Raid with only one HD?

[The Doors]

Is it possible to use the HPT372 Raid Controller integrated on Mobo with only one HD (no Striping or Mirroring) like simple Ide Channel? and how is it possible?

Thanks in advance for your support
Adriano

 

[Shadow ÒÓ]

On Tom's hardware, some time ago, there was an article on how to hack a promise ATA 100 card in to becomming a RAID card. The trick worked great! There was also advice on how to place a resistor in the IDE cable (just plug it in one of the ends) and it would allow you to use a single drive, however he warned that he was not sure how long it would last nor how stable it would be, but worked well for testing. I've buried the favorite page somewhere and can't seem to find it now.

If you don't get a better response than mine, PM me and I'll dig the link out of an archive somewhere.

To answer your question tho, yes it's possible.

 

[The Doors]

Thanks Shadow ÒÓ,
I'll take a look on TH, so my supposition that it was possible, isn't totally true...

 

[Kingslayer]

Yes you can use one drive for a raid array. But what's the point? You will get exactly none of the improvements in speed because the data is still located on one physical drive. You will get exactly none of the redundancy safeties because if the drive physically dies you lose EVERYTHING still.

It can be done, but it is 100% pointless.

 

[The Doors]

Well, this is just to use the ATA133, and I've tried, but considering that is my first time....

I've connected the Ide cable to the Primary Raid channel, enabled the Raid controller into the Bios, like the Boot from another device, but I don't know how to set the options into the Raid Bios, infact WinXP doesn't wanna boot at all, but I get the classic blue screen that talk about a problem occured..., and onestly, I've to admit that I thought it was more simple

 

[SteenkyBastage]

Yes you can use one drive for a raid array. But what's the point? You will get exactly none of the improvements in speed because the data is still located on one physical drive. You will get exactly none of the redundancy safeties because if the drive physically dies you lose EVERYTHING still.

It can be done, but it is 100% pointless.

I think you're overlooking stuff. You get the benefit of extra IDE channels (4 more devices). You get the benefit (sometimes) of faster IDE channels (ata133 over ata66 or ata100).

The Doors:

Is this built into the mobo, and if so, which one? or is it simply an add-on card?

my build in highpoint raid controller on my KT7A-raid mobo works just great using it in raid or just as two extra IDE channels for Cdrom, zip, HD.

::edit::

nevermind, I see in your sig that you have the same mobo. Yes, it's possible. No, you dont need to hack the cable or mobo or anything at all. You MIGHT have to reformat it once it's plugged into the raid controller. I have never tried to move a HD from ide 0 or ide1 onto the raid controller and not format it. But to answer your question, mine work flawlessly that way.

 

[The Doors]

No, I'm using the Shuttle AK35 with the HPT372 Raid integrated on Mobo, and I've tried without format the HD, just moved the Ide cable from the Standard Primary/Master to the Raid Primary/Master.

 

[donny_paycheck]

8 IDE devices instead of 4 with no add-on PCI cards. It's definitely worth it and yes, you can do it. Make sure to set the HPT372 controller to the primary boot device in BIOS and it'll look to the highpoint RAID BIOS for a boot device, arrayed or not. As long as the drive shows up in the RAID BIOS it'll boot just fine.

The others have answered the questions in this thread well, but I wanted to add my personal experience to the fray, so there you go.

 

[The Doors]

Well, I thought it was possible, red something about, but I've got no luck at all.
I've tried to set the Raid controller like Primary Boot device, but isn't present I've to look for something like Other Boot Device?

Thanks

 

[Dissolved]

well i could use the onboard raid to power a hdd im gonna mod into my side panel. my raid controller is right infront of where i wanna add my hdd (gonna have a hdd window modded). so if anyone figures if theres a way to use the raid controller to use a regluar hdd let me know

 

[Wa11y]

Check for a jumper on the mobo. I admit I've never seen this mobo, but I have seen some other mobos with onboard raid, and some have a jumper you have to set to tell the board whether to use the RAID chanels as RAID or just straight IDE.

 

[The Doors]

For Boot Device I can set 'only': Floppy, LS120, Hdd-0, Scsi, Hdd-1, Hdd-2, Hdd-3, Zip100, Lan, and Disabled.
But there's another parameter about Boot from Scsi or Raid, and I've tried with the Raid.
Onestly, really I don't know if I'm really lucky, or what

 

[donny_paycheck]

For Boot Device I can set 'only': Floppy, LS120, Hdd-0, Scsi, Hdd-1, Hdd-2, Hdd-3, Zip100, Lan, and Disabled.
But there's another parameter about Boot from Scsi or Raid, and I've tried with the Raid.
Onestly, really I don't know if I'm really lucky, or what

I have an Abit KR7A-RAID but it has the HPT372 and Award BIOS so I'm betting that most of it is similar. I set my primary device to ATA133RAID, which should be an option in yours. Also, the "Boot Other Device" option should be set to "Yes", causing the BIOS to scan for any bootable device on either the IDE or SCSI bus.

I did this for a little bit on my old KG7-RAID (HPT370) before I ran a stripe set and it worked just as I've described.

 

[The Doors]

No jumper present on board to enable the Raid controller, in anyway thanks Wa11y, I appreciate but probably I've found the reason...

Like always in the life, on the last page of the Raid manual is written:
'The Set Boot Disk item appears on condiction that no HD is connected to the Ide on Motherboard'
So I suppose that isn't possible to set the Boot Disk on Raid Controller, if another HD is present on the Standard Ide, and infact my second HD is on the Secondary/Master!

What do you think about?

 

[Wonko The Sane]

you also need to install the drivers for the raid card installed beforte the OS will recognize it. i know in 2k/xp it will start to load the OS then get a stop error saying can't read from boot device when the drivers are not installed first. i have an integrated highpoint controler on my board (it's not a raid it's the hpt366 but should be similar in how it works). what happens when you boot with the drive connected to the raid controler?

 

[The Doors]

I have to agree with you Wonko
infact I've tried using both the HD's, like with only one too, on the Primary Raid Channel, enabled the Raid controller, like also the "Boot Other Device" but still doesn't work!!!
In Win XP I got always the same error, in Normal Mode, like in Safe Mode, and in Win98se, start loading, but freeze, or something close, coz the system is stuck, and the HD seems to continue to read, even if for more of 4-5 min.

About the suggestion of donny_paycheck, well, I can't set the primary device to ATA133RAID, the only available are listed up

 

[The Doors]

But I get the BSOD during the boot of XP that speak about: A problem has been detected, and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.......

I suppose that is something related to the driver not installed, but if doesn't boot, like can I do it?

 

[Dissolved]

anyone know if this would work with the gigabyte 7dxr?

 

[Wonko The Sane]

boot the system with the drive conneceted to the chipset ide, install the driver (you probably see a mass storage controler in the Device Manager this is your raid controlers, right click and click update drivers to install) once the driver is installed, move the drive to the raid controlers. that's how i have to do it on my system.

 

[The Doors]

It's exactly what I did it
Previously I was too much bored to think about, but after a while I'm arrived to the same conclusion.
I'll try very soon, but I need of a little of relax now and still many thanks Wonko The Sane

Adriano