Q: A7N8X Deluxe-E and Configuring SATA RAID

[Eyman]

Hi,

Ive got an A7N8X Deluxe-E motherboard with a 74Gb Western Digital Raptor
drive running windows XP.

I have recently bought another exact raptor and would like to use the two
running RAID 0.

Both are connected correctly and I have created a striped RAID set under the
RAID bios settings. Both drives are recognised by the bios and RAID bios.

I get the following errors

Verifying DMI Pool
Nvidia boot agent
PXE-E61: media test failed, check cable
PXE-M01: exiting nvidia boot agent
Disk boot failure, invalid system disk, press enter to exit.

Luckily I was able to delete the RAID set and restore my system from a ghost
backup.

My question is, does creating a RAID set delete existing data on the drives?

Also if so, is there any way to create the RAID set and restore the backup
to the new RAID set from ghost?

Sorry about all the questions as Im new to this.

Thanks in advance.

Eyman

 

[Nom]

Hi,

Ive got an A7N8X Deluxe-E motherboard with a 74Gb Western Digital
Raptor drive running windows XP.

I have recently bought another exact raptor and would like to use the
two running RAID 0.

Both are connected correctly and I have created a striped RAID set
under the RAID bios settings. Both drives are recognised by the bios
and RAID bios.

I get the following errors

Verifying DMI Pool
Nvidia boot agent
PXE-E61: media test failed, check cable
PXE-M01: exiting nvidia boot agent
Disk boot failure, invalid system disk, press enter to exit.

You have to install Windows on your new RAID set, otherwise there is nothing
to boot !

My question is, does creating a RAID set delete existing data on the
drives?
Yep.

Also if so, is there any way to create the RAID set and restore the
backup to the new RAID set from ghost?

Yep - just do as you say. Make the RAID set, and then restore your Ghost
image to it.

 

[Ben Pope]

Hi,

Ive got an A7N8X Deluxe-E motherboard with a 74Gb Western Digital Raptor
drive running windows XP.

I have recently bought another exact raptor and would like to use the two
running RAID 0.

Both are connected correctly and I have created a striped RAID set under
the RAID bios settings. Both drives are recognised by the bios and RAID
bios.

I get the following errors

Verifying DMI Pool
Nvidia boot agent
PXE-E61: media test failed, check cable
PXE-M01: exiting nvidia boot agent

Well thats your network card.

Disk boot failure, invalid system disk, press enter to exit.

Did you set the RAID partition active? I suspect that you partitioned the
drive but did not set it active, which allows it to boot.

Luckily I was able to delete the RAID set and restore my system from a
ghost backup.

My question is, does creating a RAID set delete existing data on the
drives?

Changing the partition will, yes. RAID 0 requires a new partition to extend
across both drives. RAID 1, will not.

Also if so, is there any way to create the RAID set and restore the backup
to the new RAID set from ghost?

Yeah, you should be able to create teh RAID set, set the (new, extended)
partition active, then restore your ghost image and reboot.

Ben

 

[Doug Ramage]

Well thats your network card.


Did you set the RAID partition active? I suspect that you partitioned the
drive but did not set it active, which allows it to boot.


Changing the partition will, yes. RAID 0 requires a new partition to extend
across both drives. RAID 1, will not.


Yeah, you should be able to create teh RAID set, set the (new, extended)
partition active, then restore your ghost image and reboot.

Ben
--

Ben, I have 2 SATA drives - non Raid.

Are you saying I could clone, with Ghost, the SATA drive with my OS and apps
on it to (say) a PATA drive, then set up a RAID-0 array, then clone or
restore an image file (assuming I had created one) the PATA back to the
Raided SATA drives?

Obviously, I am trying to avoid re-installing Windows XP and all my apps.

 

[Doug Ramage]

Well thats your network card.


Did you set the RAID partition active? I suspect that you partitioned the
drive but did not set it active, which allows it to boot.


Changing the partition will, yes. RAID 0 requires a new partition to extend
across both drives. RAID 1, will not.


Yeah, you should be able to create teh RAID set, set the (new, extended)
partition active, then restore your ghost image and reboot.

Ben
--

Ben, I have 2 SATA drives - non Raid.

Are you saying I could clone, with Ghost, the SATA drive with my OS and apps
on it to (say) a PATA drive, then set up a RAID-0 array, then clone or
restore an image file (assuming I had created one) the PATA back to the
Raided SATA drives?

Obviously, I am trying to avoid re-installing Windows XP and all my apps.

 

[Nom]

Ben, I have 2 SATA drives - non Raid.

Are you saying I could clone, with Ghost, the SATA drive with my OS
and apps on it to (say) a PATA drive, then set up a RAID-0 array,
then clone or restore an image file (assuming I had created one) the
PATA back to the Raided SATA drives?

Obviously, I am trying to avoid re-installing Windows XP and all my
apps.

That's exactly what you can do - I did the same.

 

[Doug Ramage]

That's exactly what you can do - I did the same.

Great! Thanks, Nom.

Did you restore from an image file, or from a cloned drive?

Did you notice much of a speed improvement?

 

[Natéag]

If you « repair » your present installation, you won't have
to reinstall your apps.

Windows, yes, but it will be pretty automatic.

 

[Nom]

Great! Thanks, Nom.

Did you restore from an image file, or from a cloned drive?

It makes no difference.

If you go for the RAID array, you need to periodically take the image file
again. RAID0 without a backup, is loonacy

Did you notice much of a speed improvement?

Yeah, a little. But there's no reason not to do it really - you've got
nothing to loose, and everything to gain
Just be sure to backup your data every so often.

 

[Nom]

If you « repair » your present installation, you won't have
to reinstall your apps.

Windows, yes, but it will be pretty automatic.

He won't need to do do that, as he's keeping the same drive controller. He's
talking about SiL3112 non-RAID to SiL3112 RAID.

 

[Doug Ramage]

It makes no difference.

If you go for the RAID array, you need to periodically take the image file
again. RAID0 without a backup, is loonacy


Yeah, a little. But there's no reason not to do it really - you've got
nothing to loose, and everything to gain
Just be sure to backup your data every so often.

Thanks, Nom. My data is kept on a separate hard disk (non SATA) and is
backed up twice daily to dvd-ram and dvd-rw.

Nonetheless, it would still be a lot of hassle to have to re-install windows
plus apps, drivers etc.

Now I've just got to bite the bullet.

Bu it's good to know that it can be done.

 

[Doug Ramage]

Doug and/or Ben;

I'm having a heck of a time getting Xp's setup to see my
new SATA drives on a A7N8X-E Deluxe. The drives are
listed with their correct sizes on boot ( after the option to go
to the RAID utility). When I load the OS from the XP disk,
I press F6 and load the SI3112r.sys file. When setup gets
past "Starting windows" it doesn't show the users agreement
page but goes to a selection page for start windows or repair
or quit with F3. The next page is a "windows didn't find any
mass storage devices" and all it will let me do is F3 outta there.

If I leave my old IDE ( I guess it's P-ATA now) drives in
the sys and load from them, I can go to "Disk Management"
and see the drives as Disk2 and 3. I has even able to format
them and made the one I want to make my boot drive active.
I didn't give them drive letters. But they still won't be seen by
setup when I disconnect the old drives and try to do a clean
install on the SATA drives.

So my question is "How do I make one of my SATA drives
the system drive?" Can I just clone the current OS install
over to the SATA drive from my current system drive? I would
normally do a clean install at some point, if only to keep the
sys in shape. Any ideas what could be preventing setup from
seeing the new SATA drives, when they are shown at the sys
level (and XP can see them when the sys is loaded via the old
drives)

This is not making sense;
Ken

I cloned mine with Ghost - from PATA to SATA. Just remember to have the
SATA drivers loaded via Device Manager before cloning, and set the BIOS to
boot from SCSI. Then I removed the PATA drive.

 

[Ken Maltby]

Ben, I have 2 SATA drives - non Raid.

Are you saying I could clone, with Ghost, the SATA drive with my OS and apps
on it to (say) a PATA drive, then set up a RAID-0 array, then clone or
restore an image file (assuming I had created one) the PATA back to the
Raided SATA drives?

Obviously, I am trying to avoid re-installing Windows XP and all my apps.

Doug and/or Ben;

I'm having a heck of a time getting Xp's setup to see my
new SATA drives on a A7N8X-E Deluxe. The drives are
listed with their correct sizes on boot ( after the option to go
to the RAID utility). When I load the OS from the XP disk,
I press F6 and load the SI3112r.sys file. When setup gets
past "Starting windows" it doesn't show the users agreement
page but goes to a selection page for start windows or repair
or quit with F3. The next page is a "windows didn't find any
mass storage devices" and all it will let me do is F3 outta there.

If I leave my old IDE ( I guess it's P-ATA now) drives in
the sys and load from them, I can go to "Disk Management"
and see the drives as Disk2 and 3. I has even able to format
them and made the one I want to make my boot drive active.
I didn't give them drive letters. But they still won't be seen by
setup when I disconnect the old drives and try to do a clean
install on the SATA drives.

So my question is "How do I make one of my SATA drives
the system drive?" Can I just clone the current OS install
over to the SATA drive from my current system drive? I would
normally do a clean install at some point, if only to keep the
sys in shape. Any ideas what could be preventing setup from
seeing the new SATA drives, when they are shown at the sys
level (and XP can see them when the sys is loaded via the old
drives)

This is not making sense;
Ken

 

[steve p]

-------------------------------------------


I cloned mine with Ghost - from PATA to SATA. Just remember to have the
SATA drivers loaded via Device Manager before cloning, and set the BIOS to
boot from SCSI. Then I removed the PATA drive.

Doug,

Norton's site implies that Ghost doesn't support RAID.
What version of ghost did you use, and did you have to do anything different
to make it support RAID?

I've tried Raid 0 on 2 x 80 gig Maxtor SATA drives (Win98se) - no problems
except I couldn't get Ghost (5.1) to work properly.
I had to use Maxtor's Maxblast partition copy utility.
Works - but v e r y slow. - this persuaded me to revert back out of RAID.

Cheers

Steve.

 

[Doug Ramage]

Doug,

Norton's site implies that Ghost doesn't support RAID.
What version of ghost did you use, and did you have to do anything different
to make it support RAID?

I've tried Raid 0 on 2 x 80 gig Maxtor SATA drives (Win98se) - no problems
except I couldn't get Ghost (5.1) to work properly.
I had to use Maxtor's Maxblast partition copy utility.
Works - but v e r y slow. - this persuaded me to revert back out of RAID.

Cheers

Steve.

It was Nom who said it could be done. I have not tried it yet.

 

[Nom]

Doug and/or Ben;

I'm having a heck of a time getting Xp's setup to see my
new SATA drives on a A7N8X-E Deluxe. The drives are
listed with their correct sizes on boot ( after the option to go
to the RAID utility). When I load the OS from the XP disk,
I press F6 and load the SI3112r.sys file. When setup gets
past "Starting windows" it doesn't show the users agreement
page but goes to a selection page for start windows or repair
or quit with F3. The next page is a "windows didn't find any
mass storage devices" and all it will let me do is F3 outta there.

If I leave my old IDE ( I guess it's P-ATA now) drives in
the sys and load from them, I can go to "Disk Management"
and see the drives as Disk2 and 3. I has even able to format
them and made the one I want to make my boot drive active.
I didn't give them drive letters. But they still won't be seen by
setup when I disconnect the old drives and try to do a clean
install on the SATA drives.

So my question is "How do I make one of my SATA drives
the system drive?"

Format a floppy, and then extract the following Zip file to it
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michael.mcclay/Drivers/SATA/3x12_x86_win_rdvr-10032.zip

Remove ALL drives, apart from one CDROM, the SATA disc that you wanna
install Windows to, and your floppy.
In the BIOS, set the first boot-device to CDROM and the second boot-device
to SCSI. Set the third boot-device to Disabled, and Boot-Other-Devices to
NO.

Now boot your Windows XP CD. Hit F6 as soon as the message appears along the
bottom, and stick the floppy in. Choose the driver from the floppy.

Voila ! If that still doesn't work, you've followed the instructions
incorrectly, or you've missed out a step.

Can I just clone the current OS install
over to the SATA drive from my current system drive?

Nope. If you change the drive controller of an XP installation, it will
cease to boot. You'll have to do a "Repair Installation" over the top. But
your much better off just reinstalling the OS.

 

[Nom]

Norton's site implies that Ghost doesn't support RAID.
What version of ghost did you use, and did you have to do anything
different to make it support RAID?

All modern versions work just fine, although you may have more luck with the
bootable floppy, than the Windows version.

I've tried Raid 0 on 2 x 80 gig Maxtor SATA drives (Win98se) - no
problems except I couldn't get Ghost (5.1) to work properly.

5.1 Ghost is VERY old ! Upgrade - more modern versions work just fine. The
same applies to Powerquest's better-than-ghost Drive Image.

 

[Nom]

It was Nom who said it could be done. I have not tried it yet.

I regularly backup my SATA RAID array, within Windows, using Drive Image 7.
Works just fine.

If you wanna use Ghost instead, then both the current Corporate and Consumer
versions work fine too.

 

[Doug Ramage]

I regularly backup my SATA RAID array, within Windows, using Drive Image 7.
Works just fine.

If you wanna use Ghost instead, then both the current Corporate and Consumer
versions work fine too.

I have Ghost 2003, and Drive Image 7. I have tended to use the former for
cloning as it is quicker than DI7.

 

[steve p]

All modern versions work just fine, although you may have more luck with the
bootable floppy, than the Windows version.


5.1 Ghost is VERY old ! Upgrade - more modern versions work just fine. The
same applies to Powerquest's better-than-ghost Drive Image.

Thanks for the advice, think I'll get a modern version of Ghost or Drive
Image and give RAID another go.

Cheers

Steve.