XP Home Edition & Raid?

[Michael]

I've tried to install both a software based raid solution, and now 3ware 9650
controller card based raid solution, onto my XP Home Edition pc. Both
times, I get everything loaded but then am unable to find the device using
the "Disk Management" utility found in the conftrol panel. I thought this
was a bug with the software based controller, but now I think this is a bug
w/ Windows XP Home Edition.

I found some information indicating that "dynamic disks" were not supported
by Home Edition. Would these RAID subsystems rely on this, or would it
appear as a "basic disk" and so show up in Home Edition Disk Management?

Any assistance will be really, really appreciated.

-Mike

 

[DL]

Software raid is somewhere you shouldnt go.
You would need to install the raid drivers supplied by 3ware, enter the
3ware raid bios, usually when booting, then configure your raid.
Its got absolutly nothing to do with Disk Management or win xp
You need to read the manual supplied by 3ware

 

[Michael]

Thanks for the speedy reply, DL.

I should elaborate.

I tried a software RAID solution. Didn't work. Uninstalled everything.

I purchased a 3WARE controller. Installed it, updated drivers, checked
firmware, configured an array.... per the manual. *BUT* it still doesn't
work, for the same reason the software raid didn't work...

The Windows XP Home Edition Disk Managment Utility is not finding the array.
Nothing. It's not there. But, the 3ware software says it is operating and
available. As I said, this is the same problem I had with the software
solution.

I believe there is something wrong elsewhere in the system. Either
something with XP Home Edition, or something with the Disk Management Utility.

Now, I looked through some of the logs, and found that "the logical disk"
service had stopped. It was set to manual start. I set it to automatic and
restarted, but it still didn't show anything in Disk Management.

Any ideas? Am I on the right track... or even in the right station?
Suggestions for what I should look for?

-Mike

 

[DL]

If you installed the card, updated firmware & drivers from 3ware site - NOT
winupdate - then entered the raid bios & configered / built the array, as
per 3ware instructions, at the end of the process you would likely have seen
the msg 'syncronised' or similar, the system would then have booted to win,
once you exited the 3ware bios.
At this stage your array is functioning, you will see *nothing* in disk
management pertaining to an array, assuming you are using mirror (raid 1)
you will only see a single HD in Disk Management. ie the array is identified
as a single HD

I would further suspect that when you reboot your system after the initial
bios screen there will be a second 3ware bios msg stating that the raid is
functional.

Depending on the 3ware card, and I didnt check yours, there maybe a utility
installed, which can be accessed in win which will report on the status of
your raid and the hd's

 

[Michael]

The message I get from the Raid Bios is "Bios loaded" or something like that.
The array shows up fine in the windows 3ware management screen (actually, a
webserver directly on the card) but nothing new shows up in the Disk
management utility.

I expected to see a disk show up in the disk management utility that would
ask me to write a signature to the drive, and then partition, or whatever.
But, *nothing* new shows up in that utility. Windows Devices properly shows
the card and indicates everything is fine... Just not getting into disk
management.

I think there is something broken with my version of XP Home Edition.

What services should be running to enable Disk Management to discover new
devices?

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I've tried to install both a software based raid solution, and now 3ware 9650
controller card based raid solution, onto my XP Home Edition pc. Both
times, I get everything loaded but then am unable to find the device using
the "Disk Management" utility found in the conftrol panel. I thought this
was a bug with the software based controller, but now I think this is a bug
w/ Windows XP Home Edition.

I found some information indicating that "dynamic disks" were not supported
by Home Edition. Would these RAID subsystems rely on this, or would it
appear as a "basic disk" and so show up in Home Edition Disk Management?

Any assistance will be really, really appreciated.

-Mike

What is this "Disk Management Utility"?

In Windows XP-Pro, I just see a single disk, identified as my C Drive. I can
do the usual stuff on it -- defragmentation; error checking; etc. The RAID
controller takes care of translating these commands to the individual physical
drives.

The size shows what it should be for the RAID 1+0 array that I have, but XP-Pro
sees it as just a single drive.

If I need to look at the individual, physical drives, I use the RAID vendor
supplied utility (Intel in my case).
--ron

 

[Michael]

Ron,

Disk management is found from control panel / Administrative tools and then
navigate to Disk Management.

I'm hoping someone here has some insight into why Disk Management may not be
seeing my devices...

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

Ron,

Disk management is found from control panel / Administrative tools and then
navigate to Disk Management.

I'm hoping someone here has some insight into why Disk Management may not be
seeing my devices...

Thank you for that information.

Well, on my XP Pro system, with a RAID 1+0 disc drive (four physical discs),
Disk Management sees a single drive (my C: drive) of the appropriate size
(which is what I would expect).

Does your Disk Management view show no drive at all?
--ron

 

[Michael]

That is correct... *NOTHING* related to this shows up. Disk management
correctly shows the other two disks, and the CD/DVD drive, but nothing to do
with this device.

Help!

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

That is correct... *NOTHING* related to this shows up. Disk management
correctly shows the other two disks, and the CD/DVD drive, but nothing to do
with this device.

Help!

I don't know why that would have happened. And I have XP Pro and not Home.

Maybe if you set up another console and add the disk management snap-in, you
might get it back. But I don't know if there would be any risk in this
procedure. So you might want to wait until someone more knowledgeable chimes
in.

See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310422/en-us

--ron

 

[DL]

Are you wishing to use this array as your boot drive or is it a data store?

When you installed this card, and I'm assuming its not got your boot drive
connected to it. Did you install the 3ware drivers as per page 34 of the
manual?

 

[Michael]

This won't be used as a boot drive. Just a data store.

Yes, I went through the "found new hardware" procedure. I can't say I
followed page 34 (I didn't have it open and following along), but I *did*
follow per the normal events to locate and install two drivers, just like it
describes starting on page 34.

I'm stumped.

 

[DL]

Assuming there is no unassigned hd shown in Disk management (No drive
letter)
I think I might contact 3ware tech & see if they have any details of
incompatibility between this card and your motherboard. Its not uncommon,
certainly my Adaptec card has a list of incompatible motherboards
(When you configure the raid you are using the 3ware bios which bypasses the
motherboard)