Mirrored Raid Array with multiple partitions Questions? 1

[CAGERATTLER]

Hello all,

As of 2 days ago i knew nothing about Raid Arrays and have been doing alot of research to get some answers and came across this board and it looks like just the right place to get some.

My HD has been acting up and I figured it was time to replace it and wanted to do something to prevent data loss as i use this PC for my business as well as gaming.

I picked up two 120 gig ultra ata hd's and have ordered an IDE Raid controller card and want to setup a Raid 1 (mirrored) array with them and do a fresh XP Pro install.

Now my question .... besides a good step by step procedure ......... is:

On my old HD, I had it setup in 3 partitions.

one for the OS and necessary files & one for programs and games & one for data and downloads.

This as you probably know makes it easy when you have a problem and need to reformat and can just reformat the C drive with the OS and not have to worry about copying and saving all my data and programs and then putting them back on.

Can this be done with a mirrored RAID as well?

And if so what procedures do i need to follow to do this correctly?

Can i do that just like i normally would with a single hard drive and not loose the data on the 2nd & 3rd partitions?

Will it remember the Raid setup or will i have to start from scratch everytime i reformat?


A few other questions i have is about the best way to go about this.

Should i install a single drive 1st and then install XP Pro and then install the PCI raid controller and drivers and then add the 2nd hard drive?

Or is it easy enough to do it all at once?

Ive found this tutorial but am not sure how up to date it is and it certainly makes it look pretty easy to do what i want to do.

http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/RAID.htm

And actually ......... after re reading it again ..... I believe its answered some of my own questions ... lol.

But i would love to get some feedback and some info so i can be sure i dont screw this up ... lol.

Thanx in advance.

 

[Freestone]

Can this be done with a mirrored RAID as well?

yes

Can i do that just like i normally would with a single hard drive and not loose the data on the 2nd & 3rd partitions?

yes

Will it remember the Raid setup or will i have to start from scratch everytime i reformat?

Hardware-based RAID setup has nothing to do with drive partitioning, so you won't lose the RAID setup when formatting partitions.

Should i install a single drive 1st and then install XP Pro and then install the PCI raid controller and drivers and then add the 2nd hard drive?

This won't work as the array must be defined first, then the RAID drivers supplied to XP during install. Install the controller card and the two drives, then create the mirror set through the controller's BIOS. During the initial setup of XP, you'll see at the bottom of the screen a prompt to press F6 to install 3rd party drivers. You'll want to press F6 and use the diskette containing the RAID driver written for XP. You'll probably have to create this diskette from (I am assuming) the vendor supplied CD.

If you plan on retrieving data from your old drive, I suggest you first remove it from the system before installing XP on your new RAID mirror set. If the old drive and it' partitions are seen by XP during install, there is no guarantee on drive letter assignment and your new XP install may very well end up on F: drive. When I say remove the old drive, I don't mean remove it physically; removal of the IDE cable from it is sufficient.

You'll also have to look at the boot order defined in your PC's BIOS. You'll have to figure out the correct entry to make your PC boot from the RAID controller.

 

[CAGERATTLER]

Thanx for the info .... just what i wanted to hear.

 

[CAGERATTLER]

Well i have my system up and running but im not positive if the raid is setup properly.

Im only seeing 1 HD with the 3 partitions so that looks right (since its 2 HD's on a mirrored raid) but whenever i boot up ........ it says the "raid setup is not complete" and to hit F3 to go into the utility.

Thee i have the choice of creating a raid, deleteing a raid, check for problems and something else i cant remember.

I tried hitting the check for errors and it just blinks for a second and nothing else.

Im afraid to delete it and start from scratch at the moment because i dont want to loose everything i just put on.

Can i delete the raid array and creat a new one and not loose everything ive done so far?

also is there anywhere i can see if both HD's are being seen and making the copies correctly?

Should i be able to see them both in Disk management?

I really hate start all over with this but will if necessary.

Also another reason i think something is wrongis ........ in the device manager its showing my drive as:

"Sil Raid 1 Set 0 SCSI Disk Device" and i dont have a SCSI drive...mine are Seagate ATA Ultra 100 drives.

And when i run the Disk Wizard to test the drives it's not seeing any drives.

any info would be appreciated.

 

[stduc]

I assume you are booting off your original disk and have set up the two new disks on the RAID controller?

Do you want to continue this way? Or, do you want to make the RAID a bootable system?.

If continue, then you need to install the RAID drivers onto your existing system, re-boot and then make the RAID.

If, as I fear, you have attempted to RAID your existing HD - it will only work properly with disks of the same capacity.

To RAID 1 an existing disk.

1. install the RAID card

2. Move existing disk to RAID card

3. install the RAID drivers

4. install the second disk

5. In the RAID utility - select make RAID and copy from existing disk to new disk. (Take care here - it is SO easy to copy the wrong way!

That's it.

You could install the 2 new disks to the RAID card. install the drivers & tell it to make a RAID 1 - then format & partition the disks. Then use something like GHOST to copy over your data & O/S to the new disk(s) and finally reconvigure your BIOS to boot off the RAID. You shouyld still be able to see your old disk and when ready, either remove it - or use it for backups?

 

[CAGERATTLER]

I took the old disk completely out of the system and did a fresh install with the 2 new disks.

The thing keeps beeping and clicking every time i click on something or do anything .......... and i believe its my power supply causing that.

I unhooked one of the drives and it stopped doing it.

Also it didnt start till i installed my video drivers for my Gforce 6800 GT card.

I believe its just pulling to much power ...... but i have an antec 480 watt power supply so i figured that should handle it fine ...... guess not.

 

[jurgen36]

I do not believe its your power supply unless its faulty. You have to sett up the raid array "BEFORE" you install XP, then fdisk the array and format it, then hit f6 on the first screen of the xp installation, then follow the prompts. Have the drivers ready on a floppy. This will install the raid array in the only and proper way.

Regards the power supply: I am using 10 drives in 3 raid 0 arrays plus dual processors with a 350 watt high quality industrial type supply. No problems at all.I know its at the limit but it works. However an Antec 500 watt supply does not boot up with all the drives but can handle 5 drives ok. So the actual power quotet does not mean much regardless of the manufacturer.
Regards


Jurgen

 

[CAGERATTLER]

Ive actually removed the raid and 1 of the drives and reformatted with just 1 120 gig drive and im still having crashes and freezes.

I need to find the problem before i attempt the raid array again.

This is getting real aggravating .... lol......... and im not sure what the problem is at this point.

Every now and then i get a beep and some cliking causeing the pc to stutter or even freeze and have to manually reboot.

I installed one of my games in here ....... and when i attempt to run it ........ i get non stop beaping and eventually it locks up.

These are the 2 main errors im seeing in the system event viewer.

This onoe keeps showing as a warning one after another about 5 times:

"An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation."

and this usually comes right after the warnings:

"The device, \Device\Scsi\pnp680r1, did not respond within the timeout period."

(pnp680r1) is my raid controller card.

Once again i see scsi in there ......... is that normal even know my HD is ATA?

 

[stduc]

Sounds to me like the HD has the dreaded 'click of death'. Download the manufacturers diagnostic & check it out.

 

[Freestone]

I agree with stduc that the clicking sound is likely the hard drive. However, continuous beeping I do believe is indicating a CPU overheating condition. While installing the new drives and RAID controller, did you disturbed the CPU heatsink and/or its cooling fan? Perhaps you could try some software monitoring tools to observe your CPU temperature.

 

[CAGERATTLER]

Well i have asus probe running and my CPU temp runs no higher than 120 F at load and normal running temp is usually 110 - 115 F.

I went into the BIOS and lowered my XP2500+ down to a XP1900+ and i dont get all the clicking & beeping. ....... so im not sure what to think about that.


I nopw have removed the controller card and hooked up the one HD back to the IDE port on the motherboard.

Its running a bit more stable and im not getting all the stuttering and lock ups now.

But ......... it takes forever for things to load now.

I downloaded HDTACH and with ther HD hooked to the raid controller card ....... my speed was at 89.9 but now since i moved it back to the IDE port its down to 3.6

Since i formatted the drive with in the controller card ....... and then connected it to the IDE port .......... is that whats causing the slow down?

Is there any settings i can do to get it back to speed?

I hate to re install everything again.

 

[Freestone]

I think you should concentrate on getting your system to work at the CPU spec'ed speed and concentrate on your I/O speed secondary.

Has this system ever worked properly? Is the CPU rated at 2500+ or were you overclocking?

Any chance you can try a different power supply?

Have you tried runing any memory test, such as memtest86?

Hve you set memory to defaults and tried the CPU at its rated speed?

Can you give us specs on your PC?

 

[CAGERATTLER]

Yes the system has been working fine for over a year since i last updated till the old hard drive started acting up.

Its an XP2500+ and hasnt been overclocked.

I dont have a spare power supply to test it with.

Havent done a memory test but will look for memtest86.

memory and CPU are at defaults.

CPU: AMD XP2500+
Mobo: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe v2.0
Drives: Two - 120 GIG Seagates, CD/RW & DVD
Memory: Two 512 PC3200 Ram - matched
Power: Antec True 480
Video: Leadtek Gforce 6800 GT
Sound: Audigy 2
Case: Full Tower w/ 3 120mm case fans

 

[CAGERATTLER]

I downloaded memtest86 but it just kept re-booting my PC.

I then tried Windows Memory Diagnostic and it ran fine and found no errors.

Are the any test programs for CPU's or Power Supplies or Motherboards?

 

[Freestone]

I come up with about 300 watts for your system at:

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Power_Supply_Calculator.php

Memtest86 at

http://www.memtest86.com/

shouldn't cause your PC to reboot.

I'm unclear just what drive is in your machine at this point. Is it the drive that originially caused the problem, or one of the new Seagates?

 

[CAGERATTLER]

Its one of the new seagates and its doing the same as the old was doing.

In fact i just re-installed again on the other new drive and now all 3 are giving me the lock up when i scroll my mouse wheel. I get a beep and then a couple clicks and within 30 seconds its locked up solid.

This is getting real aggravating too and i would love to narrow down the problem so i cant get back some stability.

 

[CAGERATTLER]

The funny part is its something that simple that locks me up ........... but yet i run Battlefield 2 silky smoothe .... and that is a big resourse hog.