How do I uninstall RAID 0 from Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard?

Hi folks,

I recently bought a new PC with an Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard, Intel
Core 2 Quad Q6600, and two SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500GB hard drives set up in
a RAID 0 (STRIPE) configuration, producing a single 931.52GB bootable
volume. In Windows XP it shows as a single partition: drive C; I have
no other hard drives or partitions on the system. Yet.

What I'd like to do is uninstall the RAID 0 configuration and return
the drives to two separate 500GB (realistically 465GB) drives. Once I
get the separate drives back I'm very familiar with partitioning
drives and reinstalling Windows XP so I'm okay with that part of the
operation.

But I'm not 100% sure how to uninstall the RAID 0 config, and this is
the first time that I've had SATA drives and so I'm doing some
homework before I attempt anything. I'd really appreciate your
advice.


=== RAID SETUP ===

When the PC boots, after the initial POST and invitation to press Del
to get into the BIOS, I'm presented with the option to press F10 to
enter the RAID setup utility. If I do this I see the following
information:

-------------------------------------------------------
MediaSheild Utility May 22 2006
- Array List -

Boot: Yes
Status: Healthy
Vendor: NVIDIA
Array: STRIPE
Model Name: 931.52G
-------------------------------------------------------

The options here are [Ctrl-X] Exit, [Up/Down] Select, [b] Set Boot,
[ENTER] Detail. If I click on Enter to get details I see the following
information:

-------------------------------------------------------
Array 1 : NVIDIA STRIPE 931.52G
- Array Detail -

RAID Mode: Striping
Striping Width: 2
Striping Block: 64K

Port: 2
Index: 0
Disk Model
SAMSUNG HD501LJ
Capacity: 465.76GB

Port: 3
Index: 1
Disk Model
SAMSUNG HD501LJ
Capacity: 465.76GB
-------------------------------------------------------

Here I have the options for [D] Delete, [C] Clear Disk, [ENTER]
Return.


=== IS THIS WHAT I DO? ===

Could someone/folks please confirm whether the following is the right
process, or please correct my assumptions.

What I'm presuming that I have to do is:

1. Boot PC
2. Enter the RAID setup
3. Select the only volume there and press [ENTER] to get details
4. Select [D] to Delete the current RAID configuration
5. Exit RAID setup
6. Reboot PC with Windows XP CD-ROM in drive
7. Create new partitions and format them
8. Install XP

Is that correct? Or are there any additional steps that I need to
take in the BIOS (Phoenix AwardBIOS). Also could someone please
confirm whether I will also need to install (reinstall?) the RAID
driver from floppy after step 5 (between deleting the RAID config and
rebooting with the XP CD-ROM in) -- I'm not sure here whether the RAID
drivers are simply for RAID only or whether they also include AHCI
drivers needed to optimize the SATA drives.

I'd really appreciate your input. I hope I've given you enough
detail. Like I said, I'm very familiar with a lot of areas of setting
up PCs, but this is my first encounter with SATA and RAID. I bought
my last PC in 2003 and it simply came with a 120GB IDE HDD.

Thanks in advance,

Gareth J M Saunders
Anstruther, UK

garethjmsaunders wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I recently bought a new PC with an Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard, Intel
> Core 2 Quad Q6600, and two SAMSUNG HD501LJ 500GB hard drives set up in
> a RAID 0 (STRIPE) configuration, producing a single 931.52GB bootable
> volume. In Windows XP it shows as a single partition: drive C; I have
> no other hard drives or partitions on the system. Yet.
>
> What I'd like to do is uninstall the RAID 0 configuration and return
> the drives to two separate 500GB (realistically 465GB) drives. Once I
> get the separate drives back I'm very familiar with partitioning
> drives and reinstalling Windows XP so I'm okay with that part of the
> operation.
>
> But I'm not 100% sure how to uninstall the RAID 0 config, and this is
> the first time that I've had SATA drives and so I'm doing some
> homework before I attempt anything. I'd really appreciate your
> advice.
>
>
> === RAID SETUP ===
>
> When the PC boots, after the initial POST and invitation to press Del
> to get into the BIOS, I'm presented with the option to press F10 to
> enter the RAID setup utility. If I do this I see the following
> information:
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> MediaSheild Utility May 22 2006
> - Array List -
>
> Boot: Yes
> Status: Healthy
> Vendor: NVIDIA
> Array: STRIPE
> Model Name: 931.52G
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> The options here are [Ctrl-X] Exit, [Up/Down] Select, [b] Set Boot,
> [ENTER] Detail. If I click on Enter to get details I see the following
> information:
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Array 1 : NVIDIA STRIPE 931.52G
> - Array Detail -
>
> RAID Mode: Striping
> Striping Width: 2
> Striping Block: 64K
>
> Port: 2
> Index: 0
> Disk Model
> SAMSUNG HD501LJ
> Capacity: 465.76GB
>
> Port: 3
> Index: 1
> Disk Model
> SAMSUNG HD501LJ
> Capacity: 465.76GB
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here I have the options for [D] Delete, [C] Clear Disk, [ENTER]
> Return.
>
>
> === IS THIS WHAT I DO? ===
>
> Could someone/folks please confirm whether the following is the right
> process, or please correct my assumptions.
>
> What I'm presuming that I have to do is:
>
> 1. Boot PC
> 2. Enter the RAID setup
> 3. Select the only volume there and press [ENTER] to get details
> 4. Select [D] to Delete the current RAID configuration
> 5. Exit RAID setup
> 6. Reboot PC with Windows XP CD-ROM in drive
> 7. Create new partitions and format them
> 8. Install XP
>
> Is that correct? Or are there any additional steps that I need to
> take in the BIOS (Phoenix AwardBIOS). Also could someone please
> confirm whether I will also need to install (reinstall?) the RAID
> driver from floppy after step 5 (between deleting the RAID config and
> rebooting with the XP CD-ROM in) -- I'm not sure here whether the RAID
> drivers are simply for RAID only or whether they also include AHCI
> drivers needed to optimize the SATA drives.
>
> I'd really appreciate your input. I hope I've given you enough
> detail. Like I said, I'm very familiar with a lot of areas of setting
> up PCs, but this is my first encounter with SATA and RAID. I bought
> my last PC in 2003 and it simply came with a 120GB IDE HDD.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Gareth J M Saunders
> Anstruther, UK

According to the latest Mediashield manual,

"Clear the MBR (press C, then press Y at the prompt).
Delete the array (press D, then press Y at the prompt)."

"What does “Clear Disk” mean in the RAID ROM Setup?

Clear Disk clears the MBR (Master Boot Record). This is needed to prevent
invalid data from appearing in the MBR space on any of the drives included
in the array. Not doing so could render the system unstable."

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...hield_UGv6.pdf

So that at least suggests the time to test the command, should not
be too long.

Paul

Thanks Paul, that's really helpful, as is the manual download --
exactly what I needed.

Thanks again,

Gareth

> According to the latest Mediashield manual,
>
> "Clear the MBR (press C, then press Y at the prompt).
> Delete the array (press D, then press Y at the prompt)."
>
> "What does "Clear Disk" mean in the RAID ROM Setup?
>
> Clear Disk clears the MBR (Master Boot Record). This is needed to prevent
> invalid data from appearing in the MBR space on any of the drives included
> in the array. Not doing so could render the system unstable."
>
> http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...hield_UGv6.pdf
>
> So that at least suggests the time to test the command, should not
> be too long.
>
> Paul

> According to the latest Mediashield manual,
>
> "Clear the MBR (press C, then press Y at the prompt).
> Delete the array (press D, then press Y at the prompt)."
>
> "What does "Clear Disk" mean in the RAID ROM Setup?
>
> Clear Disk clears the MBR (Master Boot Record). This is needed to prevent
> invalid data from appearing in the MBR space on any of the drives included
> in the array. Not doing so could render the system unstable."
>
> http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...hield_UGv6.pdf

Just to confirm, is that the order that I carry out these operations?

1. Clear the MBR
2. Delete the array

Thanks again

Gareth

garethjmsaunders wrote:
>> According to the latest Mediashield manual,
>>
>> "Clear the MBR (press C, then press Y at the prompt).
>> Delete the array (press D, then press Y at the prompt)."
>>
>> "What does "Clear Disk" mean in the RAID ROM Setup?
>>
>> Clear Disk clears the MBR (Master Boot Record). This is needed to prevent
>> invalid data from appearing in the MBR space on any of the drives included
>> in the array. Not doing so could render the system unstable."
>>
>> http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...hield_UGv6.pdf
>
> Just to confirm, is that the order that I carry out these operations?
>
> 1. Clear the MBR
> 2. Delete the array
>
> Thanks again
>
> Gareth

It all depends on how exactly Nvidia implemented their clear operation.
The manual doesn't go into details on that.

You could clear the MBR, delete the array, and then attempt to
clear the MBR on each drive separately. Now, whether that last option
is possible, you'll discover when you test it. I don't have any
RAID setups here to test.

To clean a drive, I boot Knoppix or Ubuntu, and use the "dd" command,
to erase part of the drive. Something like this is suggested.
On Knoppix, there is no root account to log into, so the "sudo"
command is prepended to the command, to elevate the user. dd
stands for "disk dump", and in this case is transferring a source
of zeros (the pseudo device /dev/zero) to each sector.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

I modify that slightly, like setting the count=10000 and wipe out
a bit more of the drive. I had to use the "dd" command, the last
time I tried to install Windows on a previous Linux disk. I had
to wipe the drive, before Windows would touch it.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10000

That would zero out about 5 megabytes of storage at the beginning of
the disk drive. The "/dev/sda" must be adjusted, according to the
naming conventions of Linux, for attached disks. Also, be *very*
careful, to erase the proper disk. For safely, you can disconnect
all drives, except the drive(s) to be erased. I've read of
enough accidents by users of DBAN, to know that such a
warning must be given, over and over again.

Paul

> > Just to confirm, is that the order that I carry out these operations?
> > 1. Clear the MBR
> > 2. Delete the array

> It all depends on how exactly Nvidia implemented their clear operation.
> The manual doesn't go into details on that.
>
> You could clear the MBR, delete the array, and then attempt to
> clear the MBR on each drive separately. Now, whether that last option
> is possible, you'll discover when you test it. I don't have any
> RAID setups here to test.

Thanks Paul for your advice.

Last night I plucked up the courage, simply cleared the MBR, deleted
the array and then disabled NVRAID RAID support in the BIOS. That
appears to have done the trick. I now have two separate SATA drives,
with the required partitions and Windows XP is happily reinstalling.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Gareth