Help with dual sata Raid 0

[Leaf[dpa]]

Well first of all I built a computer with help from a comp usa technician. It was my first computer so I had no idea how to install the drivers or the controllers, so I relied on them to take care of that. Upon taking my computer home I realized they didn't install the sound drivers or any of the other drivers. It was only recently that I checked my hardrives (which were supposed to be dual sata's set on raiding 0) and only one of them was actually running. I'm going to try to do this myself so I just wanted to ask for some help. I have done my research and know I have to wipe my hardrives and have already backed up all my data. I just need to know how to delete my hard drives and set them on raid 0. Just so you know, I have an asus motherboard (A8N-SLI Deluxe) and Silicon Image 3114 with two dual Sata drives (100 gigs each) Please respond!

 

[RGP]

Hi,
Hey just a question and from your answer I'll try and help you with the raid install. Ok the question: "how many gigs was the one hard drive showing when you checked it? The reason I ask is because if you run dual satas in raid 0, you will only see one drive and that being C:\ if it is done correctly. RAID combines the total Hard drive space in to one physical drive. If you have 2 60gig sata Hard drives and you run it in raid 0 you will see only one drive that should be close to the total of both drives. ie, 118, 119gigs.

I'll check back tomorrow and see what you have to say.

Later
RGP

 

[gR3iF]

copy your s-ata driver on a floppy!!!!
you can cut the one hdd in 2 pieces under windows

baically on your board while bootup there is a screen where you have to press "tab" or another thing dont know exactly then you are in the s-ata controller menu where u can easy build a raid 0 then your hdds are formnatted and will show up as one but do two partitions on them then u can format only the windows one next time and u can backup all your things local

 

[Leaf[dpa]]

Well I'm positive it wasn't running on raid 0 because the second hard drive wasn't even formatted :/ And drive
C had like 98 gigs all together as it was supposed to.... I also remember the technician leaving shortly after and I'm pretty sure he didn't do anything to put the drives together for Raid 0 And since they were both 100 gigs it should show up as 200 right? One of them wasn't even a paritition so it's just sitting there doing nothing with nothing on it...

 

[RGP]

Hi,
Ok if your bios has the sata and raid controler enabled, then when you boot your system there will be an info screen that says "To enter RAID controler press F10" or it will tell you to press some key to enter the RAID controller, not sure just how your mobo does it.

It happens quick so be ready to press the key, when you are in RAID controler it will list your drives and show you just what type of raid they are setup in. To make it RAID 0 just add both drives from the list to where it ask you to add them. There should be a menu box at the top of the screen that has what type of setup you are doing, stripe, mirror ect. Select the one you want before you add any of your drives and make sure every thing is set they way you want before you ok the setup and exit the controller.

Once this is done, just boot from your Windows CD and follow the instructions of Windows setup. You will be ask by windows setup at the start if you want to install any sata, raid drivers and to press F6 do do so, press F6 and when Windows setup has finised installing the main setup drivers it will go to a screen asking you to insert your floppy disk that has your drivers on it for your sata raid. Press "S" to do this and insert your floppy, if you have two drivers that need to be installed, you just press "S" again and install the second driver.

Now that your sata raid drivers are installed, Windows setup will take you to the next step and show you what drives you have and ask you which one you want to install windows on, if there is a previous version of windows installed it will ask if you want to repair or install a fresh copy, this is where you may have some trouble.

I would just make sure your hard drive is the correct size for your raid 0 and then delete the partition and create a new one on that drive. Then you just have to tell Windows setup to install on that drive and it will format and run setup as normal.

If you decide to remove the partition and create a new one, just make sure you partition it with all of the disk space that windows setup shows.

Any way that is about it so I hope you understand what I typed and it helps you.


Later
RGP

 

[Leaf[dpa]]

When I go into it and try to show the drives it is blank... Either it's just running regular or it can't recognize them... What should I do?

 

[RGP]

Hi,
Well if I were you I'd take that compute back to comp usa and have them redo what they didn't do the first time, tell them just exactly you want and if they seem like they don't understand you find a tech that does.

Your understanding of what we are trying to do is limited and I mean no disrespect to you but it would be easier for you if you took it back or found some one that knows what to do and was there at your computer with you.

The steps are simple, 1. Enable sata and raid in bios. 2. Enter Raid controller via dos menu. 3. Mount your hard drivers in raid controller. 4 Boot from Windows CD and press F6 at startup screen and install sata raid driver from floppy. 5. Continue with Windows install and follow instructions via Windows setup screen.

1. Do you have a RAID controller screen come up when you boot?
2. If you do and your drives don't show up, they might not be sata drives.
3. If you know for sure they are sata and not IDE then some thing isn't enabled in bios
4. If they are not sata drives and are IDE you can still run raid 0, just make sure raid is enabled in bios.
5. I'm just fishing here, this is not easy trying to figure out what is wrong with your system via this forum.

Later
RGP

 

[Leaf[dpa]]

1. I have a raid controller screen that comes up directly after the mother board screen comes.

2. They are SATA drives (I checked through my motherboard)

3. I know I'm not too sure about this one is there any way to check?

4. My IDE drives are set as my disc drives.

5. I realize this is not easy and I thank you greatly for your time thus far.