Is this possible...????

[Platoface]

Please bear w/ my ignorance here. I want to have raid0 with 2x60 gig Maxtor HD's and also a seperate 120 gig WD HD as a seperate volume. Can this be done using Windows XP pro. I already have a Highpoint 404 Raid PCI card but I cannot figure out how to add the Western Digital hard drive to this configuration as a seperate volume. Like I say please bear w/ my ignorance here. Thanks guys.

 

[WhiteWizard]

I'll sugest you plug the 120Gb on the normal IDE controller of your maindboard, and let the HighPoint for RAID, but if your mainboard chipset is not ATA133, then, don't know.

 

[Platoface]

Thank you for replying. I have an Asus A7N8x Deluxe mobo. When I plugged the 120 gig HD into the primary IDE channel xp recognizes it but it does not recognize it as a seperate drive volume... (ie cannot find it when I click on "my computer... would I probably be better off just using the 60 gig as main HD and the 120 gig as storage for my videos and pics and such or .... any more help will be appreciated... thanks

 

[Zepper]

Drives have to be partitioned (FDISK) and FORMATted prior to showing up in "My Computer". With Win other than 2k/XP, this is done from DOS. 2k/XP have Win based tools, but I have forgotten where to find them. Just browse around your Start>Programs menu looking for system tools and you'll probably run across it.
.bh.

 

[maxSe]

Try doing this:

1. connect all 3 to the RAID card (HPT card, right?). Make sure those 2 60gb Maxtors are connected as Master on each channel (this is if you're going to install the OS on the stripe set) and 120gb as slave. (make sure all 3 are recognized)

2. get into HPT bios (I think it's CTL+H... need to double check). Set those 2 Maxtors as a stripe set and name it. do nothing for the 120gb.

3. install XP (make sure you have the HPT drivers on floppy and press F6 during XP installation. Load up the drivers when asked during installation). XP installation should see 2 volumes during installation (your stripe set (120gb) and the 120gb single volume)

4. after the installation, you should see 2 drives in My Computer. If you don't, right click on My Computer --> Manage --> Disk Management. You may need to set up the volume in order to use it.

Go with NTFS... don't play around with FAT32... Hope this helps.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: WhiteWizard
I'll sugest you plug the 120Gb on the normal IDE controller of your maindboard, and let the HighPoint for RAID, but if your mainboard chipset is not ATA133, then, don't know.

Then what? Doesn't matter. Once and for all:

Large capacity HDDs (beyond 128 GBytes) require the BIOS and drivers to use the LBA-48 command set. This is a mere software question, NOT AT ALL CONNECTED to having hardware support for UDMA-133 transfer rate.

 

[Platoface]

Thanks to all here. I will try connecting all drives to the Highpoint Raid card. I appreciate all your help here. Will let you know it turns out. Thanks again guys.

Just a question before I start the process. Do you mean setting the jumper on the 120 gig HD to slave. Just want to be sure here.
So I will connect 1 60 gig HD as Master to channel 1 and the next 60 gig HD to channel 2 and the 120 gig HD (set as slave) to channel 3 and then install xp... ?? I think I got it...

 

[maxSe]

Originally posted by: Platoface
Thanks to all here. I will try connecting all drives to the Highpoint Raid card. I appreciate all your help here. Will let you know it turns out. Thanks again guys.

Just a question before I start the process. Do you mean setting the jumper on the 120 gig HD to slave. Just want to be sure here.
So I will connect 1 60 gig HD as Master to channel 1 and the next 60 gig HD to channel 2 and the 120 gig HD (set as slave) to channel 3 and then install xp... ?? I think I got it...

Yes. Set the jumpers on the 120gb to slave. I think you *might* be getting the channels and IDE connections mixed up. What I meant by channel is the "physical" connector on your RAID card. I assume it has 2 physical connectors (2 channels), right? Each channel can support 2 IDE devices, so channel 1 has IDE 0 and 1, and channel 2 has IDE 2 and 3. With this configuration, connect the 60gb's set to master to IDE 0 and 2. You can connect the single 120gb set to slave, to either IDE 1 or 3...

Am I making sense...?

 

[Platoface]

I see what you are saying. I have 4 channels on the Highpoint 404. So you want me to set the first two 60 gig drives together on 1 IDE ribbon to channel 1 or can I leave it as I wrote above and set the 120 gig HD jumpers to slave on channel 3. Is their any benefit to keeping the two 60 gigs together or on seperate channels? I do not believe which Highpoint card I have so probably caused you some confusion, my apologies.

 

[maxSe]

Originally posted by: Platoface
I see what you are saying. I have 4 channels on the Highpoint 404. So you want me to set the first two 60 gig drives together on 1 IDE ribbon to channel 1 or can I leave it as I wrote above and set the 120 gig HD jumpers to slave on channel 3. Is their any benefit to keeping the two 60 gigs together or on seperate channels? I do not believe which Highpoint card I have so probably caused you some confusion, my apologies.

Oh... my bad... you have the 4 channel card... Then it can be real simple... the single 120gb can be set up anywhere (master or slave...). just make sure you don't set it up as a part of stripe set in the HPT bios.

But, if you're going to use those 2x60gb drives as a stripe set, each drive MUST be set up as masters (or slaves, but they need to be kept same) on separate channels (eg. 1 IDE cable to 1 60gb (master) to ch.1 & 1 IDE cable to the other 60gb (master) to ch.2). I'm not too familiar with 4-ch cards, but on 2-ch RAID cards, drives must be connected to separate channels in order for you to set them up in a stripe set. (I'm not making sense again, am I... )

 

[Platoface]

I will let you know how it turns out....

 

[Platoface]

I have it set up the way you wrote and is detected by Highpoint and Windows but it does not show up as a seperate drive volume.. ie I cannot find it in "My Computer" as a seperate disk. It shows up in Device mangler and in the Highpoint Raid software prog...??? I am about to give up. Any more suggstions...??? I do appreciate your help in this matter. Thanks.