RAID Setup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Axel Beck
  • Start date Start date
A

Axel Beck

Hi folks,
I just bought my first Sata hard drive and I need some info about how
to set things up. First, I'm using an Asus A7N8E-X Deluxe with the
most current bios. My hard drive is a WD Sata 160gig. I don't see it
in the bios on the first page. Is this normal? I have the controller
drivers setup and working. At the moment I am using the Sata drive as
a back up to my IDE drive which has Windows on it. What I would like
to know is, can I put two Sata drives in, remove the IDE drive and set
things up so one Sata drive has Windows installed and the other is
there for back up? Just like having two IDE drives with one as master
and the other as slave. I know that Raid does not have the
master\slave relationship that IDE drives do but is it possible to set
up two Sata drives like I want without having to mess with some kind
of Raid aray? Axel
 
Axel Beck said:
I just bought my first Sata hard drive and I need some info about how
to set things up. First, I'm using an Asus A7N8E-X Deluxe with the
most current bios. My hard drive is a WD Sata 160gig. I don't see it
in the bios on the first page. Is this normal? I have the controller
drivers setup and working. At the moment I am using the Sata drive as
a back up to my IDE drive which has Windows on it. What I would like
to know is, can I put two Sata drives in, remove the IDE drive and set
things up so one Sata drive has Windows installed and the other is
there for back up? Just like having two IDE drives with one as master
and the other as slave. I know that Raid does not have the
master\slave relationship that IDE drives do but is it possible to set
up two Sata drives like I want without having to mess with some kind
of Raid aray? Axel
Click to expand...

You can use two SATA drives and four IDE drives at the
same time on that board. The SATA drives do not have
to be set up in RAID mode. You can also copy your Windows
installation to a SATA drive using Norton Ghost, etc.

Did you read your manual regarding the drive setting
jumpers? Did you enable the SATA controller
using the SATA_EN1 jumpers? (page 2-17).
 
You can use two SATA drives and four IDE drives at the
same time on that board. The SATA drives do not have
to be set up in RAID mode. You can also copy your Windows
installation to a SATA drive using Norton Ghost, etc.

Did you read your manual regarding the drive setting
jumpers? Did you enable the SATA controller
using the SATA_EN1 jumpers? (page 2-17).
Click to expand...


Thanks friend for your help. Axel
 
Hi folks,
I just bought my first Sata hard drive and I need some info about how
to set things up. First, I'm using an Asus A7N8E-X Deluxe with the
most current bios. My hard drive is a WD Sata 160gig. I don't see it
in the bios on the first page. Is this normal?
Click to expand...
[snip]

I think so; but I won't swear to it, having not used that combination.
At the moment I am using the Sata drive as
a back up to my IDE drive which has Windows on it.
Click to expand...
[snip]

I suppose that's better than nothing, but it's far from an efficient or
effective backup strategy.

Proper backup demands removable media, preferably with at least one
"generation" kept off-site at all times.
What I would like
to know is, can I put two Sata drives in, remove the IDE drive and set
things up so one Sata drive has Windows installed and the other is
there for back up?
Click to expand...
[snip]

I suppose you *could* do that, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

If you really want one drive to "back up" the other (and are therefore
accepting the effective loss of total storage capacity that implies), then why
not take advantage of the "sort-of"-RAID capability built into your mobo, by
mirroring two (identical) drives? This will provide at least as much
"reliability through redundancy" as your ad-hoc approach (more, really), and
without the ongoing manual-transfer hassle. It can also provide a significant
performance boost, at least under some circumstances (tho' I'm not sure to
what degree using the SATA platform, as opposed to traditional SCSI, would
impact on this last item).

Note: I still don't consider this to be a good substitute for a proper
removable-media backup system; after all, "RAID mirroring" and "backup" are
two different answers to two different (if in some ways related) questions.
But it's still a huge improvement over just manually copying files from one
drive to another.
Just like having two IDE drives with one as master
and the other as slave.
Click to expand...
[snip]

Not really. Leaving RAID out of the picture for the moment, the physical
drive installation doesn't have much of anything to do with the
partitioning/use of those drives.
I know that Raid does not have the
master\slave relationship that IDE drives do but is it possible to set
up two Sata drives like I want without having to mess with some kind
of Raid aray? Axel
Click to expand...

Yes, as noted above, it's possible; it's just not advisable.

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Jay T. Blocksom
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