In article ,
(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/Hard...ties/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