Using RAID on Asus M/B - how? Have to reformat all? 1

[BJDobson]

I want to use my RAID capabilities on my new Asus P4C800 deluxe M/B but have one drive all installed and set up with win xp pro and tons of stuff on it. I want to use RAID as a mirror as I have lost TWO hard drives in the past six months to glitches in the drives/bad drives and have lost over a day restoring everything, not to mention the headaches.

Is it possible to use RAID without reformatting both drives to be used and start all over again? Can you use two almost identical drives, one 20 mb and one 30 mb or so? (I don't care about only having 20 mb, that's lots for me).

I want a backup - FULL backup, updated daily if possible, because I work from home and RAID seems to be the best sounding solution. Ghost is not really good enough and definitely not instaneous to keep on working like I could with RAID but I do NOT want to erase everything on my C drive and start again. Can anyone help??????

 

[jsauce]

Well with RAID 1 or mirroring, I do not think the first drive has to be empty, but for mirroring purposes the second drive will have to be since the contents of the first drive will be copied to the second drive. And just out of curiosity, 20mb and 30mb drives? Also You obviously cant properly mirror a bigger drive to a smaller drive but mirroring a smaller drive to a bigger drive is no problem.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[BJDobson]

Sorry, I mean 30 GB & 40 GB, the 40 GB being the empty one.

 

[nlm9802]

buy or borrow a 3rd hard drive as close as possible to the specs of your new 40GB drive, leave the c:\ in the regular IDE, run the 2 new ones off the RAID IDE, and set up the array as prompted in the bootup process, mirror, format, etc.. reboot and set up the partitions in disk management.

now.. did you want the entire c:\ drive on the mirror or just specific files/applications?

I am running a p4c800e dlx, with a 40GB hdd on ide1 for the OS, and 2 80GB drives in a raid0 (striped) array. I basically just use the 2 80's to install anything not related to the OS, and as storage space. granted it is not fault tolerant, but I am after performance.. raid1 should work exactly the same, with less performace, but also with fault tolerance.

if you don't go out and buy a new hard drive I do not think there's a way to set up the mirror without formatting.

 

[BJDobson]

I want the entire C drive mirrored... so it's writing all the info to both drives at once. I work from home and having everything die and have to reinstall costs me a day's work. This way, I can just keep on going, get a new hard drive, replace the broken one and off I go again.

I have plenty of performance as it is now.

So you're saying I cannot use my present C drive and another drive as the RAID drives/mirror without formatting them both and starting again from scratch?

I did a Ghost copy of my C drive... but I've never used it yet and don't know if I can just restore the image to a blank drive or if I have to reinstall all the programs and it just gives me back the data or what. Do you know? If that's the case, I'll get my two drives (one is 30, one is 40), arrange them in the RAID system, put the image on each and off I go.

The problem is, I have NO idea how to set up a RAID array. Do you know where I can find a tutorial on it? Or do you have any info you could send me? bjdobson@ns.sympatico.ca.

I really appreciate your help. Thanks so much.

Brenda

 

[jsauce]

Okay I pulled this from your manual. First you do not need to format both drives unless you are using RAID 0. If this was raid 0 both drives have to be cleared. Directly from your manual:

If you are creating a RAID 0 (striping) array for performance use two new hard drives.

If you are creating a RAID 1 (mirroring) array for protection, you can use two new hard drives or use an existing drive and a new drive. (The new one must be the same size or larger than the existing one.)

SETUP:

1. Set the jumpers of each hard drive. (Master/Slave)

2. Install the hard disks into the drive bays.

3. Connect the HDD cables.
a) Connect two parallel ATA HDDs to PRI_RAID controller and one serial ATA HDD to either one of the two serial ATA connectors, using separate parallel ATA or serial ATA cables.
or
b) Connect one serial ATA HDD to each serial ATA controller using separate serial ATA cables.

4. Connect the power cable to the power connector on each drive.

5. Boot the system and enter the bios setup utility.

6. Go to the Advanced menu in bios and set the appropriate IDE configuration settings.
Onboard IDE operate mode: Enhanced
Enhanced Mode Support on: S-ATA
Configure S-ATA as RAID: YES
Serial ATA BootROM: Enabled

7. Save your settings and exit setup.

CREATING ARRAY:

1. Boot the system.
If this is the first time you boot the system with the new hard disks installed and connected the MB/Fasttack Bios display comes up.

2. Press CTRL+F simultaneously to bring up the Fast Build utility. Here I'll skip creating RAID0 since you don't want to strip but rather use mirroring.

3. Press 1 to select auto setup.

4. Use the arrow keys to select Optimize Array and select security with the space bar. The mode field displays mirror.

5. Press Ctrl+Y to save your selection.

6. A message will will displayed asking you whether you want the disk image to be duplicated to another. Press Y to select YES.

7. It will ask you to choose a source drive. use the arrow keys to select the source drive.

8. Press CTRL+Y to save selection and start duplication.

9. A message will appear asking you to press Y if you are sure you want to continue. Press Y.

10. When everything is finished a message will appear telling you your security array has been created.

11. Press any key to reboot the system.

12. Install the raid driver from the support CD that came with your motherboard that corresponds with your operating system.


That should do it, and it should be mirroring correctly now.




John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[BJDobson]

Thanks so much!! Got it now!!!

 

[jsauce]

No problem. That's what we are here for.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[nlm9802]

awesome.

I never tried the mirror just assumed it would be the same as striping. Learned something new today

 

[Rascii]

This is the same issue I am facing, only my manual says that all data will be destroyed upon creating a Raid set (even mirror) I have an HP xw 6200 workstation.

http://h200005.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00257198/c00257198.pdf

My question is, if I create a ghost image of the single drive and restore it unto the Raid set will I be able to boot? Is there a way to add the Raid drivers after the ghost image is applied that are needed to boot? Has anyone done this? (i.e. I wouldn't be able to hit F6 to add SCSI drivers)?
Thanks