RAID 0 hands during f ormat. IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS!!!

[vudoodoodoo]

EDIT: I meant RAID 0 HANGS during format. LOL

Ok so I saw that Best Buy had retail 320GB WD Caviar 16MB HD's on sale for $99. I grab 2. I go home and format and install windows XP Sp1 on one of them for now only in case I want to return one. Everythin goes fine and dandy. Windows installs and boots fine. I use it for about a day. Decided what the heck and wanted to do RAID0. I used nLite to slipstream nvidia Raid driver into my windows install. Everything is fine until it tries to format. It would just hang there at a certain percent. Mostly 5%. I reboot and try again and again and again. I tried w/ different windows disc, with RAID F6 floppy, with different ram, with different ram slot, with different disc order in raid, with SMART, w/o SMART... I'M GOING CRAZY!!!
I think I might have to exchange the drives. :(

X2 3800+
LP Ultra D
G.Skill PC4000 / Ballistix PC4000
WD Caviars. 320GB 16MB cache
WinXP SP1

[nn_step]

How long did you wait?

[Reinvented]

Which version of nlite were you using? I only ask because, 1.0 had problems where it would hang and corrupt.

Also, I believe you have to be using SP2 to run a RAID array. How about you give that a try?

[vudoodoodoo]

I'm using the latest version of nlite. Version 1.01 Final I think.
I tried SP1, SP2, XP64 and still no go.
I left it on last night w/ XP64 and it formatted to 100%... but it was just stuck there. For at least 20mins.
Sometimes I'd get BSOD too.
This sucks.

[[XC] itznfb]

format with partition magic, or partition expert before you try to install OS.

[vudoodoodoo]

I can boot w/ partition magic?

[[XC] itznfb]

yea, there is a bootable version. the copy i have is on 2 floppy disks.

[Adam217]

You could also try doing it with UBCD4Win, then just choose that partition to install to and not reformat it. http://www.ubcd4win.com/

[vudoodoodoo]

So... I went to Best Buy to exchange them for new ones. I had to go to 3 stores to find them. I guess they're hot items. ;)
The ones I got were the same models... but the casing is silverish. My first pair were black. Weird...
I installed them, but only get drive was detected. I fiddled around and found out that one of the SATA cables were bad... Maybe this whole thing was because of one bad SATA cable! LOL...
I want my black drives back. :o

[ge|atinousfury]

Ack, gotta hate bad cables. Glad you got everything sorted out though

[vudoodoodoo]

Just finished installing Windows. So far so good. :toast:

[vudoodoodoo]

Ran a quick HD Tach.
Nvidia RAID0 16k
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3715/hdtachmv5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)