to be C:, but you may have something
else in mind.

My two cents...
 
CG>
CG> Whatever OS you boot to, be it one of the two IDE drives or the SATA
CG> drives, will read the registry for whatever OS it is using. No need to
CG> worry about the other registries as they won't come into play until you
CG> boot to their OS's.

CG> My advice is to leave the IDE disks as they are, install your SATA raid
CG> 0 disks and let the OS decide what drive letters to assign. It doesn't
CG> matter if its C or K or even Z. Just as long as the boot.ini file is
CG> error free everything should be just fine. Do you really need to have
CG> the RAID set configured as a system disk? Think about it, if one of the
CG> hard drives fail you're not going anywhere. Leave the W2k partition as
CG> the system disk. A new entry will be added for the SATA disks when you
CG> install the OS.

CG> I presently have an IDE drive as the system disk (C:) and a SATA RAID 0
CG> as the boot disk (G). Boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com all sit on the C
CG> drive.

CG> Now you may not want to take my advice and go ahead and detach you IDE
CG> disks and install SATA disks, then, reattach the IDE disks. This may
CG> work fine. The SATA disk will be known as C: when you boot to it and
CG> when you boot to the IDE disks the W2k will be known as C: and the SATA
CG> will be something else like I:. That's OK as I have done it before. I
CG> just doesn't seem worth it if all you want is the SATA disk to be C:,
CG> but you may have something else in mind.

CG> My two cents...

Thanks for help on this. As I understand it what you are suggesting is no
different than when I added my 2nd IDE drive. My first drive had w2k on it
and I installed a 2nd IDE and then installed a new OS partition, upon which
my boot.ini was updated on Drive 1 to reflect dual boot. I used w2k's disk
management service to assign drive letters on both to be identical so no
matter which drive I booted I didn't have to remember E was now F, etc.

Subsequently I formatted the OS off of the 2nd drive and installed XP as my
second OS and went for a clean system rather than an upgrade. So far all of
that has gone well.

I have no problem with booting on Drive 1's boot.ini and starting on my SATA
RAID0 (call it X drive). I guess considering when the boot choice comes
into play, boot speed will not be adversely impacted (even if it was it
would be small no doubt) since it will immediately head to X to s/u. I will
certainly be able to follow on with my overall drive partitioning and
arrangement and be 'happy'. Only think I may do is pull Drive 2 before all
of this since I have in mind using it in an external enclosure for secured
backup - still thinking about that.

This approach leaves one question whose answer is not obvious to me (not to
mention a bunch of questions I probably don't know I have): where in this
sequence does the F6 and loading of RAID0 drivers from floppy come into
play? It was pretty clear if I was going to boot from the CD and install on
the new X; but when does it happen if I simply load the CD after I'm up and
running in W2K? I'm assuming as soon as I answer one of the CD's setup
questions saying I want to install a new OS?

Thanks.

With best regards, Colonel Blip. E-mail:
(e-mail address removed)
 
Strange. I wrote the previous message yet it shows in my reader that Clark
wrote it. Don't know how. Sorry for the confusion and again thanks for the
input.

Colonel Blip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
 
Hello, Clark!
You wrote on Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:17:34 -0500:


CG> Whatever OS you boot to, be it one of the two IDE drives or the SATA
CG> drives, will read the registry for whatever OS it is using. No need to
CG> worry about the other registries as they won't come into play until you
CG> boot to their OS's.

CG> My advice is to leave the IDE disks as they are, install your SATA raid
CG> 0 disks and let the OS decide what drive letters to assign. It doesn't
CG> matter if its C or K or even Z. Just as long as the boot.ini file is
CG> error free everything should be just fine. Do you really need to have
CG> the RAID set configured as a system disk? Think about it, if one of the
CG> hard drives fail you're not going anywhere. Leave the W2k partition as
CG> the system disk. A new entry will be added for the SATA disks when you
CG> install the OS.

CG> I presently have an IDE drive as the system disk (C:) and a SATA RAID 0
CG> as the boot disk (G). Boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com all sit on the C
CG> drive.

CG> Now you may not want to take my advice and go ahead and detach you IDE
CG> disks and install SATA disks, then, reattach the IDE disks. This may
CG> work fine. The SATA disk will be known as C: when you boot to it and
CG> when you boot to the IDE disks the W2k will be known as C: and the SATA
CG> will be something else like I:. That's OK as I have done it before. I
CG> just doesn't seem worth it if all you want is the SATA disk to be C:,
CG> but you may have something else in mind.

CG> My two cents...

Clark,

For closure, took your advice, dropped 2 drives in SATA, left 2 IDE drives
active, followed the Asus manual (hey, sometimes we read) and recognition
was a no brainer. Getting the formatting and partioning was a bit
problematic - tried Partition Magic and didn't work out, but using the XP
install it was not a particular problem.

Otherwise, up and running with a SATA RAID0 2 drive array and 4 partitions
and getting all of my apps installed and doing fine. Backup strategy will
preserve xp and apps images via Ghost, so losing the array will not be
catastrophic.

Thanks.

ColBlip.
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
 
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