7N400 Pro2 and RAID

This MB was originally set up using only the pri and sec IDE channels.
PriM 80gb HD, PriS 80gb HD, SecM CDRW and SecS iomega zip 250.
I now want to add a DVD player.
What would be the easiest way to configure all hardware?
Put both HD on a raid and use the CD,DVD and zip on the IDE
channels? Would this require a reinstallation of w2k since
the raid drivers were never loaded in setup?

TIA
mailman

mailman wrote in message ...
This MB was originally set up using only the pri and sec IDE channels.
PriM 80gb HD, PriS 80gb HD, SecM CDRW and SecS iomega zip 250.
I now want to add a DVD player.
What would be the easiest way to configure all hardware?
Put both HD on a raid and use the CD,DVD and zip on the IDE
channels? Would this require a reinstallation of w2k since
the raid drivers were never loaded in setup?

TIA
mailman
If you put the hard drives to Raid channel you will have to
reformat,and reinstall. Unless you use the raid slots as normal ATA
slots(option in bios). In this case, you will setup dvd rom as primary
master setup the boot sequence to start from raid. This way you wont
have to reinstall until you decide to add a hard disk to the primary
channel.

However if you have decided to format then put one hard disk at first
raid slot as master, the second hard disk to the other raid slot again
as master(this setup maximizes perfomance in raid stripping mode). Put
the DVD player as primary master. Copy the raid drivers from your
mobo's cd to a floppy disk choose from bios the raid mode, reboot
enter the raid utility, define the 2disk array(it will erase
everything on your hard disks) and start winxp or win2k setup.

My opinion is to put the dvd rom in raid slot(set the slot to ATA from
bios). This way you wont need reinstall for sure.

(Dimitris) wrote in
:

mailman wrote in message
...
This MB was originally set up using only the pri and sec IDE
channels. PriM 80gb HD, PriS 80gb HD, SecM CDRW and SecS iomega zip
250. I now want to add a DVD player.
What would be the easiest way to configure all hardware?
Put both HD on a raid and use the CD,DVD and zip on the IDE
channels? Would this require a reinstallation of w2k since
the raid drivers were never loaded in setup?

TIA
mailman
If you put the hard drives to Raid channel you will have to
reformat,and reinstall. Unless you use the raid slots as normal ATA
slots(option in bios). In this case, you will setup dvd rom as primary
master setup the boot sequence to start from raid. This way you wont
have to reinstall until you decide to add a hard disk to the primary
channel.

However if you have decided to format then put one hard disk at first
raid slot as master, the second hard disk to the other raid slot again
as master(this setup maximizes perfomance in raid stripping mode). Put
the DVD player as primary master. Copy the raid drivers from your
mobo's cd to a floppy disk choose from bios the raid mode, reboot
enter the raid utility, define the 2disk array(it will erase
everything on your hard disks) and start winxp or win2k setup.

My opinion is to put the dvd rom in raid slot(set the slot to ATA from
bios). This way you wont need reinstall for sure.


Thanx for the help and advice, I always assumed that you could only
attach HD to the RAID slot.
Since I just put this system together in Jan of this year I see no reason
to do a reinstall just to add a DVD player. Will go with your opinion
and let you know if I have any problems.

TIA

mailman

Thanx for the help and advice, I always assumed that you could only
attach HD to the RAID slot.
Since I just put this system together in Jan of this year I see no reason
to do a reinstall just to add a DVD player. Will go with your opinion
and let you know if I have any problems.

TIA

mailman
Well now that you mention it you may be right. However you may try.
Dont be surprised if the gigaraid bios doesnt detect the dvdwriter,
just continue booting into windows, install gigaraid drivers and
restart.
I put two hardrives racks in another board(intel445 chipset) which has
gigaraid controller and they work excellent.The gigaraid bios doesnt
detect anything (regardless if there is a harddisk inside the rack or
not) but winxp see the harddisk when i put one inside the rack.

Thanx for the help and advice, I always assumed that you could only
attach HD to the RAID slot.
Since I just put this system together in Jan of this year I see no reason
to do a reinstall just to add a DVD player. Will go with your opinion
and let you know if I have any problems.

TIA

mailman
You may need to update your mobo's bios in order to get the ATA option
for the gigaraid controller. Strange it is but in the other board with
the racks, the harddisk was operating in the rack as a single drive
and i could read the data, despite the fact the bios had only the raid
option.