Help with Raid hardware or software and setup.

[Steve-007UK]

Hiya all im planning on setting up raid with 3 Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drives but my motherboard dosen't do raid , I was woundering if its worth buying a raid card or would it be better to use some type of software solution?.

Im very new to raid never tryed it before so i realy don't know what to look for, All i do know is i don't want to spend more than £30 on a raid card inless i realy have to.

I already have one of the hard drives and the second will be here tomorrow, I will get the 3rd one at the end of next week if work is good.
Any help people can give me will be much appreciated.
I also hope this is in the right section, im not building a pc so i thought it best to post here.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

software is by far easiest, download and install intel rapid storage tech software

nearly forgot sata has to be set to ahci for this soft way

from here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=2101&DwnldID=20215&lang=eng&iid=dc_rss

install the driver then as you add each drive you will have to install it
then goto control panel/Admin tools/computer management/ in that order, then click on storage and you should be able to see the unformatted drive in there


right click on it then you should have an option for creating or adding drives to a raid array,
im a bit vague from here on as ive not done it in a while

you may have to start from scratch and install windows again though to make the raid

also your mobo should supprt raid via its ich10r southbridge for deff so you could start from scratch and make a raid array in bios which is faster, you add the drives then set storage to raid instead of ahci or ide and then on boot you will see a hdd or sata config loader you can get into with cntr and i or something there in you set up a raid array before booting to an install disk and installing os,

in this case you need to dl the F6 install drivers from the same source to use on install


but first read your manual and deff look up some guides on tpu they are here.

likein the pc dude nice processor

 

[Steve-007UK]

Thanks for the info theoneandonlymrk, MY chipset is ICH10 not ICH10R i have no idea why because the same motherboard in diffrent countrys seems to have the ICH10R chipset. Im ok with reloading windows as all my stuff its backed up on 2x 250gig HDD's, Bios is set to AHCI mode at the moment but there are no raid options. The funny thing is, When i install the normal chipset drivers from intel windows says my chipset is ICH10 but when i install the intel rapid storage software it says my chipset is ICH10R lol.

likein the pc dude nice processor

Thank you How far have you pushed your Q6600?

 

[sy5tem]

only thing i might add , is that you cannot boot windows on software raid hard drive. ...

 

[Steve-007UK]

only thing i might add , is that you cannot boot windows on software raid hard drive. ...

I have no idea how things will work out but i will have a good read tomorrow when the second HDD turns up then i will have a play with a few things.
I still have my old 250gig sata drive with windows 7 on it so i will see if i can use that to setup raid on the new drives.

What ever happens, It will be a good learning curve for me.

 

[Steve-007UK]

So my second drive turned up but my mobo has no raid options so i think i will just buy a 4 port sata raid card. This is the one i have been looking at.
Startech 4 Port PCI Serial ATA (SATA) Storage.. | ...

Seems this should do what i need it to. My mobo has the option to boot from an addon card so im hopeing that will let me setup raid and let me boot from the addon card.

 

[freebie]

So my second drive turned up but my mobo has no raid options so i think i will just buy a 4 port sata raid card. This is the one i have been looking at.
Startech 4 Port PCI Serial ATA (SATA) Storage.. | ...

Seems this should do what i need it to. My mobo has the option to boot from an addon card so im hopeing that will let me setup raid and let me boot from the addnon card.

This raid card is great, I now have two of them in use in my machines, however if you want to install 64 bit Windows on the raid array using this card, buy a different card. It won't work i spent hours/days/weeks trying and couldn't had lots of help from people here but just wouldn't work no matter what was done.

Using 32 bit Windows or just as raid for storage, superb card.

 

[Steve-007UK]

This raid card is great, I now have two of them in use in my machines, however if you want to install 64 bit Windows on the raid array using this card, buy a different card. It won't work i spent hours/days/weeks trying and couldn't had lots of help from people here but just wouldn't work no matter what was done.

Using 32 bit Windows or just as raid for storage, superb card.

Cheers for the info looks like i need to serch for a new card because i use windows 7 64bit and there is no way im going back to 32bit lol. The problem i have now is finding a 4 port raid card that will let me install windows 7 64bit, I could only find the one i posted on ebuyer and the other shop i use dosen't have any 4 port ones.

If anyone knows of a 4 port sata raid card that will work with windows 7 then please let me know, I'm willing to go upto £50 if i have to but thats the max i will pay.

 

[freebie]

Cheers for the info looks like i need to serch for a new card because i use windows 7 64bit and there is no way im going back to 32bit lol. The problem i have now is finding a 4 port raid card that will let me install windows 7 64bit, I could only find the one i posted on ebuyer and the other shop i use dosen't have any 4 port ones.

If anyone knows of a 4 port sata raid card that will work with windows 7 then please let me know, I'm willing to go upto £50 if i have to but thats the max i will pay.

I couldn't find one so I ended up buying a second hand motherboard to get mine working, picked up my board for £65 but I think i was lucky.

 

[Steve-007UK]

I was just checking out there website to see if the card suports windows 7 64bit and it says it does so i might just buy it to test, If it don't work i have so many days to send it back to ebuyer.

The part number on ebuyer is the same as Startech's website.
from there website.
OS Compatibility Windows 2000/ XP(32/64-bit)/ 2003 Server(32/64-bit)/ Vista(32/64-bit)/ Server 2008 R2/ 7(32/64-bit), Linux

How far did you get while trying to install windows 7 64bit?

 

[freebie]

I was just checking out there website to see if the card suports windows 7 64bit and it says it does so i might just buy it to test, If it don't work i have so many days to send it back to ebuyer.

The part number on ebuyer is the same as Startech's website.
from there website.
OS Compatibility Windows 2000/ XP(32/64-bit)/ 2003 Server(32/64-bit)/ Vista(32/64-bit)/ Server 2008 R2/ 7(32/64-bit), Linux

How far did you get while trying to install windows 7 64bit?

it gets to the choose your hard disk screen, then you have to manually choose drivers because it can't see the drive, so you then point to the drivers and it says there not digitally signed, then you reboot, tapping f8 on startup and choose disable digital driver signing, and try again and select the drivers it finds them, then tells you that there still not digitally signed. Startech support spent hours with me trying to help and i've got to say they were absolutely brilliant, but they said it should but they couldn't get it working. i also tried selecting the 32 bit drivers and this will allow you to install windows 64 bit, however constantly bsod and crashes and is very very very unstable.

 

[Steve-007UK]

Thanks again for the replys its a big help, Beer for you, I guess all i can do is try or just save up lots of cash and move onto an I5 2500k but its gonna take a while if i do that as i will need new ram/mobo/cpu/ new case cause mine is shity and maybe a new PSU lol.

 

[freebie]

Thanks again for the replys its a big help, Beer for you, I guess all i can do is try or just save up lots of cash and move onto an I5 2500k but its gonna take a while if i do that as i will need new ram/mobo/cpu/ new case cause mine is shity and maybe a new PSU lol.

LOL thats exactly what i'm doing.