Installing on a RAID drive -- question about formatting

[Guest]

I have set my HDs up as a stripe-mirror RAID in the BIOS, selecting either
the 64kb or 128kb allocation unit size. When I pop in the Vista DVD though to
install, it marks the disk space as unallocated, and (quite naturally) I have
to format it in order to continue with installing.

My problem is that, this format apparently sets the unit allocation size
back down to 4kb (which seems to be the default for Windows). I don't get an
option to chose a different allocation size through this format (or any other
option, for that matter).

If I install Windows on a spare HD, and then go to format the RAID array, I
get the option to set an allocation size of up to 64kb (even if, in the BIOS
settings, I have selected 128kb)... If I select "Default allocation size for
the drive", it will revert back to 4kb. There is no option whatsoever for
chosing 128kb.

So, what should I do? Will the drive be OK if I format it at 64kb first
(even though the default size would be 4kb) and then do a clean install, or
is there some other way to format the RAID properly during installation?

For the record, I am using an eVGA 680i motherboard. No extra RAID drivers
loaded during setup, but I have the same options for formatting after
installing Windows with both the native Vista drivers as well as the latest
nVIDIA drivers (15.00).

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
D.

 

[JimR]

I have set my HDs up as a stripe-mirror RAID in the BIOS, selecting either
the 64kb or 128kb allocation unit size. When I pop in the Vista DVD though
to
install, it marks the disk space as unallocated, and (quite naturally) I
have
to format it in order to continue with installing.

My problem is that, this format apparently sets the unit allocation size
back down to 4kb (which seems to be the default for Windows). I don't get
an
option to chose a different allocation size through this format (or any
other
option, for that matter).

If I install Windows on a spare HD, and then go to format the RAID array,
I
get the option to set an allocation size of up to 64kb (even if, in the
BIOS
settings, I have selected 128kb)... If I select "Default allocation size
for
the drive", it will revert back to 4kb. There is no option whatsoever for
chosing 128kb.

So, what should I do? Will the drive be OK if I format it at 64kb first
(even though the default size would be 4kb) and then do a clean install,
or
is there some other way to format the RAID properly during installation?

For the record, I am using an eVGA 680i motherboard. No extra RAID drivers
loaded during setup, but I have the same options for formatting after
installing Windows with both the native Vista drivers as well as the
latest
nVIDIA drivers (15.00).

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
D.

Try setting the OS as not plug and play if you have that setting in the
BIOS. This will allow the BIOS to manage the hardware settings.