Raid 1

[Guest]

On a clean windows install how do I set up the computer to recognize two SATA 160 GB HD's in RAID 1 configuration? First my version of XP Pro does not recognize any drive over 130 GB. Secondly, I don't have a floppy drive installed to add the RAID drivers. Can I use a USB Flash device? My mainboard is an Intel 865PERL.

 

[BP]

Can't speak for XP specs, others will, but at the very least you could
partition the drives so each logical drive is less than 130GB. You can buy a
new floppy drive for $7. I've got a local computer store with floppies piled
in a cardboard box in the corner for a dollar apiece. Hook one up, install
the OS, then remove it. I've never understood the push to extinction for the
FDD. It's like a cigarette lighter in a car. Just because you don't smoke
doesn't mean that you'll never have a need for one.

On a clean windows install how do I set up the computer to recognize two

SATA 160 GB HD's in RAID 1 configuration? First my version of XP Pro does
not recognize any drive over 130 GB. Secondly, I don't have a floppy drive
installed to add the RAID drivers. Can I use a USB Flash device? My
mainboard is an Intel 865PERL.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply. Your analogy to a car cigarette lighter is well taken. I decided to remove legacy options for the sake of speed and efficiency. No floppy, serial or parallel ports are enabled. Up to this point I haven't had a need for a floppy dirve in over two years. I still need to figure out how to get the system to recognize the full 160 GB on the hard drive during the initial install.

----- BP wrote: ----

Can't speak for XP specs, others will, but at the very least you coul
partition the drives so each logical drive is less than 130GB. You can buy
new floppy drive for $7. I've got a local computer store with floppies pile
in a cardboard box in the corner for a dollar apiece. Hook one up, instal
the OS, then remove it. I've never understood the push to extinction for th
FDD. It's like a cigarette lighter in a car. Just because you don't smok
doesn't mean that you'll never have a need for one

On a clean windows install how do I set up the computer to recognize tw

SATA 160 GB HD's in RAID 1 configuration? First my version of XP Pro doe
not recognize any drive over 130 GB. Secondly, I don't have a floppy driv
installed to add the RAID drivers. Can I use a USB Flash device? M
mainboard is an Intel 865PERL

 

[jazz]

Don 't worry about getting it to see the full 160g harddrive. Once you get
the floppy, boot to an boot floppy like a win98 boot disk or maybe bootable
linux cd. After that partition the drive and format it using the fat32
filesystem pick drive sizes of around 50 gig and you opnly need to do the
first one. . It still won't be the full 160 gig but now after windows xp
boots, you can convert that smaller drive to ntfs and then install. once in
windows you will be able partition and format the rest of it and make use of
it. also it will be easier for a partition utility like partition magic to
merge the 2 partition spaces without haveing to recalculate the end of
cylinder verses head value. this will decrease the chance of having to start
all over with again.

i personally would keep 2 partitions and use one for the operating system
and one for games music and whatever. (maybe even limit the os to around 10
gig too)this will let you save most of your game data if windows does ever
need to be reinstalled. Aslo anythign on the first partition can be shoved
to the second and save in the event of a reinstall.

the other option you can do is format the entire drive with fat32 using an
externat media like before and install on the existing partition then later
convert the drive to ntfs after windows is installed. it should use the full
partition even thouhg it doesn't see it.

Thanks for your reply. Your analogy to a car cigarette lighter is well

taken. I decided to remove legacy options for the sake of speed and
efficiency. No floppy, serial or parallel ports are enabled. Up to this
point I haven't had a need for a floppy dirve in over two years. I still
need to figure out how to get the system to recognize the full 160 GB on the
hard drive during the initial install.