RAID Drive Assignments

[David]

I am just building a RAID machine using RAID 0 and XP Home (my first
time using RAID). I carried out a clean install yesterday of XP, but
today noticed what I think is an unusual selection of drive letter
assignments.

I decided to partition the array into 2 partitions one for the system
and apps and one for data. I would have expected these 2 partitions
to be drives C & D and for the remaining 2 optical drives to be E & F.
What I actually have is a partition as C and listed as 'system' then
the 2 optical drives as D & E and finally the second partition as
drive F and listed as 'boot'.

Should this be like this?

If not, how do I fix it?

How can I be sure that a new installation will not come up with the
same configuration?

TIA,

David

 

[David]

Further to my last - I have now found that the operating system was
indeed installed on what has become the F drive and the only thing on
the C drive was the folder 'download'.

So, now I am completely confused - how does XP deal with RAID and
drive letter assignments?

Does the user get any input as to where things are loaded?

David

 

[DL]

You do realise don't you, that raid 0 provides no redundancy, lose one hd
you lose everything, so why bother partitioning?
Sounds as though you hav'nt set up the array correctly, initially
How you do depends on the controler/mobo

 

[Guest]

Partition RAID....Hmmm,you could but it wouldnt be very benifical,the RAID
array really cant be partitioned,its a set of hds,you could partition the
disk(s)
sepertly,then make a RAID set but the other partition would simply be dead
space...You should 1st run 1 SATA drive at a time,boot to xp cd,press F6 for
controller drivers,then recovery (forget the text or message at recovery)
simply
typeiskPart In DiskPart create a partition for the hd,press ESC key,type:
FORMAT C: /FS:ntfs When thru,shutdown pc,disconnect 1st SATA connect 2nd,
repeat steps for 1.Once thru,power off,connect both,boot to BIOS,set for
RAID,
make the RAID set,boot to xp cd,install xp.You'll only get C: for the set.

 

[DL]

cobblers

Partition RAID....Hmmm,you could but it wouldnt be very benifical,the RAID
array really cant be partitioned,its a set of hds,you could partition the
disk(s)
sepertly,then make a RAID set but the other partition would simply be dead
space...You should 1st run 1 SATA drive at a time,boot to xp cd,press F6 for
controller drivers,then recovery (forget the text or message at recovery)
simply
typeiskPart In DiskPart create a partition for the hd,press ESC key,type:
FORMAT C: /FS:ntfs When thru,shutdown pc,disconnect 1st SATA connect 2nd,
repeat steps for 1.Once thru,power off,connect both,boot to BIOS,set for
RAID,
make the RAID set,boot to xp cd,install xp.You'll only get C: for the set.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Partition RAID....Hmmm,you could but it wouldnt be very benifical,the
RAID array really cant be partitioned,

More nonsense from the troll Andrew E. Of course a RAID 0 array can be
partitioned. In fact doing so is exactly like partitioning a single drive.
And doing so has exactly the same benefits as partitioning a single drive.

 

[David]

On Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:25:30 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"

DL
If you partition a single drive and that develops a a terminal fault
then you lose ALL partitions, so partitioning a RAID 0 array is no
different.

More nonsense from the troll Andrew E. Of course a RAID 0 array can be
partitioned. In fact doing so is exactly like partitioning a single drive.
And doing so has exactly the same benefits as partitioning a single drive.

Thanks Ken for supporting my decision to partition the RAID. Apart
from slagging off Andrew E, as a MVP do you have an answer to my
questions? Please.

David

 

[Kerry Brown]

Did you use a 3rd party program to create the partitions or did you create
them during the XP install? Do you have any USB devices, card readers, or
printers with card readers hooked up? Here's a quick overview of creating
partitions during an XP install. If you are using hardware RAID then the
RAID is irrelevant to the process. Windows sees the array as one physical
drive.

Disconnect all USB devices not needed for the installation. Make sure any
internal card readers do not have memory cards in them. Boot from the XP
installation CD making sure you press F6 when appropriate to load the RAID
controller drivers. When you get to the screen asking where to install
Windows delete all the partitions and create one partition that you will
install Windows on. If you want to create more partitions later make sure
you leave enough unallocated space for them. If you have more than one drive
or RAID array make sure you create this partition on the correct drive.
Install Windows to this partition. Once Windows is installed and before
installing any programs, drivers, or anything run the disk management
console (diskmgmt.msc) and create and format any other partitions you want.
Before creating the partitions be sure to change the drive letters for any
optical drives to the letter you want them to use. This is also done in the
drive management console. The key is to create only one partition and have
only one drive/array present during the install. This will ensure the system
partion is C: and allow you to change the drive letters for the optical
drives and create partitions with the drive letters you want later from
within Windows. If there are other existing partitions, drives, card
readers, USB drives or whatever present you may end up with a system
partition other than C:.

As an aside, as others have already mentioned RAID 0 is not really a good
idea. For me the very minor speed increase doesn't justify the large
increase in the likelihood of losing data due to a drive failure. Make sure
you have a good backup strategy.

 

[David]

Thanks for the help and advice, Kerry. Shame that I have already
reinstalled XP with a single partition and got most of my apps
installed too. Something for me to bear in mind next time

David