- Joined
- Nov 11, 2002
- Location
- Currently in Vienna
Hi2all!
I recently put together a new rig with ASUS' P5B Deluxe/Wifi-AP (see sig). On my older rig, I used an external RAID controller (PCI add-on) and even managed to move an already-installed instance of XP to a RAID 1 configuration on this ext. RAID controller.
When I went to install a fresh copy of XP on the P5B-D, I left the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (MSM) BIOS settings to the default of "IDE" as I decided I only wanted to mirror my data drive this time around. The secondary on-board RAID controller (JMicron's JMB363) was also set to "IDE" by default which was fine by me as I'm only using it for my PATA optical drives.
Given the above "default" settings, the JMicron controller's RAID BIOS Utility is automatically enabled (ctrl-J to access & visible just after post) and the MSM's "Bootrom" (ctrl-I to access) is not enabled.
After installing the OS, I went ahead and changed the MSM option from IDE to RAID and was (of course) upset when MSM's RAID BIOS Utility screen did not appear. I when ahead and enabled the sub-option "onboard serial ata bootrom" - despite the BIOS' own warning/tip that I should avoid enabling this if I only plan to mirror non-OS drives (due to limited ROM resources). Finally, MSM's RAID BIOS Utility screen appeared but the system could no longer detect an installed OS...
Reading the p5B manual (p. 5-30, English ver.), it bluntly states that I have to select sub-option "onboard serial ata bootrom", and goes ahead to describe the various RAID modes, but nothing about having to perform this prior to installing an OS - regardless of which drives you plan on mirroring.
So here's my concern (finally): why do I have to predetermine how I want to configure OS-independant data drives prior to installing the OS? this is crazy because if you decide later on to go from say, a RAID configuration to AHCI mode (for the data drives), you would have to re-install the OS and thus, all your applications...
Is this really the case, or did I miss something...? As for the JMicron controller, it only supports one internal SATA and one external so I don't even understand why it offers a RAID option. I'm using the latest 0507 BIOS btw and I have the latest chipset drivers, etc. Note that the Windows-based MSM software cannot be installed if the MSM controller is being used in IDE mode.
Thanks2all for any words of wisdom and/or suggestions on what to do 8^)
I recently put together a new rig with ASUS' P5B Deluxe/Wifi-AP (see sig). On my older rig, I used an external RAID controller (PCI add-on) and even managed to move an already-installed instance of XP to a RAID 1 configuration on this ext. RAID controller.
When I went to install a fresh copy of XP on the P5B-D, I left the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (MSM) BIOS settings to the default of "IDE" as I decided I only wanted to mirror my data drive this time around. The secondary on-board RAID controller (JMicron's JMB363) was also set to "IDE" by default which was fine by me as I'm only using it for my PATA optical drives.
Given the above "default" settings, the JMicron controller's RAID BIOS Utility is automatically enabled (ctrl-J to access & visible just after post) and the MSM's "Bootrom" (ctrl-I to access) is not enabled.
After installing the OS, I went ahead and changed the MSM option from IDE to RAID and was (of course) upset when MSM's RAID BIOS Utility screen did not appear. I when ahead and enabled the sub-option "onboard serial ata bootrom" - despite the BIOS' own warning/tip that I should avoid enabling this if I only plan to mirror non-OS drives (due to limited ROM resources). Finally, MSM's RAID BIOS Utility screen appeared but the system could no longer detect an installed OS...
Reading the p5B manual (p. 5-30, English ver.), it bluntly states that I have to select sub-option "onboard serial ata bootrom", and goes ahead to describe the various RAID modes, but nothing about having to perform this prior to installing an OS - regardless of which drives you plan on mirroring.
So here's my concern (finally): why do I have to predetermine how I want to configure OS-independant data drives prior to installing the OS? this is crazy because if you decide later on to go from say, a RAID configuration to AHCI mode (for the data drives), you would have to re-install the OS and thus, all your applications...
Is this really the case, or did I miss something...? As for the JMicron controller, it only supports one internal SATA and one external so I don't even understand why it offers a RAID option. I'm using the latest 0507 BIOS btw and I have the latest chipset drivers, etc. Note that the Windows-based MSM software cannot be installed if the MSM controller is being used in IDE mode.
Thanks2all for any words of wisdom and/or suggestions on what to do 8^)
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