Setting up raid 0

[racer]

What is RAID?

RAID or "Redundant Array of Independent Disks" come in different pattern. From RAID 0 and RAID 1 to a combination of these two and to extend it to RAID 5 and RAID 10.Here we discuss only RAID 0 . To set up a RAID system, you can use IDE, Serial ATA or SCSI disks, but never mixed. A RAID setup is always the same type of discs.


RAID-0

RAID-0 is a simple combination of one or more hard disks that the computer behave as a large disk. This is called striping. For example, two 250GB hard disks and take them as RAID-0 this configure PC always consider as a single 500GB hard disk. The main advantage of striping is the speed gain. Writing to hard drives in most set ups the bottleneck. In RAID-0, the PC simultaneously to both disks. The data is distributed over both disks. You get 100% speed gain but an increase of 20% to 30% is possible.

A major drawback is that in the event that any of the disks fails your data is lost. Indeed, the disc is not defective is only part of the non contiguous data. In the absence of data from the faulty disk, the data of the other disk has become unusable.

RAID-1
In a RAID-1 set-up also called mirroring the hard drives switched so that the second disk is an identical copy of the first. This mirror writing is real time during the recording. As one of the two disks dies you can always have copy on hand ,to replace the defective disk and continue where you left off.

RAID 0 + 1
It is possible for a combination of RAID 0 and RAID-1 to make. This course has more than two hard drives needed.

[racer]

This curiosity arises from novices who want to assemble a pc for the medium-high against a budget , although respectable, is not enough to buy a high end pc. The overall performance of a system also depend on the speed, the number of hardidisk and how the hard disk are installed. The need for faster storage devices depends mainly on the use of the machine. To use a video game, the RAID 0 configuration is an excellent solution as the most economical and performance similar to hard disk with a single speed of rotation increased, such as the Western Digital Raptor, compared with standard HDD 7200 rpm. Others prefer the security and storage compared to the performances and for this reason can fall back on a RAID1. Finally, for professional use where it is necessary to have the speed but above all the security solution RAID 0 +1 is ideal.


What do you need for a RAID 0 or RAID-1 set-up?
You need a PC with a RAID controller. In some cases it is integrated onto the motherboard. Is this not the case then you can opt for a PCI card RAID controller. Make sure that the RAID which matches the type of disc you want to use (IDE / SATA / SCSI). Although not mandatory it is strongly recommended to use identical disks (brand, size, type, speed).

There are manufacturers who make hard drive enclosures with built in RAID controller. An example is C-Lab MSS. You place two (or more) standard hard drives in the housing and the built controller ensures that the disks in RAID switch.

To create a raid you must have a motherboard with Intel chipset that is equipped with Southbridge ICHXR,
(where X = 7,8,9,10) or Nvidia chipset with ICHSR southbridge.

To have two identical hard drives linked together so that they function as one large double speed (eg. 2 disks, each providing 33MB/si transfer rate and 100GB capacity consists of 1 x 200GB with 66MB / s) may seem attractive

[racer]

Configuration

If this is a brand new pc you must make a preliminary, the creation of one or more floppy disks that contain the drivers for the sata raid and other tools such as Intel Matrix Storage if you want to test a mother with the same chipset manufacturer.

To do this it is suitable to use computers easily accessible, insert the CD / DVD that comes with the bundle of motherboard, select the driver you want to install and create the floppy.

Just starts to boot the system you must enter the BIOS and see what devices are recognized. If the number of units is lower than installed shut down the PC and checked all the various connections (power and recognition).
In the case where all devices are also present in the BIOS you need to go to one of the same item, such as SATA CONFIGURATION menu item and click RAID. Select the sequence and set the boot sequence D, A, C.
This operation will permitted to install so to reboot your PC.

Save and then reboot the system.

During the reboot it will display the words "to configure the raid press ctrl + i (Intel chipset) or F10 (Nvidia chipset). Push the buttons and in so doing you will end up inside the tool used to set up the raid. The menu is very simple, in fact you will have to choose between Create raid, edit raid, raid and remove confirm the operation.

Go to Edit raid, select the unit to raid and choose a mode such as the 0 (stripe), 1 (mirror) or 0 +1 (stripe + mirror) and confirmed. Because the raid is ready, you need to reboot, but before you enter the cd to install windows in your unit, confirm change and reboot the system.

At this point, during the setup of your operating system, be quick to press F6 when you will have a written:
TO INSTALL RAID, SCSI PERFIERICHE OR ANY THIRD PARTIES PUSH F6.

insert the floppy with a driver for the sata raid and then wait as long as necessary because there appears a screen with the text:

PRESS S TO INSTALL A NEW DEVICE.

Press S, insert the floppy and dates sent. When reading the disc you'll see a menu with the list of drivers that want to install.

[racer]

Important
select the driver Southbridge (ICH7R, ICH8R, ICH9R, ICH10R or ICHSR) compatible with the chipset of your motherboard (eg 945, 965, G31, G33, P35, X38 and x48, P43, P45, NForce) and select enter.This should be carried out and equal to the number of floppy you have created.Be careful to insert the floppy and not just try to install the drivers for 64 bit so about 32-bit and vice versa ... If driver conflicts that will require a re-format the entire HDD. when you are sure you have installed all the drivers well press C to continue with the installation of your OS.

After a few minutes, windows will ask you to enter the last floppy that contains the management tools directly from the raid windows (Intel Matrix Storage chipset for Intel Matrix Storage or NVidia for NFoce).

If the raid is configured properly it will wait sufficient till second step of installation or formatting the HDD. If you have multiple drives configured raid the result is that you get a HDD, but only with double capacity.

Create two partitions always a little more for Windows and greater for storage. By doing so you will have a two fold advantage:

1. From the first setup you can afford just formatting the partition where the smaller will be the kernel, For the greater the format will be the same file system of your OS when you have time;
2. if a new format, saving time in system recovery because you can save data in a second partition.

[racer]

Does raid is only for sata disks?

See how many connectors are available on a single cable of IDE. Generally, they are two and this allows you to use a single cable to connect two units, that can be an optical drive and a memory .This type of raid was completely abandoned, either because little performer compared to SATA disks.That is due to the bulk of which comes with the cable ide to 40 pin.

If you have a RAID0 configuration to avoid trouble, it is advisable to make regular backups .To avoid bottlenecks is recommended but not mandatory buy two or more HDD twins with the same denomination and cache access time. This is because a disk performance is forced to adapt to the slower speed .Finally, it is advisable that a raid0 can better with maximum 2-3 HDD if you want to use the SATA controller integrated into the motherboard as it would limit the band created by a raid0 of many hard disk.
To avoid this problem you can buy dedicated external raid controller on the PCI slot, or PCI-EX 1x or 4x to overcome this problem.

[fumble]

PREPARATION

1. Copy all files from your XP PRO SP1 in a directory at the root of your hard drive (eg C \ XPSP1)
2. in this directory, create the following directory tree C: \ XPSP1 \ $ OEM $ \ $ 1
3. create a directory drivers, giving C: \ XPSP1 \ $ OEM $ \ $ 1 \ Drivers
4. add a folder called Drivers in Si3112r
5. download SATA RAID drivers and decompress (unzip) into a temporary directory.
   
   COPY OF DRIVERS
6. copy the file. Sys corresponding (in the example here, the Si3112r.sys) and paste it as is in the i386 folder (we have so C: \ XPSP1 \ i386 \ Si3112r.sys) Some recommend to also copy in C: \ XPSP1 \ $ OEM $
7. copy all files from the SATA driver that you previously unzipped into a temporary folder in the subdirectory of drivers, called Si3112r.
   The drivers are in C: \ XPSP1 \ $ OEM $ \ $ 1 \ Drivers \ Si3112r.

Modification of txtsetup.sif in i386
Be very careful from now on

1. seek TXTSETUP.SIF in the i386 folder (C: \ XPSP1 \ i386 \ txtsetup.sif) and open it with a text editor (Notepad or other ...) in order to complete as follows.
   (The information needed to complete the various topics can be found in the files. Txtsetup.oem inf or corresponding drivers. These. Inf or. Oem also open with notepad).
2. in [SourceDisksFiles]
   add si3112r.sys line ,,,,,,_ x = 1, 4.1
3. in [HardwareIdsDatabase]
   To complete this section we will use the Txtsetup.oem or the inf file in order to find an expression of the form PCI \ VEN_xxxx & DEV_yyyy followed by quotation marks. And this expression is a unique identifier for your hardware is what allows Windows to differentiate it from others.
   In this example, in the txtsetup.oem / [HardwareIds.SCSI.Si3112r], we find the expression:
   id = "PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_61121095", "Si3112r"
   Giving recopying:
   PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_61121095 = "Si3112r"
   Do the same for the other expressions referring to the same driver in the same section, you can have multiple lines to be copied, BE VERY CAREFUL TO SYNTAX: note that the id = and "" have disappeared from the first part, and the comma is in place =
   

   Thus chosen for the pilot in this example you have in this section:
   id = "PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_61121095", "Si3112r"
   id = "PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_611215D9", "Si3112r"
   id = "PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_34228086", "Si3112r"
   id = "PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_B0031458", "Si3112r"
   etc ...
   which translates into the following lines to copy:
   PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_61121095 = "Si3112r"
   PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_611215D9 = "Si3112r"
   PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_34228086 = "Si3112r"
   PCI \ VEN_1095 & DEV_3112 & SUBSYS_B0031458 = "Si3112r"
   etc ...
   But rest assured, you will not often find that one in three lines in this section ...

4. in [SCSI.Load]
5. This section will be less complicated than the previous one, it suffices to take the code in quotes and the name of the driver: si3112r = si3112r.sys, 4
6. in [SCSI]
   Again nothing really difficult, we will go to the equivalent Txtsetup.oem to find what you are looking for or at the [strings] section of the file. Inf, to retrieve the description from ".
   Where: si3112r = "Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller"
7. Save your changes in Txtsetup.sif
   That's it for this file. This is the next stage of the install (before XP's GUI). We do not have to insert a diskette and press F6 to setup.

Modification of Winnt.sif in i386

1. open C: \ XPCD \ i386 \ Winnt.sif in notepad and insert the following lines in the unattended section:
   [Unattended]
   

   DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
   OemPnPDriversPath = "Drivers \ Si3112r"

2. enjoy to enter the product key for no valid, there will be no need to enter during the install. Otherwise, you can simply delete this line.
3. save your changes, quit.
   Until it is, make the same changes in the winnt32.sif
   Of course, if you include several drivers, the procedure is the same. Repeat step for each. If you have several directories in C: \ XPCD \ $ OEM $ \ $ 1 \ Drivers, for example Sil0680, SATA378, FasttrackTX4 ... The last row in unattended will be:
   

   OemPnPDriversPath = "Drivers \ Si3112r; Drivers \ Sil0680; Drivers \ SATA378; Drivers \ FasttrackTX4"

4. burn the cd with a boot.bin (see google). Very important, otherwise you can not boot on your new CD.

I use Nero with the following settings:

• Select "CD-Rom boot (or boot)
• emulation type: none
• number of sectors read 4

The method is valid with Nero 5.5 and higher. However with other burning software, the process is identical. It is preferable to use a rewritable CD.

[timon]

Setting up raid 0 on windows xp

1. Create a floppy with the drivers 32-bit Intel ICH8R (cd)
   Driver \ RAID \ ICH8R \ Floppy \ f6flpy32 \ F6flpy32.exe
   
2. in the bios (DEL) to the following parameters:
   
3. go to "Integrated Peripherals"
   
4. in "on chip IDE device"
   
5. to SATA mode to "RAID Mode"
   
6. in On board devices
   
7. JMicron JMB361 controller set on IDE / SATA mode "
   
8. USB controller to the "Disabled" otherwise xp will take the card reader for C: D: ... and the system disk will be found in H:
   
9. do a Ctrl + I to configure the RAID (delete and recreate)
   
10. verify that the first boot device is the CD rom ...
    
11. put the xp CD and floppy RAID drivers
    
12. to launch the install press F6
    
13. to put the RAID driver press S
    
14. choose the ICH8R/DO/DH SATA RAID controller (1st line)
    
15. disk partition
    
16. Remember to re-enable the USB (go to "Integrated Peripherals" / "On board devices / USB controller to" Enabled ") and change the boot sequence
    
17. if this does not retry ensuring above all that no partition is created on the disk (starting a install by turning on the SATA disks)

[savil76]

nice explanation!!!