Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

HI guys, I must say I'm pretty new to raid configuration.
I''ve tried to set up raid stripped using the promise controller
and after the installation of XP, it won't boot saying a VTDRL file is
missing.

I moved to Intel Raid then IIA, and it seems fime, but i get lots of
hanging
problem and the intel performance says there are error on one disk
(it's a new
samsung sata 160G).

The question is , I have 2 Raid controller, which one should I use.

And why the using the promise controller the installation of XP goes
fine but then it won't work.

One last dumb question, the Master and Slave setting on the HD
matters?

Thanks
jurij

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

In article <180253f2.0409292242.423d40db@posting.google.com>,
jurijvi@hotmail.com (jv) wrote:

> HI guys, I must say I'm pretty new to raid configuration.
> I''ve tried to set up raid stripped using the promise controller
> and after the installation of XP, it won't boot saying a VTDRL file is
> missing.
>
> I moved to Intel Raid then IIA, and it seems fime, but i get lots of
> hanging
> problem and the intel performance says there are error on one disk
> (it's a new
> samsung sata 160G).
>
> The question is , I have 2 Raid controller, which one should I use.
>
> And why the using the promise controller the installation of XP goes
> fine but then it won't work.
>
> One last dumb question, the Master and Slave setting on the HD
> matters?
>
> Thanks
> jurij

Your symptoms suggest you have one bad disk.

In terms of the best way to configure disks, I recommend
that your striped RAID only be used for data. Purchase a
third disk and use it as the boot disk. Use the other two
disks to construct the RAID stripe. Then, if the RAID stripe
fails (array is broken due to errors), you still have a boot
disk and still have a way to use the computer.

If using RAID stripe, having a good backup strategy is
even more important than normal. With two disks that
can fail, the odds are higher that you will have
trouble.

From a hardware perspective, there is only one disk per
SATA cable, so setting it to master should be fine.

Check the way that you have wired power to the drives.
If you have a high power video card, make sure that if
the video card has an auxiliary power input, that the
power cable not be used to power any disk drives at the
same time. The cable used to power a video card should
not be used to power anything else, due to excessive
voltage drop in the cable. (At least, there have
been reports of problems that way.)

SATA is an extremely high speed hardware signal. It needs
good quality cables, and due to the poor connector design,
you need to make sure there isn't anything stressing or
pulling on the cable.

Samsung has four utilities for download on their website.
You didn't specify what model number of drive you've got,
but perhaps this program can test your drives. To see the
other utilities, click on the "Disk Manager", "SUTIL",
"Shdiag", "HUTIL" at the top of the web page, to read
about them. Generally, I recommend staying away from programs
like "Disk Manager" or any other DDO programs (dynamic
disk overlay) - use the utilities provided with your OS
instead.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Ha [...] /hutil.htm

In terms of performance, the Intel SATA RAID is capable of
slightly higher performance than the Promise chip. If you
connect a pair of Raptors to the Intel connectors, you can
get 110MB/sec or slightly more for a stripe. The Promise chip
is limited by the PCI bus it is connected to. The Intel SATA
sits on a 266MB/sec HI 1.5 bus, and isn't bus limited. (The
Gigabit Ethernet chip on that board also has its own private
HI 1.5 bus as well.)

HTH,
Paul

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

On my P4C800E-D motherboard, I disabled the Promise controller in the BIOS
since it uses more system resources than the Promise and thus used only the
Intel controller for RAID 0 Raptors, two optical drives and a backup hard
drive and everything works great. There are no masters nor slaves in a RAID
situation.

For a fresh XP install using paired SATA RAID 0 drives (although I will not
use RAID 0 in the next yearly re-install)

In the BIOS
--Set OnBoard IDE Operate Mode to ENHANCED MODE
--Set the Enhanced Mode Support On to [SATA] (assuming you are using Serial
drives)
--Set Configure S-ATA as RAID to YES
--Set Serial ATA Bootrom to ENABLED

Download IAA35R.ZIP which is the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition
(or use the one on your installation CD in a folder labeled "IAA" and create
a boot floppy.) When you unzip it, you will notice a file called
"Makedisk.exe". Place blank floppy in drive and doubleclick that file to
create a driver diskette which will contain these four files: iastor.inf,
iastor.sys, iastor.cat and txtsetup.oem

Before loading Windows XP and while in POST, do a Control-I (control-eye)
which will get you into the RAID BIOS and make these changes:
--Create RAID Volume (in Main menu)
--Set Stripe Size (64KB is general use) in the Create Array menu if you are
using RAID 0
--Check the capacity of the drive(s) as being correct
--Highlight CREATE VOLUME and press Enter and press "Y" when a confirmation
message appears and then scroll down to option 4 and press Enter.

When loading XP, very soon after beginning the install, it will ask if there
are additional drivers and if so, hit F6--do so and place the floppy that
you created in the drive. Eventually, the installation process will ask for
SCSI drivers and enter "S" for installation of "Specify Additional Device"
of a SCSI driver. Leave the floppy in the drive since it will be accessed a
couple of times. Instructions on the screen will tell you to insert the
disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A which
you have already done. After pressing Enter, a list of available SCSI
adaptors will be presented and it should list the Intel 82801ER Serial RAID
Controller which should be selected and press Enter. The next screen should
confirm that the Intel RAID controller was selected and press Enter again to
continue and then finish up the install.

Hope this helps, good luck,

MikeSp
------------------------------



During Windows install I loaded in the
"jv" <jurijvi@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:180253f2.0409292242.423d40db@posting.google.com...
> HI guys, I must say I'm pretty new to raid configuration.
> I''ve tried to set up raid stripped using the promise controller
> and after the installation of XP, it won't boot saying a VTDRL file is
> missing.
>
> I moved to Intel Raid then IIA, and it seems fime, but i get lots of
> hanging
> problem and the intel performance says there are error on one disk
> (it's a new
> samsung sata 160G).
>
> The question is , I have 2 Raid controller, which one should I use.
>
> And why the using the promise controller the installation of XP goes
> fine but then it won't work.
>
> One last dumb question, the Master and Slave setting on the HD
> matters?
>
> Thanks
> jurij