XP can't see IDE RAID array 2

[nob1]

I have a machine with XP installed on a WD Raptor (74GB)HDD. My motherboard has a IDE RAID controller (GigaRAID IT8212) I have set up a couple of IDE drives as a RAID array and XP sees the array in system info and in control panel hardware devices but not in My Computer. So I am unable to use the array. The IDE disks have been formatted but are empty of data. Any ideas? Would be grateful for any suggestions.

 

[Freestone]

Start, Run, diskmgmt.msc

Does the RAID drive show up there?

 

[Wishdiak]

nob1,

Are you running XP Home or Professional?

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[nob1]

Sorry I got called away. I'm running XPhome on that machine Wishdiac. I'll answer Freestone when I've run the machine up again. Thanks, you guys are the best.

 

[nob1]

Hello Freestone, I ran diskmgr - the array shows up there but it's in black and it says it's 'UNALLOCATED'. Not sure what that means. Can anyone help?

 

[Freestone]

Unallocated means XP sees the drive, but nothing has been defined on it. The drive must be partitioned and formatted before it can be used. How you partition and format it is up to you. Be aware that XP will create a maximum volume size of 32GB if using its FAT32 filesystem. It will support greater sizes, but these partitions must be created and formatted by a different OS or tool. NTFS does not have this size limitation. For more information on this see:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

Right-click in the black unallocated area, then select New Partition. While creating the partition or partitions, you can select that they be formatted too.

 

[nob1]

Brilliant! My mistake was in thinking that because the drives had been formatted seperately (NTFS) then the array would not need formatting but of course it does. Great stuff. I'll never stop learning from this site. Thanks all.