More ICH5R madness

[JNav89GT]

Ok first off I've setup raid O arrays on about 10 computers so I'm no stranger to this. But now I'm having problems and don't know what to do.
Got an Epox 4PAC3+ mobo to use in my prommy, and want to setup 2 160GB WD 8mb IDE drives using Abit Seriellel 2 SATA adapters on the ICH5R controller. The controller bios sees the drives and I configure a Stripe array. For some reason I can only see 300gb of storage, but anyway, I keep going. Boot from XP install CD, hit f6 and at point I specifiy driver as ICH5r raid driver etc....
then it gets to windows setup and it sees 2 drives. It should be seeing one drive as a big 300-320gb array right. That's how it's been in every other setup I've done :(
Maybe the intel raid does it different but I can't believe that, and I don't wanna waste the time to install OS and then find out I did something wrong.

anyone have ideas?

and yes I did go to Intels website and got the latest driver too for the f6 install

[althes]

did the intel raid build the array.
I set up a raid 5 last nite and the array had to be built.

[JNav89GT]

yeah I went into the sata raid bios and created an array of raid O/stripping etc...

But when goes into windows setup, despite loading F6/floppy drivers, it still sees 2 hd's :(

when I put the drives on the HPT 374 controller I can setup raid fine. But I wanted to try the ICH5R b/c I heard it was uber fast.

[Jupiler]

Strange.
I had no problem using 2*160Gb Samsung drives in Raid0 on my IC7-G.
Xp sees the drives as raid0.

Maybe installing the Intel raid software might help?

[JNav89GT]

well I'm trying to install OS onto the raid array and despite using the latest intel drivers for the raid it still sees 2 drives.

maybe it's an issue with using the seriellel adapters I dunno

[Jupiler]

I'm using 2 serilel2 adapters too and have no probs so far.
Have my OS installed on other HD, attached on SI controller.

Does explorer see your HD's as 1 large drive or as 2 seperate too?

[TysonM]

Sorry.. I stupidly did NOT read the whole post carefully before I posted my tip. (Latest ICH5R drivers from Intel website at http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/)

:cord:

[JNav89GT]

well XP setup sees the drives as 2 drives. Not one.

I haven't had an OS installed on a different HD yet to see if they would be seen as one drive on an up and running XP install.

That's the point. I don't want to install XP on this array if XP and or config is wrong.

I put the drives on my HPT controller on that board and installed and everything seems ok. But I'm not getting the benefit of the ICH5R then.

I used the latest drivers available at intels site as of yesterday for the F6 install they call it

[Soulburner]

In the BIOS do you have the SATA configured as RAID? I believe theres an option somewhere for yes/no.

EDIT n/m you're not using SATA, didn't read.

[JNav89GT]

Soul
yes I had the sata configured as a raid and sucessfully configured the raid O in the raid bios
but I couldn't get WinXP setup to see the array, it would see 2 hd's

then I switched to the HPT374 and just gave up on the ICH5R, but I would like to try it so I want to know why it didn't work

[Jupiler]

This is how it should look like :

[MudWhistle]

Firstly: The reason you are only seeing 300 GB (298 actually) is because hard drive manufacturers do not measure Gigabytes as 1024 MegaBytes but 1000 MegaBytes. Add that up, multiply 24*320 that = how many gigs you are losing because of false advertising. This is a well known fact, no big deal really.

I Have the exact same hard drives as you running on a hpt374 controller. 2*160 WD JB drives, Raid 0 Stripe. Windows only reports 298 megs or so.

Second: Are you sure it's reporting 2 independant hard drives within device manager or are you looking at the hard drive "controllers". This is also common with raid controllers, for the device manager to list multiple devices for onboard raid controllers. I'm assuming because you have setup "10" raid 0 stripe configurations before, you know the difference.

Have you tried benchmarking with any hard drive benchmark utilities like sandra or HDtach?, check to see if you are getting increased performance.


Let me know, good luck.

[JNav89GT]

No guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I appreciate help but we are getting our wires crossed.

Lemme try to explain more clearly b/c sometimes I don't effectively communicate, according to my wife that is :confused:

I cannot get WinXP to install a RAID array when it's on the ICH5R, the windows setup/install(not the OS as once installed at desktop etc..) sees 2 drives and I know this is wrong so I don't go farther. I would need to format each drive seperately and this would just not do for a raid array as I believe it would need to be formatted together. It should only see one drive roughly twice the size of the 2 drives I have in there. I have not tried putting another drive in the system and installing OS there and trying to see the other 2 drives on the controller b/c I don't have that kind of time to waste.

The Epox 4PCA3+ offers both the ICH5R raid via SATA and it ALSO has a HPT374 4 ide port IDE raid like the old Abit IT7Max board we all loved.
When I install WinXP on the raid channel of the HPT374 controller everything is fine, WinXP sees one bigger drive and I can install to that, I would just prefer to use the ICH5R controller.

[bigjohns97]

I say you update the bios, and then load winxp w/sp1 boot from cd and make sure you have the latest IAA drivers on your floppy. If you have already done all of that then install to the first drive it sees and see what happens. Maybe after you select the partition then it will format using ntfs and see it as one drive??

Really though you are going to have to use trial and error, the sata adapters are a variable that nobody is going to be able to give you help with.

[JNav89GT]

yeah I searched for new bios-none
got the latest intel drivers

tried formatting and no still see's as one drive

oh well. guess I'll just use the HPT374

someone tell me I'm not losing too much performance before I go off and buy a couple of sata drives :O

[MudWhistle]

JNav89GT:

Okay, so your having trouble during the setup of windows xp, during the install phase when you have to select your hard drive(s) for installation, it lists two drives instead of one.

Question: Were you using these 2 hard drives before you put them on your ICH5 Raid controller?, or were they brand new?

If they were already used, perhaps there is something left over, written to the boot sector on the hard drives and although you have created a raid 0 stripe with the ICH5 Raid controller, the util is not properly writing the information to the boot sectors.

One thing you could try just to elimitate any boot sector stuff is to use a win98se boot disk, and do a fdisk /mbr

or you could download a utility called delpart.exe, it will recognize any type of partition, and will allow you completly eliminate anything in your boot sector. Just do a google search for "delpart". It's a small freeware utility, put that on your 98 bootdisk, should fit just fine.

Once your certain nothing exists on the hard drives boot sector, flash to the latest bios, then re run your setup of raid 0 stripe with the ICH5 utility, and grab the latest raid drivers, hit F6 etc when windows prompts you for the drivers, load latest drivers.

See if that helps. If the drives are brand new, and this is the first time you have built a raid 0 stripe with these hard drives, then i'm not sure what is wrong with your setup.


Good luck.

[JNav89GT]

hrm
I did use one of these drives briefly in an XP setup and it did have a boot sector as it was bootable drive
i never thought of that b/c HPT controller can just overrite it.

I will do the Win98 boot disk fix mbr thing and see if that helps

thanks for the info

[drunkenmaster]

that shouldn't be the problem IMHO. However, with the ich5r you should have different levels of support for raid. Check manual, but in various 865/875 boards i've messed with, (from memory) there are like 3 diff modes, ide only, ide +sata non legacy mode(can do raid but only in win 98/me) and sata legacy mode which is what you need set for win xp setups. Which could be why install disk is messing up. I'm trying my hardest to remember which boards i've had with those specific options. I think the msi 875 did, the abit max 3 i think deffo did. I can't really remember which boards i bothered installing a raid array on.

[TechTones]

Doesn't he also need the Intel Accelerator Software for raid in xp?