Raid 1 and 8KNXP install

After loosing, one more time, a lot of data with a disk failure, I just buy
two new Seagate no Sata disk and would like to put them in Raid 1 on my
8KNXP rev 1 under WinXP.
I need some good advices about what Raid to choose, GigaRaid or Promise one,
what drivers ?
I read the two User's Guide and understood that it seems to be possible
create a new Raid 1 array without loosing the data on the first disk and
that I will be able to do that either from Bios or directly from Windows.
What's the safer and easier way ?

Thanks in advance for your answer or good links.

EtienneD (bad English writer)

"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
After loosing, one more time, a lot of data with a disk failure, I just
buy
two new Seagate no Sata disk and would like to put them in Raid 1 on my
8KNXP rev 1 under WinXP.
I need some good advices about what Raid to choose, GigaRaid or Promise
one,
what drivers ?
I read the two User's Guide and understood that it seems to be possible
create a new Raid 1 array without loosing the data on the first disk and
that I will be able to do that either from Bios or directly from Windows.
What's the safer and easier way ?

Thanks in advance for your answer or good links.

EtienneD (bad English writer)



Why not just use the Intel RAID controller?, you can setup RAID 1 using just
PATA devices. I would advise this. The ITE controller is really poor. Mkae
sure you down the latest drivers from Intel and create a floppy disk for a
F6 install.

Thank you for your quick answer but I'm not sure to understand very well.
How to use my new Pata disks as Sata with that Sata Intel RAID controller ?
The Intel RAID controller probably needs to use the sata ports on the
motherboard.

It was probably a mistake to choose Pata drives, but it's done and the first
one (boot) is already reinstalled with WinXp and few softwares, and how to
protect all the data I already try to backup from many places (a full
weekend work) ?

EtienneD

"Richard Dower" a écrit dans le message de news:
...

"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
After loosing, one more time, a lot of data with a disk failure, I just
buy
two new Seagate no Sata disk and would like to put them in Raid 1 on my
8KNXP rev 1 under WinXP.
I need some good advices about what Raid to choose, GigaRaid or Promise
one,
what drivers ?
I read the two User's Guide and understood that it seems to be possible
create a new Raid 1 array without loosing the data on the first disk and
that I will be able to do that either from Bios or directly from
Windows.
What's the safer and easier way ?

Thanks in advance for your answer or good links.

EtienneD (bad English writer)



Why not just use the Intel RAID controller?, you can setup RAID 1 using
just
PATA devices. I would advise this. The ITE controller is really poor. Mkae
sure you down the latest drivers from Intel and create a floppy disk for a
F6 install.

"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your quick answer but I'm not sure to understand very well.
How to use my new Pata disks as Sata with that Sata Intel RAID controller
?
The Intel RAID controller probably needs to use the sata ports on the
motherboard.

It was probably a mistake to choose Pata drives, but it's done and the
first
one (boot) is already reinstalled with WinXp and few softwares, and how
to
protect all the data I already try to backup from many places (a full
weekend work) ?

EtienneD

No, you can use the Intel RAID controller for PATA hard drives, you don't
need SATA drives.

Richard,

Huh? Are you telling the OP to get SATA / PATA converters?
Are you having one of those special moments?

The OP is correct, the ICH5R only connects SATA drives - there is no
socketing for PATA on it other than the stock IDE which are limited to plain
IDE.

Etienne:

The latest drivers are supposed to have overcome the performance issues of
the past although I understand that the ITE firmware is quite overdue an
upgrade in the Gigabyte bios (it is loaded as part of it). So, you should be
able to get at least satisfactory performance out of it. Either that or buy
a reputable IDE PATA RAID controller... I would go to the Gigabyte web site
and ITE, and check all driver versions available. If the GB bios is not up
to date then email GB and complain loudly. They seem to forget these kind of
things.

- Tim



"Richard Dower" wrote in message
...

"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your quick answer but I'm not sure to understand very well.
How to use my new Pata disks as Sata with that Sata Intel RAID controller
?
The Intel RAID controller probably needs to use the sata ports on the
motherboard.

It was probably a mistake to choose Pata drives, but it's done and the
first
one (boot) is already reinstalled with WinXp and few softwares, and how
to
protect all the data I already try to backup from many places (a full
weekend work) ?

EtienneD

No, you can use the Intel RAID controller for PATA hard drives, you don't
need SATA drives.

"Tim" wrote in message ...
Richard,

Huh? Are you telling the OP to get SATA / PATA converters?
Are you having one of those special moments?

The OP is correct, the ICH5R only connects SATA drives - there is no
socketing for PATA on it other than the stock IDE which are limited to
plain IDE.

Etienne:

The latest drivers are supposed to have overcome the performance issues of
the past although I understand that the ITE firmware is quite overdue an
upgrade in the Gigabyte bios (it is loaded as part of it). So, you should
be able to get at least satisfactory performance out of it. Either that or
buy a reputable IDE PATA RAID controller... I would go to the Gigabyte web
site and ITE, and check all driver versions available. If the GB bios is
not up to date then email GB and complain loudly. They seem to forget
these kind of things.

Or one cold get a SATA controller card,

Thank you again, I'm ready to follow your advices if you can be a little
more specific on how to use ICH5R Raid with Pata drives and Raid 1.
By now I'm not sure to understand how it's possible.
I read further many more forums and, I'm afraid, I have to agree with what
you think:
GigaRaid controller looks like a very poor one.

EtienneD

"Richard Dower" a écrit dans le message de news:
...

"Tim" wrote in message
...
Richard,

Huh? Are you telling the OP to get SATA / PATA converters?
Are you having one of those special moments?

The OP is correct, the ICH5R only connects SATA drives - there is no
socketing for PATA on it other than the stock IDE which are limited to
plain IDE.

Etienne:

The latest drivers are supposed to have overcome the performance issues
of
the past although I understand that the ITE firmware is quite overdue an
upgrade in the Gigabyte bios (it is loaded as part of it). So, you
should
be able to get at least satisfactory performance out of it. Either that
or
buy a reputable IDE PATA RAID controller... I would go to the Gigabyte
web
site and ITE, and check all driver versions available. If the GB bios is
not up to date then email GB and complain loudly. They seem to forget
these kind of things.

Or one cold get a SATA controller card,

Hi,

Unless you use the ITE (aka Gigaraid) controller you cannot use PATA discs
in RAID on an 8KNXP unless you purchase a new IDE PATA RAID controller (EG
Promise as already mentioned by you). These aren't too expensive thankfully,
but the SATA ones are very competitive price wise.

If I were you I would check out the ITE RAID firwmare and driver versions
and perform a trial install along with benchmark. There were *many* reports
that the old drivers ran like legless dogs, but there were also a few that
reported that some driver updates of a few months ago indicated this was a
thing of the past. Very little news since.

If you have the opportunity then swap the PATA drives for SATA and use the
onboard ICH5R raid controller. ICH5R is reliable, easy to use, and Intel has
had a couple of updates for it in recent months. With the Intel RAID you can
build a RAID 1 set while online in Windows (this is called RAID ready) - so
the documentation and one person on this news group have said. I have yet to
try it, however I do wilfully break my RAID 1 mirror in some situations and
let Windows rebuild it afterwards.

- Tim



"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
Thank you again, I'm ready to follow your advices if you can be a little
more specific on how to use ICH5R Raid with Pata drives and Raid 1.
By now I'm not sure to understand how it's possible.
I read further many more forums and, I'm afraid, I have to agree with
what
you think:
GigaRaid controller looks like a very poor one.

EtienneD

"Richard Dower" a écrit dans le message de
news:
...

"Tim" wrote in message
...
Richard,

Huh? Are you telling the OP to get SATA / PATA converters?
Are you having one of those special moments?

The OP is correct, the ICH5R only connects SATA drives - there is no
socketing for PATA on it other than the stock IDE which are limited to
plain IDE.

Etienne:

The latest drivers are supposed to have overcome the performance issues
of
the past although I understand that the ITE firmware is quite overdue
an
upgrade in the Gigabyte bios (it is loaded as part of it). So, you
should
be able to get at least satisfactory performance out of it. Either that
or
buy a reputable IDE PATA RAID controller... I would go to the Gigabyte
web
site and ITE, and check all driver versions available. If the GB bios
is
not up to date then email GB and complain loudly. They seem to forget
these kind of things.

Or one cold get a SATA controller card,

"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
Thank you again, I'm ready to follow your advices if you can be a little
more specific on how to use ICH5R Raid with Pata drives and Raid 1.
By now I'm not sure to understand how it's possible.
I read further many more forums and, I'm afraid, I have to agree with
what
you think:
GigaRaid controller looks like a very poor one.

EtienneD

Gigabyte, according to Karen, are gonna be doing a new BIOS revision that
will update the ITE GigaRAID BIOS. Hopefully soon....thus it might be wise
to see how that performs.

Big thanks to both of you for these pertinent and detailed advices.
I will wait some weeks for the new Bios and try ITE .
If it's not good, (I'm afraid I can't exchange the drives for Sata), I
could try later to use Sata dongles and ICH5R Raid.
Next time, I will choose Sata drives, probably better and less expensive
than what I can actually find in France.

EtienneD


"Richard Dower" a écrit dans le message de news:
...

"EtienneD" wrote in message
...
Thank you again, I'm ready to follow your advices if you can be a little
more specific on how to use ICH5R Raid with Pata drives and Raid 1.
By now I'm not sure to understand how it's possible.
I read further many more forums and, I'm afraid, I have to agree with
what
you think:
GigaRaid controller looks like a very poor one.

EtienneD

Gigabyte, according to Karen, are gonna be doing a new BIOS revision that
will update the ITE GigaRAID BIOS. Hopefully soon....thus it might be wise
to see how that performs.