I am building a PC and have two Maxtor 160GB SATA hard drives. I want to
setup a RAID Level 1 so that I have one disk mirroring the other. I am
running Windows XP Pro SP2. The motherboard that I have supports RAID levels
0, 1, 0+1. When loading XP I installed the RAID driver using F6. The system
loads normally but when I switch both drives to dynamic and then go to add
mirror, the add mirror is grayed out. Is there a separate software that I
need to control the RAID or am I doing something wrong. Please advise.

Quick wrote:
> I am building a PC and have two Maxtor 160GB SATA hard drives. I want to
> setup a RAID Level 1 so that I have one disk mirroring the other. I am
> running Windows XP Pro SP2. The motherboard that I have supports RAID levels
> 0, 1, 0+1. When loading XP I installed the RAID driver using F6. The system
> loads normally but when I switch both drives to dynamic and then go to add
> mirror, the add mirror is grayed out. Is there a separate software that I
> need to control the RAID or am I doing something wrong. Please advise.

If you have RAID on the motherboard, it does everything. You need RAID
monitoring software from the motherboard manufacturer.

Windows will only see 1 drive, so no need to convert to dynamic as XP
will not allow software RAID.

www.FreeComputerConsultant.com

Here is the correct order of events:
1. Enable RAID in System BIOS.
2. Enable Boot from RAID in System BIOS.
3. Reboot
4. Enter RAID BIOS and create your RAID Array.
5. Put your Windows CD in the CD drive
6. Reboot
7. Begin installing Windows, using F6 to install your RAID drivers.
You appear to have skipped (at least) Step #4.

Note: How to set up a RAID as your boot device falls under the catch-all
acronym of "RTFM" for you Motherboard.
Note: Setting up a hardware RAID Array occurs _well_ before you begin
installing Windows and, thus, has _nothing_ whatsoever to do with Windows.
Steve


"Quick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:E26F7B97-2538-4EE9-A81A-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am building a PC and have two Maxtor 160GB SATA hard drives. I want to
> setup a RAID Level 1 so that I have one disk mirroring the other. I am
> running Windows XP Pro SP2. The motherboard that I have supports RAID
> levels
> 0, 1, 0+1. When loading XP I installed the RAID driver using F6. The
> system
> loads normally but when I switch both drives to dynamic and then go to add
> mirror, the add mirror is grayed out. Is there a separate software that I
> need to control the RAID or am I doing something wrong. Please advise.

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

RAID Explained
http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=24


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Client

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"Quick" wrote:

| I am building a PC and have two Maxtor 160GB SATA hard drives. I want to
| setup a RAID Level 1 so that I have one disk mirroring the other. I am
| running Windows XP Pro SP2. The motherboard that I have supports RAID levels
| 0, 1, 0+1. When loading XP I installed the RAID driver using F6. The system
| loads normally but when I switch both drives to dynamic and then go to add
| mirror, the add mirror is grayed out. Is there a separate software that I
| need to control the RAID or am I doing something wrong. Please advise.