I have just built a new Intel i7 workstation (my first build), I have 3 x 1TB Sata HDD installed, 2 of them are identical which I want to make RAID0 for video storage, the other to use as the system drive. Problem is I steamed ahead and installed vista Ultimate (64 bit) thinking I could set the RAID up in windows. I'm not really sure how to go about sorting this out? When I enter the motherboard BIOS and change the Disk array to RAID as opposed to IDE, windows will obviously not boot! After a read of the motherboard manual I tried setting the disk array to RAID and during post entered the disk utility function to set up the RAID. If I go ahead and select the 2 disks I want to RAID what happens to the existing Windows Vista install as it wont boot, will the RAID array delete the existing install? I only want to RAID 2 of the disks and leave the third for the operating system, is this possible as there only seems to be the option of either having the disk array IDE / RAID - Im guessing the third disk will just show in Vista but not sure. Before I set the RAID up in the BIOS should I change the boot options to boot from CD rom so I can install Vista again, I should mention I do not want the OS on the RAID array.

Can anyone offer me any help?

Thanks all.:confused:

If it were me I would start again.

Set up the raid array in bios, this should allow you too see two disks then. one at 2TB and 1TB.

When windows asks which one you want to install on, point it at the 1TB

Or perhaps if you unplug tthe 1 TB with windows on, set up the raid array, re-boot then plug in the Win drive and see if you can boot into windows and see the raid array.

I think ...................

HTH

You can either start again and have the bios RAID or get windows to do it all for you and stripe across the disks without involving the onboard "raid controller".

To be fair the difference between the "soft hardware" and the pure software RAID isn't that huge as the CPU is usually doing all the processing. The real advantage with a couple of the solutions is they have a built in xor engine to speed up rebuilds, however it's not like you're going use that on RAID1.

Pulling the disk then making it RAID won't work and the issue you have is the missing RAID driver.

It could be worth installing the RAID driver in vista, and checking the drives number. Then once you've configured RAID check it is there and in the same position.

Depending on the RAID solution there are a multitude of things that can cause issues.

Thanks for the help guys, I went down the BIOS route and it appears all good - only problem now is that the RAID is not showing in 'my computer' but if I go to disk management I can see the 2TB RAID drive but is all black as if its a Basic disk. There is no drive letter associated with it so should I right click on this and make it a dynamic volume? Or is my problem a missing RAID driver?

During POST I do get a message saying one of the HDD is not compatible in AHCPI or something like that, if I hit F1 to resume it boots fine, has this got something to do with it?

:confused:

Thanks for the help guys, I went down the BIOS route and it appears all good - only problem now is that the RAID is not showing in 'my computer' but if I go to disk management I can see the 2TB RAID drive but is all black as if its a Basic disk. There is no drive letter associated with it so should I right click on this and make it a dynamic volume? Or is my problem a missing RAID driver?

During POST I do get a message saying one of the HDD is not compatible in AHCPI or something like that, if I hit F1 to resume it boots fine, has this got something to do with it?

:confused:

What MObo is it ???

You can possibly disable AHCPI in the bios and see if that helps, if all three drives are the same I can't see how one is not compatible when the others are ???

The mobo is an Asus P6T Deluxe V2, the 2 raid drives are identical (Samsung) and the system drive is the same size, same spec but different manufacturer (western digital).

same spec but different manufacturer (western digital).

Ah right , that makes it a little more feasable that it's not compatible

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

Thats the DL page for boards raid/sata stuff try them and see how you get on like :)

Thanks for the help guys, I went down the BIOS route and it appears all good - only problem now is that the RAID is not showing in 'my computer' but if I go to disk management I can see the 2TB RAID drive but is all black as if its a Basic disk. There is no drive letter associated with it so should I right click on this and make it a dynamic volume? Or is my problem a missing RAID driver?

During POST I do get a message saying one of the HDD is not compatible in AHCPI or something like that, if I hit F1 to resume it boots fine, has this got something to do with it?

:confused:

Perfectly normal to see RAID devices (RAID 0 included) as a single disk the size of the array in windows.

Have you formatted the array with NTFS or something as you will need to do this.

As for the drive not being compatible, what drives are they (model Number) and what firmware versions.

I have'nt formatted the RAID array yet but as I said earlier I can see the full disk allocation as 1 drive in disk management so your suggestion sounds about right

I've got a couple things to try now so will go and give it a bash and post back. Honestly building the thing was the easy bit

Thanks for all the help.

Okay, using the advice above I installed / updated all the drivers and then initialised the disk in disk management, I named and formatted the RAID NTFS and is now showing in 'my computer'. Great success! The volume is currently shown as a basic disk (1.81TB), should I convert this to Dynamic or will it function as RAID 0 as a simple / basic disk?

Okay, using the advice above I installed / updated all the drivers and then initialised the disk in disk management, I named and formatted the RAID NTFS and is now showing in 'my computer'. Great success! The volume is currently shown as a basic disk (1.81TB), should I convert this to Dynamic or will it function as RAID 0 as a simple / basic disk?

Leave it as a basic disk if you want an easy life IMHO.

It will already be functioning as RAID 0 due to the bios mapping it as a single logical disk.

Have you sorted the other disc out yet and if not, what disk is it and what firmware version?

Leave it as a basic disk if you want an easy life IMHO.

It will already be functioning as RAID 0 due to the bios mapping it as a single logical disk.

Have you sorted the other disc out yet and if not, what disk is it and what firmware version?

Excellent I'll leave it as is! Not sorted the system disk yet, Im guessing this is the one that gives me the error message AHCPI not compatible as the RAID is all set up now, the disk is a 1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS. I am guessing this is only some kind of power saving function so I need'nt be too concerned other than having to hit F1 to resume the boot sequence. Im not sure what Firmware version it is - how do I check this, it was an OEM drive so I have no packaging or info with it.

Excellent I'll leave it as is! Not sorted the system disk yet, Im guessing this is the one that gives me the error message AHCPI not compatible as the RAID is all set up now, the disk is a 1TB Western Digital WD1001FALS. I am guessing this is only some kind of power saving function so I need'nt be too concerned other than having to hit F1 to resume the boot sequence. Im not sure what Firmware version it is - how do I check this, it was an OEM drive so I have no packaging or info with it.

You can either look at the drive when it boots or from in windows.

If you don't have the latest firmware it might be worth getting it and the tool to apply it from WD before you start putting too much data etc on there.

Bit of an update. Asus tech support asked me to disconnect the HD audio cable from the front panel of my case and reinstall the Sound Max drivers which seems to have worked, I now have audio from the rear panel.

I still dont have any warning beeps from the case/mobo so I must have the 2 pin speaker cable plugged into the mobo incorrectly. Will have a fettle later tonight and see what happens.

SOLUTION:

First off there is no sound from the mobo simply because the Antec 1200 case has no speaker! What a doofus.

Secondly the error message I was getting during post "SATA 1 ATAPI incompatible. Press F1 to resume" was caused by me first installing the OS with IDE disks then changing the BIOS to RAID and reinstalling. The solution was to clear the CMOS (switch the jumpers on mobo), change the boot priority in the BIOS back to my system disk and change the HDD to RAID. I got lucky in that it seemed to preserve my previous RAID0 array so didnt bother deleting and creating it again. Job Done!