Raid

Stevecook said:
If RAID 0 is running, does anyone know what the files stored on the 2nd HDD look like?
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Steve, what O/S are you running?
 
OK, background info first from trustedreviews.com:

RAID-0 – This is also referred to as “striping” as you take two identical hard drives and turn them in to one large volume. This gives some added performance, but if one hard drive fails you loose all the data on both.

Now your answer - The drive you see within Windows should be just one big drive, the capacity being the total of the two component drives (assuming they are the same size).

If it has been setup correctly, you should not be able to see the component drives. See my config below, I know I'm using RAID 1 & 5, but I can only see 2 drives (C: & F: , even though there are actually SIX component drives.

What can you see on your screen and what have you used to configure the RAID setup?
 
I have formatted and installed XP on this two HDD (160Gb each) machine.

The owner says he wants RAID as he had it before, now I can't get the RAID to work although it is installed and says it's working.
I haven't had an option to create array or any such. The RAID controller is Sil3112 SATARaid (onboard) but in the readme it talks of inserting the PCI controller. There is no PCI card for RAID but there is a chip on the MB.
In My computer I have the two HDDs shown - the 1st has all the usual Windows OS stuff but the 2nd has large numbered folders containing a folder called sp2 and I'm not allowed to open or delete these folders (even in safe mode).
This made me think that perhaps RAID 0 was running and creating these folders?
 
That sound decidely like my machine from the MB spec (may be a little different!)

When you create the RAID it will delete all data on the existing discs, and this is often a good guide as to whether it has worked.

For starters, is the BIOS set to RAID 0 configuration? If so, you need the drivers for Win XP Pro so that you can install them during the Win XP installation.

Early on in the installation you should see a prompt to "Press F6" if you have "external controllers" (or something like that). Select yes, and then when it prompts you, provide the drivers on a floppy. You should not have to do too much more than that.

If it goes according to plan, you should not be able to see the two separate drives, but instead have one 320GB drive, probably labelled C:

Where is your system saying that the RAID is working properly?
 
I did the F6 and inserted the floppy but was never given an option to create array or select RAID 1 or RAID 0.

The BIOS only refers to Onboard or PCI RAID controllers and allows you to chose one or other.
In programs I have SATARaid and if I open it I get a little box that says 'application is already running'.
 
Ah right, I think you need to go into your BIOS at startup and setup the RAID from in there, I know I did with mine.

I can't crash mine out at the moment to tell you the exact settings but have a look around in the BIOS and there should be a fairly obvious section. That will enable the base-level, and then you need to go thru the install process again (Sorry!:eek: )

Have a look and come back to me once you can get at the BIOS.
 
In Integrated Peripherals I have Onchip IDE Device > Onchip serial ATA with options: Auto, Disable, Combined Mode, Enhanced Mode and SATA only, this is currently on Auto.

I also have Onboard Device > Onboard RAID Control with options: Enable or Disable, this is currently enabled.
In the Advanced BIOS Features I have RAID or SCSI card boot with options: Onboard RAID or PCI SCSI Card, this is currently set to Onboard.
I can't find any other references to RAID anywhere in the BIOS although I get a startup screen saying press Ctrl+S or F4 to enter RAID Utility but then all I get is 'primary channel: drive not found and secondary channel: drive not found'.
 
To answer your original question if you were to look at the contents of half a RAID array, all you'd see is gobbledegook.

If the motherboard has an onboard RAID controller, you need to access the RAID setup at start-up, usually by pressing cntrl + H or similar.

Then create your RAID 0 array following instructions. This will erase all data on both discs.

Disconnect all other hard drives.

Boot from XP CD and when prompted press F6 and XP will load RAID drivers from the floppy disk you've formerly prepared and put into drive.

Windows will offer Drive C 320Gb hard disk to install to.

Install to that.
 
I did the F6 and installed RAID drivers but the install just went to one HDD and left the other. I can't get into the RAID Utility



I get a startup screen saying press Ctrl+S or F4 to enter RAID Utility but then all I get is 'primary channel: drive not found and secondary channel: drive not found'.
 
Just had a thought, if there are complete folders on the second hard disk it's unlikely the guy had a RAID setup originally.

Ok, the RAID controller isn't seeing the hard disks.

What type of disks are they? SATA or PATA?

And what motherboard is it?
 
I just found two more SATA sockets on the MB and when the HDDs are connected to these I can create array!!!!!

I think I have set up RAID1 and only one 160Gb HDD is now showing in my computer - is that normal?
 
It is possible that you have setup a RAID1 and that's why only one drive is showing up in Windows.

Have you checked to make sure it's RAID1 or are you guessing?;)
 
Stevecook said:
I set up a mirrored array which is what was required. Is there any way of checking that it's OK?
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Well the ultimate test would be to pull one of the drives, but that could lead you into a situation of having to rebuild the second drive. I've done that before, but I would suggest you see if anyone else comes forward with any bright ideas

Any thoughts Flopps?
 
If you've set up a RAID 1 only one drive will show in Windows.

The second drive constantly mirrors it and it's there purely as a full time backup.

As CITech says, the only way to test it's working is power down, disconnect 'primary' drive then boot from the 'backup' disk. It should be identical. Connect the second disk to the other SATA port, NOT the ones connected to the RAID controller.

If you're not sure which drive is which, boot from both, one at a time. But make sure they go back to their respective original SATA ports.

Providing you don't change anything whilst you're looking at them, the RAID 1 array should stay Ok.

But, if it says you have a RAID 1 array, then you probably have. I'd ship it out, but it's up to you ;)
 
I looked in disk management and it showed the disks ( by their serial numbers) so I guess all is well, although I must have missed something from the setup as I get a flashing warning on the RAID utility start up page saying 'incomplete raid set' which if you ignore it goes on to boot normally apart from a box which pops up saying 'a raid event occurred'.

Any ideas how to get rid of this?
 
Stevecook said:
I looked in disk management and it showed the disks ( by their serial numbers) so I guess all is well, although I must have missed something from the setup as I get a flashing warning on the RAID utility start up page saying 'incomplete raid set' which if you ignore it goes on to boot normally apart from a box which pops up saying 'a raid event occurred'.

Any ideas how to get rid of this?
Click to expand...
I'm not convinced that you have got a proper working RAID there Steve, sounds like it has tried to configure the setup, but it is only running on one half of the RAID1 pair, ie. it's entered the "emergency" running stage.

Did you follow Flopps' idea to test the RAID configuration?
 
The PC is back with it's owner at present so I can't access it to check but the device manager definitely showed two drives (in the RAID controller properties) but only one shows in 'my computer'.
Thanks for all your help, if anything further developes I'll post again.
 
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