Jump to content

The complete how to for getting your raid working.


webmedic

Does this method work for you yet  

23 members have voted

  1. 1. Does this method work for you yet

    • No
      4
    • Yes
      6
    • Yes but not durring gui mode.
      1


Recommended Posts

lol it is not. but you may have set it to something funny in hte raid controler bios.

raid 1+0 is mirror and stripping raid. at the same time.

I didnt touch contoller bios!

I just rebooted and chacked my PC bios - nothing is wrong.

On PC boot shows MB ultra 133 2.201.12 and finds my HD at UDMA6.

XP commes up and showes in Device Manager "Promise Fasttrak full raid 133 ™ controller (pdc 20276)"

Promise 1 + 0 Stripe/Raid SCSi disk drive

so Im confused :):D:D

Djus :/

Well let's short things out, the ultra.sys is for the standard ide working version of your raid controller, and the fasttrak.sys is when you switch it to RAID function through the BIOS.

If you notice there are 2 functions of your raid controller : ATA and RAID! :rolleyes:

Now that if you have raid with 1 disk, if there is only 1 disk on the controller then your raid controller will identified it as one disk and it will show as Promise 1 + 0 Stripe/Raid SCSi disk drive.

If you have 2 disks with raid it would say Promise 2 + 0 Stripe/Raid SCSi disk drive.

If you had them in mirroring function it would say Promise 2 + 1 Stripe/Raid SCSi disk drive

Hope this helps to understand the function of RAID. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites


(continued from last post)Promise 1 + 0 Stripe/Raid SCSi disk drive

The "1" shows the amount of disks present

The "0" shows the mode of the RAID (stripping or mirroring)

"0" is for stripping

"1" is for mirroring (for the second number)

so,

2+0 means 2 disks with stripping

2+1 means 2 disks with mirroring

and 1+0 means only 1 disk alone.!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ vkostas thx

I have set ATA not Raid in my PC Bios, and XP shows RAID 1+ 0.

I have a hacked bios for my MB, maybe its that.

I will flash it back and see whats going to happen.

By the way, whats better/faster:

HD x 2 = UDMA6 on ATA 133 controller

HD x 2 = 2 + 0 stripe on Raid controller.

Djus

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for that also to note that it may be like in my case I have a controler that will only see drives for raid it will not work as a normal hard drive controler. I'm not a big fan of the promise controlers I have seen to many issues with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ vkostas thx

I have set ATA not Raid in my PC Bios, and XP shows RAID 1+ 0.

I have a hacked bios for my MB, maybe its that.

I will flash it back and see whats going to happen.

By the way, whats better/faster:

HD x 2 = UDMA6 on ATA 133 controller

HD x 2 = 2 + 0 stripe on Raid controller.

Djus

Check it again because this is not right for the ATA mode to be identified as RAID.

It's not the modified BIOS, because i also use a modified one.

The standard protocol ATA has nothing to do with the RAID don't confuse them.

When disks are in ATA, they work alone as 1 drive 1 disk, but

when you use RAID the 2 disks works as 1.

for example, 2 80GB disks in stripe gives you --> 1 disk of 160GB

inside your os you will see 1 disk not 2 with their capacity added. giving you a boost to the performance of about 40%

In mirroring 2 80GB disks will result in 1 80GB disk, because the second one works as the mirror of the first (for data security)

For example i use 2X80GB disks in stripping, to see the prformance improvement

Sisoft Sandra gives me for the 1 80GB disk about 32000 score

but when i switch to 2X80 stripe i get a 51500 score

That says it all, hope i helped you... :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

no I understnad it is supposed to work that way for me on my system I have a motherboard with a promise copntroler that will not work as anything but raid. I'm going to rma it. That is a motherboard issue and not the installer in my case only.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for that also to note that it may be like in my case I have a controler that will only see drives for raid it will not work as a normal hard drive controler. I'm not a big fan of the promise controlers I have seen to many issues with them.

It might be, if you use wrong drivers for example ultra.sys for RAID function

and fasttrak.sys for ATA function.

I have a promise in my pc, at my work i use all the time promise controllers and never had problems with them, in fact a had alot with highpoint!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ vkostas

Two more quastion plz :)

Do the HD`s have to be blank to put tham in raid 2 + 0 stripe?

Im afraid to lose my data :rolleyes:

Do the HD`s have to be the same size:

40MB + 60MB = 100MB or 80MB ?

@webmedic

I tryed with ultra.sys or fastrak.sys wont work, no HD`S for XP :D

Did you put up your new *.cab ?

Thx for helping

Djus

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey vkostas

I just realised you have a same Raid Cotroller and same MB brand.

I have only other model Gigabyte 8IRXP, but same controller.

You are using it for Raid, did you try to boot and install with HD`s conected to ata133?

Could you plz test this.

thx

Djus

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ vkostas

Two more quastion plz :rolleyes:

Do the HD`s have to be blank to put tham in raid 2 + 0 stripe?

Im afraid to lose my data :D

Do the HD`s have to be the same size:

40MB + 60MB = 100MB or 80MB ?

@webmedic

I tryed with ultra.sys or fastrak.sys wont work, no HD`S for XP :D

Did you put up your new *.cab ?

Thx for helping

Djus

YES!!! :) Don't do anything before you take a full backup of your files, after you put them on raid (stripping) you must format your new drive and start form scratch!!!!!!!!

In stripping the result of the 2 drives is the sum of those (60+40=100)

In mirroring the result of 2 different size disks is the smaller one will be used for the resulting disk (60+40=40) and the source disk must be the smaller and the destination the bigger. So in mirroring for not to lose capacity you must use identical disks.

For best performance in either cases you must use identical disks (brand+capacity)

in your TXTSETUP.SIF use these commands :

[sourceDisksFiles]

fasttrak.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]

PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_5275 = "fasttrak"

[sCSI.Load]

fasttrak = fasttrak.sys,4

[sCSI]

fasttrak = "Promise FastTrak TX2000 Controller (PDC20276)"

modify them of course for your case...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey vkostas

I just realised you have a same Raid Cotroller  and same MB brand.

I have only other model Gigabyte 8IRXP, but same controller.

You are using it for Raid, did you try to boot and install with HD`s conected to ata133?

Could you plz test this.

thx

Djus

Yes i tried that, and they work just fine! :)

My guess is that your system is confused with the existence of 2 differnent versions of drivers!!! try to remove all your raid/ata drivers and start again with the right ones, don't mix them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

in your TXTSETUP.SIF use these commands :

[sourceDisksFiles]

fasttrak.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]

PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_5275 = "fasttrak"

[sCSI.Load]

fasttrak = fasttrak.sys,4

[sCSI]

fasttrak = "Promise FastTrak TX2000 Controller (PDC20276)"

modify them of course for your case...

is this good so for ata:

[sourceDisksFiles]

ultra.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]

PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_5275 = "ultra"

[sCSI.Load]

ultra = ultra.sys,4

[sCSI]

ultra = "WinXP Promise MBUltra133 (PDC20276) IDE Controller"

Shoud I erase all others, fastrak I mean?

Are they to be put in first place?

Because I tryed this allready and it wont wrk :)

What ara your PC bios settings for Raid/ata.

I have:

first boot device Raid/scsi: set to scsi

First boot device Hd0,1,2.... set to scsi

What do you mean erase all?

What shoud be in Ide_raid folder, just ultra.sys...inf...cat nothin else.

Djus

Raid/ATA: set to ATA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because I tryed this allready and it wont wrk :)

What ara your PC bios settings for Raid/ata.

I have:

first boot device Raid/scsi: set to scsi

First boot device Hd0,1,2.... set to scsi

What do you mean erase all?

What shoud be in Ide_raid folder, just ultra.sys...inf...cat nothin else.

You must copy your ultra.sys to the ....\i386\ directory and add them to the oempnpdrivers path of your winnt.sif file.

At the ide_raid directory put all the files, in i386 put just ultra.sys

My BIOS settings for them is ATA , RAID , Disabled

and first boot device must be scsi. if you have other disk(s) at the standard ide channels remove them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you have a comlplete install that is working for your board could you mail it to me so i can add it to the top of this thread and also I know you have posted it before but hte board and raid controler .

Thay way I can make it available for others. Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a ASUS A7V333 motherboard with Promise MBFasttrak 133 Lite (pdc20276)

I have the following settings:

txtsetup.sif

[sourceDisksFiles]

fasttrak.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]

PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_7275 = "fasttrak"

PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_5275 = "fasttrak"

[sCSI.Load]

fasttrak = fasttrak.sys,4

[sCSI]

fasttrak = "Promise FastTrak133 Lite ™ Controller"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...