'Deleting' RAID0 to use two seperate hard drives

[cravincreeks]

Hello all,

My father recently gave me his 'old' PC, a VPR Matrix 226R. I have a Windows XP install disk and I've decided to completely reinstall XP since I won't be needing a lot of the software he has on the computer - I also want the improved performance that you get with a fresh OS install and don't want to have to do this down the road after I've transferred all of my files to this box.

The computer has an 80 GB HDD and a 100 GB HDD and they are currently configured in a RAID0 stripe array - which was very appropriate for the video editting my father did with this box. But I won't be using this computer to do a lot of I/O intensive tasks. I'd also like to have the seperate hard drives so I can back up files from one to the other. But I definitely do not want to mirror data on both harddrives - I want to have the full 180 GB storage capacity, not the effective 90 GB I'd get with a mirroring RAID system.

So how do I 'delete' RAID array and get a fresh install with WinXP? Yes, I have 'deleted' the array in the RAID configuration utility. But after doing so, the WinXP installation process says that it can't find a mass storage device and that the set up process cannot continue.

In the WinXP set up, I have tried loading the RAID driver and the installation program did detect the HDD. But when it was time to format the disk, only one drive (C was listed. But this won't let me have the two seperate drive onto which I can back up files from the other.

It does not appear that this box has a hardware RAID controller - the harddrive cables attach directly to the motherboard. But can some mother boards have RAID controllers built into them?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Alex

 

[stduc]

The Mobo probably has built in RAID. You need to unconfigure the RAID setup in the BIOS first. Basically look for a setting that indicates no striping and no mirroring.

Then boot the XP Installation CD. Do not install any special RAID drivers, you won't be needing them.

You will need to re-partition and re-format at least one of the HDD's as part of the XP installation process. You can do the one you intend to be the secondary HDD later if you wish.

 

[cravincreeks]

Thanks for your reply. I looked in the BIOS 'proper' for any RAID settings and could not find any. But I could enter a RAID set up utility, more specifically "Fast Build Utility 1.32 by Promise Technology". It contains an Auto Set Up utility where you can specify that you'd like to optimize the RAID for:

1)Performance (Stripe)
2)Security (Mirror) - also says not available
3)Capacity (Span) - also not available

I didn't see any setting for 'no striping' or 'no mirroring'. I could, however, delete the array and I tried that. But as I tried to install XP from the CD, it reported the no hard drive was found.

Do I need to be looking in the BIOS 'proper'? If so, please provide some details about what to look for ...

If I can get around this hurdle, I do intend to fully format the HDDs.

Thanks again!

Alex

 

[smah]

I don't know about this specific controller, but here's my guess... You are on the right track - when installing windows you will need to load the appropriate drivers for windows to see your [sata?] hard drives.

My guess is that, using the raid utility, you will need to set each drive as it's own array (striped because you won't have any other choice). I think that you currently have 1 set this way, but the other is not part of any array, that's why windows doesn't see it during the installation (with drivers).

Steve

 

[stduc]

See if you can make them stripes of 1 disk each.