1st time raid noob...going Raptor ICH5 Intel.

Welp bros..gonna go for it! The last time I tried raid I had my comp usa buddy do it for me with 2 40gig Maxtors and the array only lasted 22hrs before one of the drives failed. Haven't tried since then (1 1/2 years ago). I am gonna try it this time by myself with my IC7 SATA Raid board and 2 WD 10k Raptors.
...yes I read the stickies...didn't find any install help...just good info.

This is what I know so far
1) Set both drives to Master
2) Plug both into the 2 serial ports on the mobo...ic7 only has 2.
3) Go into bios and select "Enable" for "On chip Serial ATA."
4) Then in bios for Raid "0" or "striping" select enable.
5) At XP install prompt, hit "f6" to install Raid mobo drivers on floppy, then insert floppy.
6) Format drive, then install Win XP.

Thats all I know to do. Any pointers are gratefully accepted!

Yeah, I'm gonna use my old Maxtor as a backup on the IDE channel too.

*Edited*...steps 5&6. Duuuhhhhhh!

U will need to install the 3rd party drivers before runing the format tools in xp setup if its like the setup for 2k, other than that u seem to have it all in the right order. Good luck

seems right to me. on my board, i actually have issues with "enabling" RAID. i have to leave it on auto, but my board isnt the best around. but definately try enable first. as aftermath said, installing the 3rd party drivers will be pretty much the first thing you have to do when you install windows. then just make sure that you choose the full format and install option, not just the quick one the first time around. good luck. let us know how it turns out. raid 0 with those drives should be wicked fast. how big are those raptor drives?

krag said:

1) Set both drives to Master
2) Plug both into the 2 serial ports on the mobo...ic7 only has 2.
3) Go into bios and select "Enable" for "On chip Serial ATA."
4) Then in bios for Raid "0" or "striping" select enable.
5) Format drive, then install Win XP.
6) At XP install prompt, hit "f6" to install Raid mobo drivers on floppy, then insert floppy.

Click to expand...

yeah, that's pretty much it, except change 5 & 6.

5) At XP install prompt, hit F6 to install raid motherboard drivers that you put on a floppy and insert the floppy when it prompts you to (you will get no response from the installer to confirm you hitting F6, so be ready and maybe hit it twice when prompted)

6) Allow the winxp install to format your array as a NTFS partition. Then let the install go


good luck with your raid array with the raptors! that should rock...

*edit: i would guess they are the 36.7 GB raptors...*

Re: Re: 1st time raid noob...going Raptor ICH5 Intel.

mbentley said:

yeah, that's pretty much it, except change 5 & 6.

5) At XP install prompt, hit F6 to install raid motherboard drivers that you put on a floppy and insert the floppy when it prompts you to (you will get no response from the installer to confirm you hitting F6, so be ready and maybe hit it twice when prompted)

6) Allow the winxp install to format your array as a NTFS partition. Then let the install go


good luck with your raid array with the raptors! that should rock...

*edit: i would guess they are the 36.7 GB raptors...*

Click to expand...

Thanks fellas! Yeah...glad you guys brought that to my attention! Now that I think about it, I did have steps 5 & 6 backwards. Duuuuuhhhh! Instal xP then it will prompt for raid drivers, then it will format. This is why I love OC forums so much I ALWAYS GET GOOD HELP for my computer questions. Thanks guys! I will post my before and after HDD scores. right now my 40 Maxtor only gets 781 points in the 2002 PCMark. Dang! thats way lame! I have neglected my HDD for too long! Now it time to upgrade it. When I get my IC7 & raptors installed I think this rig will be the best one I have ever owned!