update
since setting up raid the Sata optical (CD/DVD/re-writer etc.....) dont show in bios or on boot list so basically untill windows loads they are not accesible which meant I had to take out the ancient IDE connector and link up DVD drive from my ex rig. Ive google "setting up raid M3A32" and found only only 2 others having a similiar setup with the same prob, so far there is no fix for this but if you got summat I can try I will give it a shot.
this is what I did;
tried my 2 raid HD's in ports 1 + 2 (red colored for this motherboard), with my backup sata drives connected to ports 3 + 4, my Sata DVD drives connected to the marvel ports (5 + 6)
tried raid setup with optical connected to ports 3+4
tried using a PCI sata/raid card and connected the sata optical drives to this
(someone has tried setting up raid on the marvel ports 5+6 so I didnt try that)
Iv tried all the possible settings in bios too
anyhow, I setup raid by;
changing "onboard sata type" to raid, CTRL+F for menu during post, deleted the "LD" - option 3 (only because my drives were setup as AHCI before, someone trying to setup using an IDE setup may not have to delete LD's)
Then option 2 "define LD" cant remember exactly the next few screens but I think the first 1 is to choose the drives you want to raid, then to choose what type of raid you want. I know one of the last screens asks if you want the maximum size for the raid.
booted up using windows cd and installed windows vista.
according to the partitionin guide its best to format the pagfile/temp drive as fat32 and then using performance options in windows set the pagefile to any chosen minimum but the maximum being double your RAM, when I formatted using fat 32, I kept getting error maximum "must be equal to or more then the mimimum and not exceed 4096 MB" tried loads different values but yeh cant set max higher than 4096, but still get the error, so to work round this I tried setting both max and min the same amount. This worked but could not set both to 4096, 4000 works though!
As I partitioned the Pagefile/temp drive to 20GB and my RAM being 4GB I wanted more then just 4000 MB as my pagefile, so I tried formatting using NTFS now I could set any amount I wanted.
First boot - Vista loads uses about 500-700 MB ram, after updating it uses 900-1000MB, after installing SP1 and isntalling all updates/drivers programs and games it uses 1100-1700MB, but sometimes if left idle long enough itl go below 1000MB.
anyhow thanks for the replies/help, I had to install vista 3 times
my fault, when I went to install the graphics drivers I checked ATI site and found 8.4 drivers, so I installed "catalyst Software suite" basically isntalls everything, soon as comp shuts down it would not load into windows at all, no safe mode, cannot do a repair via windows cd either so that was the first install down the drain, second time I felt like being smart and made a restore point before I installed the new catalyst software suite, so this time I rebooted thinkin if it fcks up I can do a restore. Same crap happend and I tried repair via windows CD which then lets you choose restore (after repair fails) but this didnt work
, windows repair also gives an option to use backup/restore a entire computer but I dont know if this will work after this type of prob...
That was the second install down the drain lol,
I had 8.3 installed before I setup raid so I knew they worked but remembered the first time I updated from 8.1 I had the same prob and I fixed it by downloading and install the drivers seperately then installing CCC seperately and then finally Avivo. So on the third install I did exactly that and its worked
Iv now made a complete computer backup just incase as its still early days of my first ever raid setup, but just incase your wondering why dont you have back/restore on windows, probably because it comes with Vista Ultimate only? Im not sure anyhow Ive just done all my programs and games now so will make a new back, plus later install Acronis and make a back up using that just in case..
Windows is alot faster, boot time is 50% faster now and overall everything install's downloads etc faster. Gaming is slightly faster.
Iv turned UAC off and set superfetch to "2" default is "3" which loads everything you would use into ram on boot. changin it to "1" will just load boot requirements (hence being the fastest) but with my rig Im happy to keep it at 2 which I think loads the boot requirements with a few programs into ram. also taken system restore off since this has been a part of windows Iv never used it and even when I have (for a comp Iv fixed for others) I still feel like it stores the crap which can cause issues somewhere which can then later on come back again.
