P4P800DLX from non-raid to raid

  • Thread starter Thread starter Splitskull
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Splitskull

Hi

I have a P4P800DLX... presently I have 1 sata hdd attached to ICH5R ...
it's not in raid config. I would like to add another one to mirror it. DO I
have to reinstall everything? Data will be lost when I configure them as
mirrors?
TIA
 
"Splitskull" said:
Hi

I have a P4P800DLX... presently I have 1 sata hdd attached to ICH5R ...
it's not in raid config. I would like to add another one to mirror it. DO I
have to reinstall everything? Data will be lost when I configure them as
mirrors?
TIA
Click to expand...

First off, I've never used a RAID before. Anyway...

The first step will be enabling the RAID in the BIOS. Also, enabling
the RAID BIOS as well. After saving the changes, and the computer
starts to POST, you should see the RAID BIOS appear on the screen,
as it finds the two drives. AFAIK, the RAID BIOS will not appear
unless exactly two drives are present (a guy on Abxzone couldn't
get the RAID BIOS to run, and it seemed to be a dead port that
required RMAing the board).

Once you enter the BIOS and configure the mirror, there should be
an option to "Create and Copy" the info from the primary drive
to the backup drive. The BIOS should do the copy, which makes sure
that both drives are identical. Any time the drives diverge from
having the same content, this is a "broken array", and you must
rebuild it by again copying the info from whatever happens to be
the good drive, to the bad drive. When the array breaks, it pays
to update the status of the remaining drive, via the BIOS, so you
know which drive is good later.

The problem will be when the OS tries to boot. The geniuses at
Intel, won't let the RAID driver be installed when the RAID is
disabled in the BIOS. Installing the RAID driver after the fact
is going to be difficult, because how will the OS boot when it
finds, first of all, that the boot.ini entry is no longer
correct, and secondly, there is no OS RAID driver to take to
the SCSI emulation that the RAID array uses as its interface ?

So, unless I'm missing something, it might take a repair install
from the MS OS install CD, just after the RAID array is assembled.
Maybe there is an opportunity to press F6 then, and install
the RAID driver. Then, reinstall service packs and security updates
etc.

A second way to do it, would be to find a PATA drive big enough
to clone the SATA. Then, boot from the PATA drive. Consider the
SATA drive to be erased at this point. Use the "Create Only" option,
as there is no need to make sure the two SATA disks are the same.

While booted from the PATA, install the RAID driver on the PATA
drive. Reboot and make sure both PATA and SCSI emulating SATA
RAID array are seen. Test the RAID array, by copying a test 1GB
sized file over and over again to the RAID, until it is full.
Run a checksum program on all the files, and the same value
should be returned for all of them. Then it is safe to clone
the PATA drive back to the SATA array. After the clone is
successful, shut down, enter the BIOS, and change the boot
device to SCSI, which should pick up the RAID array. On reboot,
you are done.

My advice is, any time you install a new disk subsystem, it should
be tested before live data goes on it anyway. That means, for
a computer with N disk drives in it, you always own N+1 drives
for that computer. The spare drive is used to safeguard your data
while proving everything is working.

Just some guesses,
Paul
 
Yes. Do a repair install to put the raid driver in. You can start the RAID
controller in RAID ready mode - this is with a functioning single disc only
(if you have the other disc, you are more than ready), the controller in
RAID mode in the bios, everything ready for raid except you have not either
a) added the second disc yet, and / or b) created a raid array yet. The
problems mentioned about some fella with a duff SATA port *may* have been on
an older raid bios - raid ready works and does not need 2 discs (on the bios
versions I have tried) for the bios to be configured and the drivers to be
installed last I tried.

During Repair, press F6 early and repeatedly. Make double sure that you see
the setup read the floppy drive, display the raid driver on screen and it
will ask a second time if you want to specify another driver - you then will
know the driver has loaded. Leave the floppy in the disc drive as it is used
again later. After the repair, make sure you reapply Service Pack 1 and all
critical updates.

During failures, in general you do not need to do anything special with the
Intel ICH5R raid as it is well enough designed and coded to do the job of
detecting and flagging drives as duff correctly - IE it is logical: take a
disc out at run time & it is flagged as stuffed. The only issues I could
foresee is if a good drive in a RAID 0 falls offline and so breaks the array
with loss of data - see prior post. It is this type of failure that should
be better documented.

On my system for example, it did a rebuild online while I was using the
system - took yonks, but its shows the completion status in the task bar.
This was a test to see how it worked...

DO a full backup before you start!!!!!

You can apparently build a RAID 1 (and a RAID 0) array at run time - I
didn't try & took the utlra cautious route (disc image using Drive Image).
But if you have a backup the IAA software you use for this will tell you
twice that you will lose all data. I am told (don't believe me if you wish)
that you can safely ignore these warnings. Do so at your own risk :) If it
works congrats are welcome, if not I No Nuffing.

Check over at Intel for the latest drivers. Check you have the most recent
stable BIOS too - the raid bios is in with the mobo bios. Old drivers and
old bios will limit what you can do - should be a dead issue by now, but if
you had a really old bios you may find you can only do RAID 0.

- Tim
 
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