RAID and Vista.

[pussycat]

I am running Vista SP1 and want to mirror the HDD in a RAID 1 configuration.
I have purchased 2 HDD with the same specifications and copied the existing
partition onto one of them.
The system is booting into Vista well until I enable the on board nForce3
250 RAID controller and I get an error that it is unable to find an
operating system.
The RAID driver is installed under Windows and is recognised in Device
Manager.
I suspect it is an issue with one of the boot files i.e. boot.ini.
Can anyone please shed some light on this?
Thanks.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Vista has changed from the boot.ini. Look over this article. Bootrec is
probably what you want.
How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to
troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/en-us

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Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[Stu222]

You could try this:

http://nforcershq.com/forum/1-vt66299.html?postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

 

[David Shen [MSFT]]

Dear Customer,

Thank you for posting in newsgroup, and thanks for all community members
for your contribution.

According to the description, I know the issue is related to RAID-1
controller configuration on Windows Vista SP1 platform. If I have any
misunderstanding, please feel free to let me know.

Before we move, I would like to confirm some information with you firstly.

Information Needed:
=====================

1. When did you install the driver of nForce3 250 RAID controller and
enabled RAID1? During the installation of Windows Vista or after it?

2. Can you see the two hard disks in disk management console? Or just see
only one hard disk?

Analysis:
=================

Since the build-in Disk management of Windows Vista SP1 doesn't support
RAID-1 or RAID-5 based on the operation system level, and Windows Vista
doesn't have shipped nForce SATA RAID drivers in the installation disc, I
would like to suggest that you first install the suitable nForce driver of
the RAID controller during the clean installation of Windows Vista. The
nForce SATA RAID drivers should be loaded and installed during the Vista
installation process - without these additional drivers Vista won't detect
the RAID and their partitions.

Suggestions:
================

During the Windows Vista installation, you may need to click the "Load
Driver" button and to load all compatible drivers/devices from your
prepared nForce RAID controller driver package (32bit for Vista x86, 64bit
for Vista x64), and then the RAID1 partition can be recognized.

Here is a suggested step-by-step guide for you reference.

Clean install of Vista x86/x64 onto an nForce3 SATA RAID system

The way he succeeded seems to be currently the best method to get a proper
running Vista x86 and the only known method to get Vista x64 installed onto
an nForce SATA RAID system.

Preconditions:

1. You will need at least not only the Vista x86/x64 DVD and an nVRaid BIOS
v.4.81.

2. Two empty partitions within your RAID array (1 of them will be available
again after having finished the Vista installation),

3. I recommend to take the brand new driver folder nForce3 250 RAID from
the vendor's.

Steps-by-Steps guides:

1. Insert the Windows Vista DVD (x86 or x64) and begin with "Install Now"

2. Select and accept the license terms.

3. Select "Custom (advanced)" to install a clean copy of Windows Vista.

4. You need to click on the "Load Driver" button and to load all compatible
drivers/devices from your prepared nForce RAID controller.

5. Please insert the installation media containing the driver files and
then click OK.

Please note:
The installation media can be a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash driver.

6. Click "Browse" to select the target directory of nForce RAID driver.

7. After installation of the nForce RAID driver, please click on the Driver
Option. If the RAID driver is installed successfully, Windows Vista should
detect the 2 hard disks in the console.

8. It is recommended that you format the RAID partition with NTFS.

9. The rest of the installation will run automatically.

10. Once Vista is booted, if necessary, please install the missing device
drivers (you will get some of them via Windows Update).

Reference:
=============

Windows Update
http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us


David Shen
Microsoft Online Partner Support

 

[Pussycat]

Hi David,

Thanks for your detailed response.

Answers to your questions.
1. The driver installed automatically under Vista after the
installation. I didn't install any special RAID drivers during the
installation.
2. I can see the two hard disk because they are not mirrored yet.

Is the RAID issue related to software mirroring or hardware mirroring?
I would have thought that hardware mirroring should be independent of
the OS as it is down at the pre OS hardware level.

It sounds like you are suggesting a fresh install of Vista which will
also require me to reinstall and register all of the my software, not a
trivial exercise.

I think I might clone the disk and try some of the suggestions around
Bootrec.exe suggested by the previous post.

Regards,
Tony.

 

[Pussycat]

Thanks Stuart.
Fantastic site but I never thought it would be this hard

 

[David Shen [MSFT]]

Hello Tony,

Thanks for your reply.

Based on the research, here is some information which may be helpful.

Analysis and Suggestion:
=======================

Currently, you can see the two hard disks in the Disk management console
because the local disc manager of Windows Vista detected them as two
independent disks. The disk configuration has been already kept by the
Local Disk Manager of Windows Vista. If RAID-1 disk is configured based on
Windows Vista, the disk configuration should be changed and Windows Vista
may be not detect the RAID-1 disk with the Local Disk Manager.

I would like to suggest that you contact the third party vendor to check if
there is an best practice to configure the RAID-1 with nForce3 250 RAID
controller on Windows Vista SP1. You may try with stuart's solution in
previous post to see if it will be helpful.

Hope the issue will be resolved soon.

Thanks for your understanding.

David Shen
Microsoft Online Partner Support