A8N-E Raid

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Hi hope someone can help.

I'm running an A8N-E, AMD 64 3200 and 2 WD 360GD HDD's. I want to setup
Raid 1.
The way I understand it is if I enable raid in the BIOS (ver. 1008 and
NVIDIA chipset drvs ver. 665) and configure Raid 1 in the setup utility all
I have to do is run the XP install CD.
And, also, just to confirm, Raid 1 are mirrowed drives so if one drive fails
the other takes over.
Am I missing anyting?

TIA,
john
 
I'm running an A8N-E, AMD 64 3200 and 2 WD 360GD HDD's. I want to setup
Raid 1.> The way I understand it is if I enable raid in the BIOS (ver.
1008 and NVIDIA chipset drvs ver. 665) and configure Raid 1 in the setup
utility all I have to do is run the XP install CD. And, also, just to
confirm, Raid 1 are mirrowed drives so if one drive fails the other takes
over.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what a RAID1 array does. You will have to put the RAID drivers
for Windows onto a floppy disk to install during the installation. Windows
will prompt you to press F6 in order to install other storage devices.
Press the 'S' key when prompted and follow the directions.
 
KC Computers said:
Yes, that's what a RAID1 array does. You will have to put the RAID
drivers
for Windows onto a floppy disk to install during the installation.
Windows
will prompt you to press F6 in order to install other storage devices.
Press the 'S' key when prompted and follow the directions.
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning the floppy, I forgot about that.

john
 
Hi John,
And, also, just to confirm, Raid 1 are mirrowed drives so if one drive fails
the other takes over.
Am I missing anyting?
Click to expand...

Well it doesn't take over automatically.

If one drive fails, then the raid won't boot. Then you can remove the
faulty drive and the other 'good' drive will boot up.

You can then add a good drive and mirror again to have raid 1 again.

Regards Leif.
 
I needed that info, thanks.

john
Leif Nordmand Andersen said:
Hi John,


Well it doesn't take over automatically.

If one drive fails, then the raid won't boot. Then you can remove the
faulty drive and the other 'good' drive will boot up.

You can then add a good drive and mirror again to have raid 1 again.

Regards Leif.
Click to expand...
 
Thats not totally correct. The problem Leif describes pertains to Soft RAID
where windows raids only the selected partitions - with soft RAID, the boot
pointers get stuffed (boot.ini arc paths get stuffed ad possiblyboot sectors
/ active partion, MBR etc. all easy to fix if you know what to do), but can
be fixed without having to fix the raid first - or at least that is what
used to happen, they could have fixed it.

With H/W controller RAID 1 the system *will* allow you to boot and carry on
(or carry on if the drive fails at run time - that is what RAID 1 is for).

When you replace the faulty drive it *will* resynch the drives - these
should be quite automatic but each controller / firmware version is subtally
different. I have not timed the nvidia implementation of resynching, but the
Intel version runs at about 80 minutes or more per 100GB - a long time. With
the Intel RAID (ICH5R / ICH6R - 865 / 875 chipsets etc.), this synch runs
while windows is running resulting in quite degraded performane for that
period, but you can use the system while this is running. Adaptec
controllers are a bit better in some respects and not as automatic in
others - at least they have Alerts.

I suggest strongly that you do a trial XP install onto RAID 1, then simulate
a failure by powering off, pulling out the power & SATA (?) connector for
the second drive, rebooting then consulting the manual and whatever happens
fiugre out what to do, what impact it has, how long it takes and so on. In
between reconnecting the 'failed' disc try a boot to confirm what I say.

It ios also important to know how you are alerted to failures: Intel flahes
a loud boot screen and shows a flasing toolbar icon when a RAID 1 fail
happens, Adaptec SATA shows nothing worth mentioning at boot time, but has
email and other alerts including syslog.

I would appreciate it if you could report back as I haven't yet configured a
RAID 1 on my A8N-E and done the above - regardless its on my own to-do list.

Have fun :)

HTH
 
Mercury said:
Thats not totally correct. The problem Leif describes pertains to Soft
RAID where windows raids only the selected partitions - with soft RAID,
the boot pointers get stuffed (boot.ini arc paths get stuffed ad
possiblyboot sectors / active partion, MBR etc. all easy to fix if you
know what to do), but can be fixed without having to fix the raid first -
or at least that is what used to happen, they could have fixed it.

With H/W controller RAID 1 the system *will* allow you to boot and carry
on (or carry on if the drive fails at run time - that is what RAID 1 is
for).

When you replace the faulty drive it *will* resynch the drives - these
should be quite automatic but each controller / firmware version is
subtally different. I have not timed the nvidia implementation of
resynching, but the Intel version runs at about 80 minutes or more per
100GB - a long time. With the Intel RAID (ICH5R / ICH6R - 865 / 875
chipsets etc.), this synch runs while windows is running resulting in
quite degraded performane for that period, but you can use the system
while this is running. Adaptec controllers are a bit better in some
respects and not as automatic in others - at least they have Alerts.

I suggest strongly that you do a trial XP install onto RAID 1, then
simulate a failure by powering off, pulling out the power & SATA (?)
connector for the second drive, rebooting then consulting the manual and
whatever happens fiugre out what to do, what impact it has, how long it
takes and so on. In between reconnecting the 'failed' disc try a boot to
confirm what I say.

It ios also important to know how you are alerted to failures: Intel
flahes a loud boot screen and shows a flasing toolbar icon when a RAID 1
fail happens, Adaptec SATA shows nothing worth mentioning at boot time,
but has email and other alerts including syslog.

I would appreciate it if you could report back as I haven't yet configured
a RAID 1 on my A8N-E and done the above - regardless its on my own to-do
list.

Have fun :)

HTH
Click to expand...
I understand what you're saying. I going to try this within a week or so
and I will power off one of the drives to simulate a failure and let you
know what happens. I know how to edit "boot.ini", I'll run the XP cd, or
ERD Commander, or Hiren's BootCD and edit as needed . Failure notifications
notwithstanding, it's easy enough to see from the BIOS boot screen what's
going on. I'm not a big fan of all these error messages, the next thing
you know the pc will start beeping like a truck when you go backwards to
pages in your browser:)

I'll post what happens and thanks for the info.

john
 
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