Bill Anderson wrote:
> I know very little about RAID. I admit that right up front.
>
> I have set up RAID successfully in the past, however, on my P4C800-E
> system. Now I am trying to set it up on my new P5K Deluxe WiFi system
> and I'm having no success.
>
> I have a multi-boot system. The C: drive is my main WinXP partition; D:
> is Vista; E: is WinXP testbed.
>
> I have four 500 gigabyte SATA drives attached to the motherboard. Right
> now the first two are in sockets SATA1 and SATA2 -- IDE, not RAID -- and
> the other two are in SATA5 and SATA6. (SATA3 and SATA4 are the P5K
> black sockets and they're empty.)
>
> Partitions C: D: E: and F: (F: is just spare storage space) are on my
> first hard drive, plugged into motherboard socket SATA1. A 500 gigabye
> data storage drive is plugged into SATA2.
>
> I want to combine the two identical drives plugged into sockets SATA5
> and SATA6 into one RAID drive. I'll be glad to plug them into the black
> sockets if that will help.
>
> When I go into BIOS I have the option to configure IDE as RAID. I don't
> want to configure all my IDE drives as RAID -- just two of them. But as
> I see no option for that, I choose to configure IDE as RAID. Then I
> have the option to activate Intel Robson technology.
>
> I've tried activating Robson and not activating Robson, but whichever I
> try, I have found it very difficult to activate the RAID configuration
> screen. When I turn on RAID in BIOS, I do see the option to activate
> the RAID configuration screen at boot (I'm told to hit Control-I), but
> Control-I almost never works. So I try activating and not activating
> Robson. I have succeeded in seeing the RAID configuration screen only
> twice, and each time I've told it I want drives 1 and 2 to remain
> non-RAID and drives 5 and 6 to be RAID 0. I've gone through the entire
> process to select 5 and 6 as RAID 0 and I've even told the RAID
> configuration that I want the new RAID drive to be divided into volumes
> of about equal size. Everything seems OK when I'm doing this.
>
> Still, every time upon reboot the system sees both boot loaders (Vista
> and then regular Windows), but then I get the option to boot normally or
> enter Safe Mode. If I choose to enter normally, the XP or Vista load
> screens show up dimmed and quickly the entire system reboots.
>
> What logic am I missing in my efforts to turn the identical drives
> connected to sockets 5 and 6 into a single RAID drive with two
> partitions? Help.
>
> --
> Bill Anderson
>
> I am the Mighty Favog
>
Oh, Oh.
If you plan on using RAID, you are supposed to enable RAID in the BIOS, from
the first day you set up the machine. Install the RAID driver via F6 for WinXP,
so WinXP gets the RAID driver. Usually there is a MakeFloppy program or equivalent,
that comes on the Asus motherboard CD. Intel calls this being "RAID Ready". Since
the RAID driver is loaded from day one, you are ready for anything.
What it sounds like you've done, is install your OSes, using the default Microsoft
driver. If so, there will be a problem.
The enumeration of the chipset changes with the BIOS setting. This changes the
driver required to make the hardware work. For example, see PDF page 9 of the
ICH9R Specification Update, for a table of values. D31:F2 and D31:F5 control
the SATA ports, so the numbers would come from one of those two entries
in the table. It is not at all clear to me, how or when the two logical
devices are called on. It almost sounds like the SATA PHY is dynamically routed
to the devices, as a function of BIOS setting.
http://download.intel.com/design/chi...t/31697301.pdf
The datasheet for the Southbridge is here (only if you're bored):
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...hts/316972.htm
Now, if you don't change the BIOS setting, then the Intel installer won't
run. (At least I don't think it will. The INF file provides the number that
needs to match, for the installer to do its thing.) If, on the other hand,
you change the BIOS setting to enable Intel RAID, the enumeration of the
storage ports will change. Then, the OS will no longer have a driver loaded,
to use to access the disks. The OS will not be able to boot, and then you
cannot install the RAID driver. A classic "Catch22".
Possible solutions, with no promises:
1) Repair install the OS, offer drivers via F6. It all depends on whether
the install CD can see the disks or not, when the controller is flipped to
RAID.
2) I have heard of a mythical procedure, to hack things so that the
new enumeration is installed in the system in advance. I didn't bother
to bookmark the procedure, when I heard about it. I did find the following
link, but I don't think this is the article in question. The registry entry
in question, has appeared in some Microsoft KB articles (I determine that,
after I found this web page).
What bothers me about this page, is I don't see how it can work :-) If
you have nothing to lose (i.e. no data files you cannot afford to lose),
you could give it a shot. Note that, your Southbridge is a different chip,
so some of the details may be different. Perhaps a look in your registry
will suggest what to do.
http://www.zittware.com/support/raidhack.html
When the system is booting, during POST, the INT 0x13 services of the
BIOS are supposed to be used. It was my impression, that when the
desktop appears, the system is using all the drivers it loaded. Now,
if the RAID driver is not available at that point (because it still isn't
installed), I don't see how the OS can survive long enough to put up
the "New Hardware Wizard". The Wizard would be on the disk, inaccessible,
and that is why I don't see how the procedure outlined on the above
page, would work. I would have thought it would only work, if somehow,
the RAID driver was already in place.
3) The third option is to reinstall everything, after setting the BIOS to
RAID mode.
Maybe you'll get lucky, and find another "recipe web page". I doubt Intel
would tell you how to do it.
HTH,
Paul
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