Asus M2R32-MVP-Help me Setup Raid 0 on this new build today please!!

[LifeOnMars]

Hi Guys, so I finally got all my components today and built my first ever budget PC rig for gaming. To say I was pooing it all the way through building it is an understatement But I did it and it turned on, posted and everything woo hoo So to help you with answering my eventual question, here are the parts of my build -

Motherboard - ASUS M2R32-MVP AM2 AMD 580x Crossfire

PSU - Corsair 620HX Modular

CPU - AMD 6000x2 @ 3ghz

CPU Cooler - Coolermaster Vortex

Memory - 2x 1gb 800 Kingston DDR2

Optical Drive - 20xDVD-/+RW SONY DRU

Hard Drives - 2 x 250gb WD 250AAKS SATA II

GPU - Powercolour HD 4850

OS - Windows Vista Premium 32 bit edition

So, as I said it posted and I went into the bios, cpu reported correctly and at the correct speed. Full Allocation of memory was there and at the correct speed. Both hard drives were identified and also the DVD was shown and identified.
Ok so being a novice I didnt know what to do to start setting up the RAID and installing the OS. Anyways, found a description of setting up raid 0 in the motherboard manual and followed that. It allocated it fine. Then rebooted and set boot device priority to DVD first, then the hard drives. Then inserted Vista disc rebooted and it started installation. Took a while but then said CD/DVD device is missing a driver, insert disk/usb/etc.. to locate and install drivers. Tried all the disks that come with motherboard and didnt locate anything....Reset and tried again, same result. So then I thought oh, maybe i have to allocate raid once vista is installed. So set it to ACHPI (? is that right) rather than RAID and it installed Vista fine without asking for anything but now I find I cannot enable RAID as when I try to boot it just says missing OS. If i set it back to ACHPI it boots up fine but its like I have just the one disk drive.

I am lost..... Total NOOB alert. Please can someone guide me through what should have been the correct installation process if I want a fully working RAID 0 system or if I can now enable it even though VISTA is installed on just the one hard drive.. Basically I need help big time. Other than that everything seems to be running sweet

If you read it all that lot and are still willing to help me I applaud you and you will have a friend for life Thanks in advance.

 

[sneekypeet]

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?p=4141382
^^ might help!?!?

 

[LifeOnMars]

Ok thankyou that may possibly help...if I could get my noob head around it So can anyone explain the normal procedure for a clean installation of 32bit Vista with RAID 0, a concise step by step would be very helpful for my puzzled brain.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Well, i've had my system 5 days now and its all running smoothly, processor oc'd to 3.15, HD 4850 slightly overclocked....only problem is im still only using 1 hard drive. I still have no answers for installing RAID can anyone please help me complete my system as i planned it ?

 

[kenkickr]

First you need to make sure the raid drivers are on a Flash drive or floppy disc before you do anything.Now you need to go into your bios and make sure ATI IDE is set to RAID or Marvell RAId or PCI Option is turned onto RAID, depends on which controller you are using (Should be under Onboard devices). Now when your system is booting up you will see a Marvell 88SE61XX or ATI RAID screen popup. Watch for the key combo that will allow you to go in and setup your raid config. Once you have raid setup in here make sure your vista disc is in your Rom drive and reboot. Now During the Vista install at first it will not be able to see your raid configured HD but you should have an option to LOAD or Install Drivers. Make sure your Flash drive or floppy disc is in and Install the RAID device driver. Now you should be able to see your Raid configured HD's. Pretty much everything from there is the same. Hope that helps you out.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Just reading up on the ASUS forum for my specific board it seems there may be problems installing VISTA + RAID 0 with a sata optical drive on this board......interesting. Will try your method later ken and let you know if I am succesful...also, anyone else who may have or once had this particular board, please let me know your thoughts.

 

[kenkickr]

If your trying to setup raid on the ATI controller with a SATA drive then you will have some problems. My Raptor raid is on the Marvell controller while my Lite-On burners(SATA) and 500Gb Seagate(SATA) are on the ATI controller and it's set to IDE. Hope I helped ya out.

 

[LifeOnMars]

:/ possibly....which sata ports do i plug my 2 hard drives into? And are you saying that I cant install a RAID 0 setup on Vista 32 with a SATA optical drive? Please explain a little more, thanks.

 

[kenkickr]

No, you can setup Raid with a Sata Optical drive but my recommendation is to put the Optical drive on SATA 3 or 4. The Hard drives should be plugged into SATA 5-6(Should be the bottom two black ports). The reason being is trying to setup RAID on the ATI controller with a SATA Optical drive can be a major pain in the ass or you will not be able to because SATA drives can't work in AHCI or RAID mode. If the Drives are on the Marvell controller then you can keep the ATI controller in IDE which the SATA Optical drive will work without issues.

 

[LifeOnMars]

Kenkickr, I have a different board to you, I have the M2r32-MVP which only has 4 sata II ports and 1 external.Sata ports 1/3 are stated to be Master for boot disk use and Sata ports 2/4 are Slave for data disk use. Thats it apart from the external sata which has the JMicron controller. So which ports do i use for my 2 sata hdds and 1 sata sony dvd optical drive, thanks?