Help needed to switch to RAID0

[jtoad2]

I just loaded xp64 on a new build with the intent of doing RAID0 with the two Seagate 250gB ST3250410AS drives. I have an Abit IP35 Pro with Q6600 and 4 gigs of Kingston. In the CMOS setup I set SATA Mode as RAID on the OnChip SATA Device screen, but I didn't notice that I needed to change the Controller Mode to RAID and it was left as IDE. I went ahead and made a driver floppy per the Abit User Manual and disc and then proceeded to load XP64. I did the F6 and it appeared to take the drivers, but when it got to the disc format part it seemed odd that it was only formatting for about 238gB.:bang head

Everything seems to work fine except that I didn't get RAID out of it, and, I can't figure out how to start over. If I had another computer with a SATA port on it I would yank the C drive and clean it off and start over, but I just can't figure out how to start over. I think now that I have set the other RAID setting in the CMOS that it will work correctly if I can just start over.

Can anyone tell me how to correct this? I would certainly appreciate the help.

Toad

[jason4207]

You need to set up the RAID in the RAID BIOS before installing Windows. Try cntl-I while booting.

[jtoad2]

Thanks Jason, that seems to point me in the right direction.

I am now reading the long sticky about breaking up the two discs into RAID 0 and RAID 1. Any suggestions.

Thanks again for your help.

[jason4207]

Iirc you can set up the RAID0 array to whatever size you want while in the RAID BIOS. Then install Windows on it. After you are in Windows install all your drivers including the Matrix drivers. You should then be able to initialize & configure the RAID1 array from w/n the Matrix console w/n Windows w/ your left-over drive space.

[fritzman]

If you can afford to start again without worrying about losing any data (it's all backed up somewhere else)... I would be starting again.

Set the BIOS up as Sata Raid - reboot and hit Ctrl+I and create whatever partitions you want out of the set, making sure you do the Raid0 Operating system slice first of all. Go right ahead and creat what you want the balance that's left to be (Raid1 I think), and then reboot.

Go into BIOS and select your Raid0 drive as the boot drive... save and reboot and once it starts installing from the CD... hit F6 at the appropriate point and install the ICH9R drivers... from there it's plain sailing like normal.