Thought I would post a few RAID questions...

[DefStatic]

I have 3 SATA drives.

1 80GB with WinXP Pro on it

2 320GB drives, set to RAID0.

However, when I go into Windows, and go to My Computer, I can not access what should be the RAID drive, F:\. If I go to Computer Management, and go to Drive Manage, it shows 3 Disk. The 80Gb C:\ drive. An UNKNOWN 300GB drive, and then the F:\ at 600GB, but has no File System, despite the fact that I attempted to install XPHome on there (which does attempt to boot but fails).

Something seems incorrect about all this. Why is it showing 3 disk? I know there is 3, but should the RAID0 show up as one?

And why am I losing 40GB of space? I know you lose some, but I didn't know that much.

[ripken204]

the space you are loosing is normal for any hdd, search the forum, there are plenty of posts on it, the manufacturers dont advertise the actual space.

as for the RAID being screwed up, im not too sure, are you positive that you set it up correctly in the BIOS?

have you tried formatting the drives in computer management?

[DefStatic]

the space you are loosing is normal for any hdd, search the forum, there are plenty of posts on it, the manufacturers dont advertise the actual space.

as for the RAID being screwed up, im not too sure, are you positive that you set it up correctly in the BIOS?

have you tried formatting the drives in computer management?

I can not format them in CM.

Not sure what I am doing wrong. nForce4 board. nvRAID shows the drive as healthy.

The SATA drive I already had (the 80GB with XP Pro) is on SATA3. The two new drives are on SATA1&2. I have RAID enabled on those two SATA channels, but not the others.

Edited August 17, 2007 by DefStatic

[nmX.Memnoch]

the space you are loosing is normal for any hdd, search the forum, there are plenty of posts on it, the manufacturers dont advertise the actual space.

Actually, they do...just not the "correct" way. Drive manufactures adversite:

1,000 bytes = 1 kilobyte

But Windows (and all OSes for that matter) read:

1,024 bytes = 1 kilobyte

See the attached screenshot. That's from two 250GB drives in RAID0. Notice that the capacity shows as 500,110,979,072 bytes. And that's correct. But when you divide it out that's roughly 465GB.

500,110,979,072 bytes / 1024 = 488,389,628 kilobytes

488,389,628 kilobytes / 1024 = 476942.99609375 megabytes

476942.99609375 megabytes / 1024 = 465.764644622802734375 gigabytes

So you're not really losing space, it's just a difference in the way drive manufacturers present the information, and the way operating systems present it.

So basically a drive manufacture tells you that 1,000,000,000 bytes is a Gigabyte. But all operating systems say 1,073,741,824 is a Gigabyte.

As for the RAID problem, I'm not exactly sure what's going on. I wasn't aware that NVIDIA chipsets would allow you to target enabling RAID on specific channels. Unless you mean that you have RAID turned on, but only have it configured on those two channels (that'd make more sense)? The only thing I can think of is that you either don't have the array configured correctly or don't have something in Windows configured correctly.

The "unknown" 300GB drive you're seeing is obviously one of the array members. The 600GB is the array itself. It sounds to me like the information isn't being passed from the RAID controller to Windows correctly.

[jcarle]

the space you are loosing is normal for any hdd, search the forum, there are plenty of posts on it, the manufacturers dont advertise the actual space.

as for the RAID being screwed up, im not too sure, are you positive that you set it up correctly in the BIOS?

have you tried formatting the drives in computer management?

You should be stripped of your damned title. You're not the hardware guy, you're the damned jester. The first basic law of science, matter cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms. Hard drive space doesn't just disappear. As nmX.Memnoch already pointed out, nothing is lost, it's just a discrepancy in the methods of calculation. And before you complain and say "that what I said!", no, it's not what you said. If you know the correct answer but don't have the patience to take the time and effort to actually type out the correct and proper answer in your post, just don't post.

I have 3 SATA drives.

1 80GB with WinXP Pro on it

2 320GB drives, set to RAID0.

However, when I go into Windows, and go to My Computer, I can not access what should be the RAID drive, F:\. If I go to Computer Management, and go to Drive Manage, it shows 3 Disk. The 80Gb C:\ drive. An UNKNOWN 300GB drive, and then the F:\ at 600GB, but has no File System, despite the fact that I attempted to install XPHome on there (which does attempt to boot but fails).

Something seems incorrect about all this. Why is it showing 3 disk? I know there is 3, but should the RAID0 show up as one?

And why am I losing 40GB of space? I know you lose some, but I didn't know that much.

There is absolutely nothing normal about the behaviour of your RAID array. I would suggest that you attempt the following to resolve your issue, in this order:

- Update your BIOS to the latest version.

- Re-install your chipset drivers

- Make sure your Windows is up to date with all the latest updates

- Re-install your RAID drivers (this usually requires you to download the latest F6 floppy disk, extracting it and manually updating the driver through Device Manager).

Edited August 18, 2007 by jcarle

[DefStatic]

the space you are loosing is normal for any hdd, search the forum, there are plenty of posts on it, the manufacturers dont advertise the actual space.

as for the RAID being screwed up, im not too sure, are you positive that you set it up correctly in the BIOS?

have you tried formatting the drives in computer management?

You should be stripped of your damned title. You're not the hardware guy, you're the damned jester. The first basic law of science, matter cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms. Hard drive space doesn't just disappear. As nmX.Memnoch already pointed out, nothing is lost, it's just a discrepancy in the methods of calculation. And before you complain and say "that what I said!", no, it's not what you said. If you know the correct answer but don't have the patience to take the time and effort to actually type out the correct and proper answer in your post, just don't post.

I have 3 SATA drives.

1 80GB with WinXP Pro on it

2 320GB drives, set to RAID0.

However, when I go into Windows, and go to My Computer, I can not access what should be the RAID drive, F:\. If I go to Computer Management, and go to Drive Manage, it shows 3 Disk. The 80Gb C:\ drive. An UNKNOWN 300GB drive, and then the F:\ at 600GB, but has no File System, despite the fact that I attempted to install XPHome on there (which does attempt to boot but fails).

Something seems incorrect about all this. Why is it showing 3 disk? I know there is 3, but should the RAID0 show up as one?

And why am I losing 40GB of space? I know you lose some, but I didn't know that much.

There is absolutely nothing normal about the behaviour of your RAID array. I would suggest that you attempt the following to resolve your issue, in this order:

- Update your BIOS to the latest version.

- Re-install your chipset drivers

- Make sure your Windows is up to date with all the latest updates

- Re-install your RAID drivers (this usually requires you to download the latest F6 floppy disk, extracting it and manually updating the driver through Device Manager).

DOH! Owned by the difference between 1024 and 1000. Now it makes since. Oh well, they are still a little over 300GB.

Drivers it is. I hate updating nForce drivers. Last time I did, my vid card declined in performance and I got random errors with my built in Ethernet card.

[ripken204]

well my 320GB drive is 298.09GB in windows.

[Mercury_22]

Try this : physically remove the 80gb drive from the system and try to install windows on raid drivers! After that reattach the 80gb drive

Edited August 18, 2007 by Mercury_22

[DefStatic]

Try this : physically remove the 80gb drive from the system and try to install windows on raid drivers! After that reattach the 80gb drive

I think I will try that and try getting newest chipset drivers before I go flashing the BIOS. I have never had a problem doing that, but these Chaintech drivers scare the crap out of me. Latest one I found is technically a beta.

EDIT: No go. Gets the BLUE SCREEN again, just says stop error, no mention of UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. I am using the drivers from the 6.86 nForce set. I am pretty sure these are the latest for my system.

Guess I will attempt to flash the BIOS. I have DLed a version 5.0 of the BIOS for this board. Supposedly it is a beta though. Maybe I should have gone for 4.0?

EDIT 2: Ok, FLASH of the BIOS went fine. I believe I put on v5.0 now. Must have done something because my RAID was disabled when I went back into the BIOS.

BTW, I went to nvidia.com , and I tried to download the newest nForce4 driver set for my setup, but I have no idea when one to get. I think its the 400/405/410 (no integrated graphics) one, but not sure.

Edited August 18, 2007 by DefStatic

[nmX.Memnoch]

What's the make/model of your motherboard?

[DefStatic]

What's the make/model of your motherboard?

CHAINTECH VNF4 Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

M101 433 maybe? Don't have the box with me right now.

[nmX.Memnoch]

It's an nForce4 Ultra chipset. This should be the correct drivers:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_win2k_6.86.html

[cublt]

i am trying to set up a raid0 using two 160gb raptor drives using the same mobo (chaintech vnf4 ultra amd). i can see and use the array fine when i am in a windows installation on another drive, but when i try to boot into the xp professional installation on the array i get the windows splash screen for a while then a blue screen stop error, then it instantly reboots.

it allowed me to format the array after i used f6 to load the drivers off a floppy disc into the xp prof installation. it also installs windows fine. when i look at the details of the array from within the bios it looks like they are both on adapter 2, would that make a difference? it seems like the problem is in windows tho, right after the splash screen. maybe when it is trying to load the drivers? i have tried both the 6.66 and 6.86 drivers on the floppy disc with no success. any insights would be greatly appreciated!

[ripken204]

try installing windows without the drivers and see what happens. with vista i didnt have to load any drivers for my raid.

[Zxian]

try installing windows without the drivers and see what happens. with vista i didnt have to load any drivers for my raid.

Without the drivers, the XP installation won't recognize the array at all. Vista has far better driver support than XP did.