RAID board questions.

[ArnoldLLerch]

I have recently purchased an Abit KT7A-RAID board and want to be able to utilize it fully someday. Currently I have two matched drives on the #3 IDE controller set to PIO mode 4 and just using them as drives E and F for storage for program and driver download folders. A: how do I use RAID and 2: Striping? When I had them set to RAID or STRIPING I could not see them in Windows98 SE.

 

[ArnoldLLerch]

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[ArnoldLLerch]

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[mikefromwa]

this isnt really a motherboard forum question, but to use the onboard raid controller you must plug the ide cables into the raid slots (normally 1 cable to each drive, master on each channel). then goto the raid bios, create the array (raid 0 for one large striped drive).

after that just format the new drive, make sure you have the raid controller drivers for win98 installed and...umm... thats it

 

[CivicSiRider]

It's explained in the back of the abit manual for this board, is it not.

 

[ArnoldLLerch]

What, read the instructions, hey man, I am a guy! I don't read the instructions or stop at gas stations for directions. Oh, wait, yes I do.
Maybe I got the abbreviated manual that skipped that part. I'll look again. Better forum? No problem.. Suggest one and I'll move it there.

 

[Eriksson]

To use RAID with two drives, plug each drive on separate controller (3&4 for Abit KT7-R)
Make sure to put the blue connector to the motherboard, (80 wire cables)
Both drives as master.
Right after post screen press 'ctrl+H' to get into highpoint bios.
There you can select boot drive should you like to boot off the raid array, and create/delete the array as well. I would try something better than pio4..unless you
got some very old drives.

After you have created the array you just fdisk and create paritions and format like a regular drive. Win98 has no problems idendifying your drive when your done. Install the HPT drivers though.

*note*
Creating and deleting raid arrays erases ALL content on both drives.

hope this helps.

 

[ArnoldLLerch]

Okay, I'm with that but, what is "better" than PIO4? My choices are PIO-0 through 4 or Striping (RAID 0), Mirroring (RAID 1), Striping/Mirroring (RAID 1+0) or Span (JBOD). I have 4 identical Western Digital 3166.7 MB Hard Drives to experiment with until my 80's come in. All four were manufactured in March of 97. Not using them for anything mission critical until I sort this out. Moderator, you are welcome to move this if it is not the correct forum.

 

[Eriksson]

I dont know if your drives are ATA33 compatible, but you can choose from PIO 0~4, MW DMA 0~2 and UDMA 0~5. Perhaps you can only see the compatible settings for the drives connected to the controller. Btw ATA-100 drives are set to UDMA-5.

Raid 0 = parallel access to all drives. For two drives this means the array size it two times the size of the SMALLER drive. Access speed is in theory two times that of the SLOWER drive. (Dont need to be identical) minimum two drives requried. This one is most popular for home users.

Raid 1 = Mirroring, requries two drives
etc.. you can read about this in your manual too

hope this helps.