OT, SATA RAID 0 + 1

[VMFA-Blaze]

I've been to several forums as well as manufactures web sites and even asked the guys at work but was unable to get a clear answer......

 

So I'm asking here in hopes that one of you knowledgeable guys help me resolve this question....

 

I'm presently running 2 matched Maxtor 80 gig HD's .......

 

And since I've built my system back in March, I had been running Raid 0 with out any issues.....

 

I had an XFX 6600 installed which wasn't bad but recently I was able to purchase an XFX 6800 Ultra at a bargin, and my curiousity got the best of me so I installed this Uber card .....

 

So now at this point the new hardware has seemed to have knocked one of the HD's off line and I'm now looking at a reformat.....

 

Needless to say I don't really want to go through this again unless I want to so I'm now in the proccess of setting up Raid 0 + 1.......

 

So here is the issue I can't really find a wireing diagram on how to set up the thin red control cables for the mirror drives......

 

I have the raid 0 cables plugged into the promise jacks on the mother board which is an ASUS K8V SE ......

 

Now there are only 2 jacks here for the promise configuration and I'm not really sure if this board can actually handle RAID 0 + 1, allthough the bios does show 0 + 1 in the set up screen...

 

Oh! by the way there are 2 connections on the mother board for ATA ......

 

What about installing RAID 0 on the Promise configuration and Raid 1 on the ATA configuration????

 

Does any one know if this is the answer??????

 

One other thing on the mirrior drives I know that I can use larger capacity drives then the Raid 0 configuration, but nothing smaller, could I possibly use 1 single 200 GIG HD or does it have to be 2 matched HD's for the mirror as well?????

 

 

~S~

 

Blaze

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

plug in the drives to the sata ports on your pc, and then use the floppy disc to setup raid 0+1.

 

you need a floppy, you cannot do it by the bios only.

 

just plug in the drives, insert windows xp cd, when it asks you to push f6 i think it is to install 3rd party raid or scsi drivers do so, but make sure your raid floppy is in the floppy drive before you push f6.

 

dont let windows continue to install, it has to use the floppy disc for the raid drivers.

 

once the floppy has booted, you can then configure your raid setup via that, and that is the only way to do it as far as i am aware. the majority of mobos still need a floppy to setup raid.

[Floyd]

I have an Asus A8V mobo and the manual tells me the promise chip supports

raid 0+1 (the second chip via vt8237 supports raid 0 or 1 only). So first you'll

have to define a raid 0 within the bios, then install Windows (need the driver disk

during that process) and after windows install define a raid 1. The raid is done

"in hardware" and is "invisible" to windows.

 

The promise PDC20378 supports 1 UltraDMA 133 connector and 2 Sata connectors.

[Yellonet]

Yes, you always need at least two drives for RAID, that's the whole purpose (harddrives working together).

But they don't have to be identical, but it's the slowest/smallest disk that determins the capacity and speed of the array as a whole.

Ex. 1 x 5400 rpm 80 GB + 1 x 7200 rpm 120 GB in RAID 0 = 5400 rpm 160 GB

[dynamocl]

You have got 4 drives havn't you for your raid 10 setup?

 

Mirrored striped, or striped mirrors, you need four HDDs.

 

Probably teaching you to suck eggs, just checking.

 

And you need to setup the raid before even thinking about installing an OS, you can run into weird problems otherwise. You should have a raid config ability somewhere (Server boards may have it on board, other need a floppy).

[VMFA-Blaze]

OK guys thanks for the replies....

 

Yes I've allready set up RAID 0 in my system.....

 

I must be confusing everyone for some reason so let me try and explain my situation a little bit more....

 

I want to set up RAID 0 + 1 and I'm trying to understand how to hook up the control cables for the mirror drives.....

 

At the present I have the Serial ATA connectors from the RAID 0 HD's plugged into PRI_SATA and SEC_SATA through the onboard Promise RAID controller......

 

OK I hope your with me so far, so now I'll try and explain my question....

 

Since there is only one Primary and one secondary connection and these are now taken by RAID 0, where do I connect the RAID 1 HD's ??????

 

Because the onboard Promise controller on the KV8 SE only has the ability to plug in 2 HD's will I need to install say a Promise PCI card to plug the mirror HD's in to the system as well?????

 

I might mention that this mother board also has two connections also that are for the ATA controller....

 

Could I possibly connect the Mirror HD's to these or will this cause conflicts?????

 

~S~

 

Blaze

[Fat Boy]

It looks like from there web site you can setup Raid 0 or Raid 1 with that board but not both.

It would state Raid 0+1 under Storage/RAID

 

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=790&l1=3&l2=14&l3=0

[Floyd]

Confusion!

 

Which board do you have exactly: K8V-X SE or K8V SE (deluxe)?

The first one has the raid controller in the south bridge and the

second has an additional second raid chip (promise). If you have the

second board type you can connect 2 SATA disks to the promise controller

and 2 ATA disks to the promise controller. Mirroring the SATA stripe "on" the

ATA stripe should be possible.

 

This is from the manual of the "deluxe" version:

 

South Bridge

-2 x ATA133

-2 x SATA, RAID0, RAID1

Promise R20378 RAID controller

-1xUltraDMA133 supports two hard drives

-2xSATA

-RAID0, RAID1, RAID 0+1

 

As you can see, the promise chip supports "1xUltraDMA133" additional to the 2 Sata disks.

 

Ok, before you ask: mirroring or striping "accross" the raid controllers is NOT possible. If you can

live w/o stripe, you canuse the other raid controller from the south bridge for another SATA mirror.

[VMFA-Blaze]

I have the deluxe verion of the mother board which does have the 2 ATA as well as the 2 Promise connections...

 

Thanks Floyd, I'm going to assign Raid 0 to the Promise and Raid 1 to the ATA connections....

 

I'll let you guys know how it comes out......

 

~S~

 

Blaze

[Prophet_169th]

I have the deluxe verion of the mother board which does have the 2 ATA as well as the 2 Promise connections...

 

Thanks Floyd, I'm going to assign Raid 0 to the Promise and Raid 1 to the ATA connections....

 

I'll let you guys know how it comes out......

 

~S~

 

Blaze

 

You will not get your intended results that way. The way you describe, you will get 1 mirrored array, and 1 striped array.

 

You need to assign both RAID devices as 0 in BIOS, and when installed Windows choose to installed a RAID 1 from the 2 RAID 0 Drives.

[VMFA-Blaze]

You will not get your intended results that way. The way you describe, you will get 1 mirrored array, and 1 striped array.

 

You need to assign both RAID devices as 0 in BIOS, and when installed Windows choose to installed a RAID 1 from the 2 RAID 0 Drives.

 

Rodger Prophet......

 

I read you 5 x 5......

 

Blaze out