Windows on RAID

[Guest]

Hello
I have a RAID 0 array, two 36.7GB WD Raptors, and I have been sittin around
wanting to install Windows XP on the array. But first, I wanted to use the
Windows XP on my IDE drive to scan and use the array so I could see how
everything behaved. So I finally let my RAID array boot with IDE drive,
Windows scanned the array, installed drivers (Windows had already installed
the RAID controller long ago) then rebooted. I thought everything was working
fine, until I looked at the capacity of my new drive. Windows is treating the
array like one drive (like it should, duh) but is only using half the total
space (36.7GBs). Windows detects ALL the available space (about 73GBs) but is
only formatting half of it.
I've looked at the settings for the array in the RAID controller's menu a
billion times: nothing is wrong.
I've looked at the Windows settings for the RAID controller and the drive/s:
nothing unusual.
Could one of my drives be crap? (Both are new, that would suck)
I am stumped. I'm glad I thought to let Windows use the array before
actually installing Windows on it.
Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

[Guest]

First,if you want xp to examine the drives,run them solo,each set as master
thru the RAID controller.Format each with a primary partition,end it at that.
2nd,disconnect the IDE drives (physically),then start in BIOS,enable
RAID,in the
RAID boot configuration,create a RAID set,restart in BIOS,boot to xp cd,at
the
prompt,press F6,press S and press for RAID,press S again and for RAID,then
press enter,proceed then to install xp.Windows doesnt do much of anything for
RAID,its all manual,set up RAID and let it run,trying to investigate the
array
thru xp is wasting youre time on false properties xp would come up with....

 

[Doug A.]

If I'm tracking correctly, you have your OS installed on
another drive, you've added your Raid 0 array, and then
formatted and partitioned in through the Computer
Management / Disk Management snap in? Go back into Disk
Management and make sure you included the entire space
when you created a Primary/Extended partition after the
drive was recognized. I've got ahead of myself by having
the partitions sizes I want and clicked through
the "create partition" menu too fast and only reserved
part of the drive for use.
You are right that Windows will "see" the array and treat
it no differently than a single drive as long as you've
set it up in the bios and resulting raid management
screen shown in the POST). BTW I have the same identical
Raptors set up in a Raid 0 array with a 2GB FAT16
partition and then the remaining space split in half for
a dual boot with XP Pro SP2 and Server 2003 on the
remaining partitions. When you do go to placing this
array as your boot drive, please ensure you've made a
floppy with the raid drivers for the F6 prompt when
reinstalling your OS.