RAID question

[Richard Dower]

I am thinking about setting up a RAID 0 set. My motherboard is a Gigabyte
GA-8INXP with a P4 2.53GHz, overclocked to 2.95GHz, with on-board Sil3112A
SATA controller.

I plan to install two Western Digital Raptors, 74GB, 10,000 RPM, 4.5ms seek
time etc.
Question is this...i know i have to enable the RAID feature in the BIOS and
setup the RAID using the Sil3112A RAID BIOS feature.

But after all this is done, do i just normally proceed with installing the
operating system?, Windows XP Professional SP1 i am using.

From a fresh install you can set partitions and select the partion to
install the OS, but when Windows installs what will be displayed in Disc
Management?...a single drive?

Will i have just 74GB displayed or 148GB?, taking into consideation
partitions etc.

 

[Fitz]

You will need to extract the Sil Raid drivers from the motherboard
installation CD to a floppy. When installing Windows it will ask you if you
want to load any SCSI or third party drivers (press F6). Windows will
continue to load and ask you to insert the floppy with the drivers. From
there, it's a normal install.

I'm using the same RAID setup, but w/36GB Raptors, and no partitions. I use
an IDE harddrive for storage/video, etc. Haven't tried to partition a RAID
drive. I would consider using folders to organize the drive instead of
partitions on a RAID 0 config. Using an IDE drive will also allow you to get
your Windows swap file off the RAID.

Fitz