NVIDIA RAID Config Question?

Here my question? How do I know my RAID configuration is running the way it
should on my Shuttle AN51R Motherboard for Athlon 64?



Here's why I ask; after downloading the drivers and installing them on MS XP
Home Addition, I thought all was fine. I'm using two 35 GB Raptor drives in
a striped RAID configuration.



After installing XP Home, I was could see the RAID NVIDIA Stripe 68.95G
listing in my Device Manager under Disk Drives. Here, it reports that "This
device is working properly".



Well, fine so far, but here is why I ask my question? When I go to the
computer Management Panel and select "Disk Management", I find the
following.



Disk0 - C: 34.46 GB NTFS Healthy (System).

Then I see the 2nd drive as unallocated, 34.49 GB Unallocated?



Does this make sense?



Secondly, I noticed something gets loaded or during Windows startup, but in
DOS mode. Could this be the NVIDIA RAID/SCSI Drivers I installed?



But why would this be necessary? The reason I ask, is before XP loads, I see
in DOS mode a progress bar, then windows loads. This seams odd to me, since
the RAID are installed with XP during the installation procedure when I
provide the manufactured Disk? Just find this old.



Thanks for any information.

I have a RAID5 controller in our server. When the server boots, you
see a DOS screen which gives you some keystroke option to enter the
configuration mode ctrl-h or ctrl-a or something like that.

This is normal.

Here is what I beleive you need to do:

Your motherboard has an on-board RAID controller. You need to go into
the BIOS as the machine is POSTing and enable your RAID controller.

The manual for your motherboard says it is located under the
"Integrated Peripherals", "Onboard IDE Device", "RAID Function
Setup". My guess is that you want what appears to be the SATA Master
RAID option, but you will have to see for yourself in the BIOS when
you get there. Choose your desired option, save settings and reboot.

As the system reboots, you should see a DOS screen for the RAID
controller. There should be a key sequence to allow you to enter the
Configuration Mode. You need to enter the configuration mode and
configure the RAID array BEFORE you install windows.

A properly configured hardware RAID array is transparent to Windows.
Windows Disk Management cannot tell how many drives are actually in a
hardware RAID array, all it sees is one "volume".

From what you have described, it tells me that you are not currently
running a hardware RAID array at all (since windows can see the other
drive).

Now, you need to be careful here. If you activate and configure the
RAID controller, you could lose everything you have on the disks which
will be included in the RAID array! So if Windows is on that disk....

If you have critical stuff on the disk, then I would Ghost your
windows install onto another hard drive using the DOS booatble Norton
Ghost disk, then wipe your SATA drives clean. THEN get into the
configuration utility and create the RAID array.

You could then use something like Partition Magic 8 to re-create the
partition for Windows, and then Ghost your windows install back onto
the properly configured RAID array.

But if you do not have anything critical on the drives, just wipe
them, configure the RAID array in hardware, and reinstall windows.

Be aware, when WindowsXP is intalling there is a point where it says
something like "Press key now to load 3rd party RAID or Disk drivers".
Have your nVidia disk ready, and press that key, as WinXP wont
recognize the RAID array if you don't load the driver at this point.
Come to think of it, you might wind up reinstalling windows anyways
because of this.

Looks like you have a bit of work ahead of you, but one done it will
be well worth it.

hth

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 01:40:41 GMT, "R Guzman"
<ralphguzman RemoveThis @earthlink.net> wrote:

>Here my question? How do I know my RAID configuration is running the way it
>should on my Shuttle AN51R Motherboard for Athlon 64?
>
>
>
>Here's why I ask; after downloading the drivers and installing them on MS XP
>Home Addition, I thought all was fine. I'm using two 35 GB Raptor drives in
>a striped RAID configuration.
>
>
>
>After installing XP Home, I was could see the RAID NVIDIA Stripe 68.95G
>listing in my Device Manager under Disk Drives. Here, it reports that "This
>device is working properly".
>
>
>
>Well, fine so far, but here is why I ask my question? When I go to the
>computer Management Panel and select "Disk Management", I find the
>following.
>
>
>
>Disk0 - C: 34.46 GB NTFS Healthy (System).
>
>Then I see the 2nd drive as unallocated, 34.49 GB Unallocated?
>
>
>
>Does this make sense?
>
>
>
>Secondly, I noticed something gets loaded or during Windows startup, but in
>DOS mode. Could this be the NVIDIA RAID/SCSI Drivers I installed?
>
>
>
>But why would this be necessary? The reason I ask, is before XP loads, I see
>in DOS mode a progress bar, then windows loads. This seams odd to me, since
>the RAID are installed with XP during the installation procedure when I
>provide the manufactured Disk? Just find this old.
>
>
>
>Thanks for any information.
>