Raid1 Cable Connections?

[Mortis]

Greetings. I am building a new machine for work. I am using the GA-7VRXP and have two 60g HDD's. I am a little confused about how to configure the cableing. This is what I think I should do.

Ide1: HDD1 only
Ide2: HDD2 only
Ide3: CDRom, Zip...
Ide4: same as 3.

Does this look about right? I have mobo directions on how to configure the software side of raid- but havent found anything about configuring the hardware- Cables.

I have a couple Software questions about Win2000, so anyone who comes across this... please take a ride on over the the OS Forum... hehe.

Thanks all!!!

Mortis

[Xaotic]

You'll want the two HDDs as master on the respective RAID channels and the optical drives and other hardware on the regular IDE controllers. When you first boot, you'll need to enter the RAID configuration menu and define the array and format it(usually). After that it's time for the install, make sure to hit F6 to load the RAID drives during the install, if necessary.

[Mntsnow]

I agree with Xaotic.

Put the HD's as masters on the 2 different raid channels and put the zip and CD on the secondary standard ide controller which will leave the primary avaliable for you to use.

In the bios you will need to change the boot order to list "raid/scsi" before the primary HD.

[Mortis]

Big Thanks! I now have the 2 HDD's on 3 and 4 and am formatting. This is the first time I have worked with Raid and it can be a little confusing... hehe. Whats frustrating is the Manual and Gigabytes site give BIOS instructions for configuring the RAID, but dont give any physical (cable position) instructions.

Again- big thanks!

Mortis

[Mntsnow]

best of luck :)

[speedman]

Yeah I had an Abit KT7A-Raid board with it set up like yours.

The only problem is the raid instructions that came with the manual were quite vague........:(

[Mortis]

Here I thought I was on the road to completion :( . Not so... heres what's going: I successfully mirrored the HDD's and they are formatted. When I try to install the OS (Win2000AdvServer) I get errors and then eventually "Setup Failure." The Raid Setup.Txt says to copy the Win2000 Raid Drivers onto a floppy and do the F6 when prompted then hit the S key. I do this and the floppy reads and the install starts- I dont get any options as the .txt states I should. About 20 minutes into install I am prompted to insert the Floppy A that has device drivers on it- Ofcourse, I have a CD... not floppy. I am forced to exit past this part and that is when the trouble starts. I start getting a whole slew of I/O errors until it times out. I have gone through this several times now. Any ideas, input or links are appreciated.

THanks All!

Mortis

[Mntsnow]

create a floppy with your board's raid drivers on it and make sure at the start of your install when it asks if you need 3rd party scsi/raid support hit the F6 key and install the drivers. Also make sure you have the boot order setup in the bios correctly.

[Mortis]

Ya... did that and am having some troubles toward the End of installation and 2000 reading the HDD partition and format (once I get to the point where it says starting OS)- says it is unrecognized/invalid and I get stuck in a loop... the create and delete partition loop. Still working that one out. I'll get it at some point. I know it would be faster, at this point, for me to just install one HDD and then after the OS is in create the Mirror- but that's no fun ;).

[Mntsnow]

:)

[Mortis]

I was getting this error- "Disk I/O error: Status=00008001
Failed to arcread the boot partition to check for a disk signature at bootup" and then other similar errors followed later during install. It was the ZIP DRIVE! Disconnected it and reinstalled OS and all is good! Now its time to load correct drivers and benchmark... hehe. Might as well have fun with it now cause tomorrow it starts its tour as our server.

Again- Thanks.