Abit AN7 - replacing defective sata hard drive - mirrored RAID

Hi All,

I have an Abit AN7 with a pair of Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 GB sata
drives running as a mirrored RAID array. The mb has a Silicaon Image
bios driver and I am running Win XP Pro.

One of my drives broke and I bought a replacment (exact same model and
brand as remaining drive), but for some reason, the replacment drive is
30 megbytes smaller than the orginal drive. Consequently the bios
complains that the replacement drive is smaller than the current drive
and won't take it. (exact drive specs below)

I am currently looking for another replacement drive of the same brand
and model that is the EXACT same capacity as my current drive but would
like some comments regarding the following options:

1. Buying another Seagate brand drive, different model, but higher
capacity, say 150 GB and try to rebuild the raid array using that. Are
there any potential problems with that? I probably won't be able to
use the excess space, but that is ok.

2. Try to use the remaining hd by itself. Currently when I try to boot
Windows with only one drive, the bios complains about a broken raid
array. Is there a way to get rid of the mirrored array configuration
and use my good hard drive by itself? I want to boot and use the
system with the currently installed os and apps. I want to avoid doing
a clean install and losing all of my configurations.

Thanks for any advice in advanced, please see below for my hard drive
specs.

- jbear

======================================
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7

Original HD Replacement
HD
Listed size 120 GB 120 GB
Actual size (per bios) 114,473 MB 114,440 MB (bit
smaller)
Model number ST3120026AS ST3120026AS
S/N 3JT3MHX9 3JT3MHX9
P/N 9W2813-358 9W2813-032
HDA P/N 100275528 10275528
Configuration C2L-01 SZG-09
Firmware 3.18 8.05
Date Code 04397 04285
Site Code AMK AMK

Thanks for all your advice and help. I have returned the board for a
replacement. CPU temp was ok. cant remember what the error code I had on the
2 x 7 segment displays. they didnt help.


"jbear" <> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> Hi All,
>
> I have an Abit AN7 with a pair of Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120 GB sata
> drives running as a mirrored RAID array. The mb has a Silicaon Image
> bios driver and I am running Win XP Pro.
>
> One of my drives broke and I bought a replacment (exact same model and
> brand as remaining drive), but for some reason, the replacment drive is
> 30 megbytes smaller than the orginal drive. Consequently the bios
> complains that the replacement drive is smaller than the current drive
> and won't take it. (exact drive specs below)
>
> I am currently looking for another replacement drive of the same brand
> and model that is the EXACT same capacity as my current drive but would
> like some comments regarding the following options:
>
> 1. Buying another Seagate brand drive, different model, but higher
> capacity, say 150 GB and try to rebuild the raid array using that. Are
> there any potential problems with that? I probably won't be able to
> use the excess space, but that is ok.
>
> 2. Try to use the remaining hd by itself. Currently when I try to boot
> Windows with only one drive, the bios complains about a broken raid
> array. Is there a way to get rid of the mirrored array configuration
> and use my good hard drive by itself? I want to boot and use the
> system with the currently installed os and apps. I want to avoid doing
> a clean install and losing all of my configurations.
>
> Thanks for any advice in advanced, please see below for my hard drive
> specs.
>
> - jbear
>
> ======================================
> Seagate Barracuda 7200.7
>
> Original HD Replacement
> HD
> Listed size 120 GB 120 GB
> Actual size (per bios) 114,473 MB 114,440 MB (bit
> smaller)
> Model number ST3120026AS ST3120026AS
> S/N 3JT3MHX9 3JT3MHX9
> P/N 9W2813-358 9W2813-032
> HDA P/N 100275528 10275528
> Configuration C2L-01 SZG-09
> Firmware 3.18 8.05
> Date Code 04397 04285
> Site Code AMK AMK
>