NVRAID Setup on ECS KN1 Extreme

[genius99]

Hi,

I have an ECS KN1 Extreme and two WD 80 GB HDs that I just bought and would like to make it RAID 1.

I have been having lots of problems trying to get the RAID setup.

I have 1 hard drive plugged into SATA1 on the MB and have the other drive plugged into SATA2 on the MB.

When I enable the RAID in the BIOS, do I enable all of these below?
SATA1 Primary - enable?
SATA1 Secondary - enable?
SATA2 Primary - enable?
SATA2 Secondary - enable?

During POST, if the RAID is setup properly, it will not show the hard drives correct?

Thanks,

Ray

 

[genius99]

I have compiled 10 steps to hopefully get the RAID working:

1. Disable RAID in the BIOS.
2. Use a DOS boot disk.
3. Format both hard drives.
4. Clear MBR on both hard drives.
5. Reboot system.
6. Enable and configure primary/secondary SATA drives in the RAID Config in the BIOS.
7. Configure the array/mirror in the NVIDIA RAID Utility.
8. Reboot system, put Win XP CD in.
9. Boot from CD.
10. Press F6 and load both NVIDIA RAID Drivers.

Cross fingers and pray it works

Any additions or comments? I'm gonna try it after work today and see if it works!

 

[genius99]

Ok, well my NVRAID Status shows healthy.

I was able to run the Windows non-gui setup. It copied all the Windows setup files and then said it was going to start Windows - and the the computer restarted.

My computer now just hangs during POST on 'Verifying DMI Pool Data........' :frown:

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Ray

 

[montag451]

Make sure your array is enabled as the first bootable device

 

[genius99]

Yeah I checked to make sure the Hard Drive is set as the First Bootable device in the BIOS.

During Windows Setup (after I load the RAID drivers), it says 'Setup is starting Windows'. Then it the screen flickers black a couple times and the computer restarts.

It still hangs during POST on 'Verifying DMI Pool Data........'

I don't think the Windows installer completed, I just saw the initials drivers being loaded, I did not see it copy any Windows setup files over.

I have spent over 2 weeks on this problem.

I neeeed help.

thanks

 

[Cubexco]

I have the same mobo and have drives config as follows:
1) 2 x 80GB PATA drives on Pri (IDE0) Master & Pri (IDE0) Slave
2) DVD+-RW on Sec (IDE1) Master & DVD-ROM on Sec (IDE1) Slave.
3) 1 x 160GB PATA on SiS 180 IDE Master

In the BIOS, I enabled RAID for IDE0 Master & IDE0 Slave and created a striped set (RAID0). Once the Array was created, I marked it as "Bootable" and also used the option to "Clear" disk.
My XP install CD has SP2 slipstreamed.
I had created a floppy for the F6 driver install stage, using nVidia 5.10 drivers, however, this caused the system to continuously reboot after the GUI install phase.
So, I used the 6.53 drivers found here and my XP installs fine now,
The general steps for nVRaid install can be seen here. Follow all steps listed, except for the drivers link.

I have also created an "unattend" install CD with all drivers and it works great!
The unattended XP install installs all drivers (ATI x700 adapter, nVidia ethernet, nVidia smBus & nVidia Audio Driver) except for the SiS 180 controller. I have not yet managed to get that automatically installed.
Hope this helps.

 

[genius99]

Cubexco, you are the MAN! :thumbsup:

All I had to do was download the new 6.53 drivers and it worked fine!

I dunno why NVIDIA makes it so confusing, because I was using the 5.10 drivers - where I had the same freezing problem as you did. :frown:

THANKS!

 

[Cubexco]

Genius99 - Glad I could help!
I have a couple of questions about this board -
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=32&threadid=1563777&enterthread=y
and
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=32&threadid=1563774&enterthread=y
I will appreciate if you can let me know your experiences regarding those issues.
Thanks!