# Hard Drive / Raid setup on Gigabyte MB



## LilSassy (Apr 20, 2005)

I just built a new system using a Gygabyte GA-8I915P Duo Pro board with onboard SATA and RAID. I have never run SATA or RAID and know nothing about it except what I read. I'm only running one 80gb IDE HDD at this time and do not intend to run a RAID array with multiple drives. 

I have one regular IDE1 connector and IDE2 and IDE3 appear to be connected to the onboard RAID controller. The manual says that the CD-ROM drive has to be on IDE1 to run properly, I'm assuming because most onboard RAID Controllers do not support a ROM drive. My hard drive is recognized on the regular IDE1 connector, but not on IDE2 or IDE3. Windows XP has already been installed on the drive while it was connected to the regular IDE1 connector, but the CD-ROM has to use this connector. How do I get IDE2 or IDE3 to recognize the hard drive? Do I have to enable the RAID capabilities and install the drivers for hard drive recognition? The manual tells you how to set up the different RAID setups, but is not explicit that you HAVE to run some type of RAID configuration in order for the hard drive to be recognized on these connectors. If this is the case, what is the best way to set up a single IDE drive? I read something in another forum that indicates a single drive should be set up with JBOD, which my board supports, but not disk spanning. What is the best way to proceed? 

I followed the instructions to configure the VT6410 IDE RAID Controller mode and boot sequence in the BIOS by enabling Onboard H/W Raid and then moving the IDE HDD up to Item #1 in the Hard Disk Boot Priority section. The drive appears to be recognized and tries to boot into XP, but then a half-page error screen quickly flashes by and it reboots. I'm assuming this is because some drivers need to be installed. If so, can I just do this by plugging the hard drive into IDE1, booting into Windows, and installing them instead of doing the floppy drive method at boot?

Thanks for any help! It's much appreciated. :grin:


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## MoonShadow_1AU (Mar 23, 2005)

Well quickly without looking into the mobo you have, 

RAID is only useful if you have more than one HDD so do not bother activating it until you are ready to add HDDs.

The other point you mention is that the HDD you have is IDE and from the sounds of it the RAID is for SATA drives. If this is the case then the drive you have will not be able to be added to the RAID array (when you get more drives).

Also what you mentioned was that the CD / DVD - ROM had to go on IDE1 (shich is ATA and not SATA). The reason behind this is that the SATA is a different connector (not the 40/80 wire cable).

Hope this helps.


Had a look at the mobo.

The Red IDE connector is IDE1, RAID will work from the two green IDE connectors with IDE HDDs (but you need on on each green IDE connector and they should be the same size)

The 4 small red connectors next to the green IDE connectors are the SATA connectors where SATA drives can be connected. These will also be able to be configured as RAID arrays.

To confuse matters you can set up RAID0 arrays on the 2 green IDE connectors, and on (most likely only 2 of) the red SATA connectors set up another RAID0 array and then combine the two RAID0 arrays into a RAID1 array (or in other words calling the 4 drives a RAID0+1 array)

For your info

RAID0 takes 2 drives and "stripes" them. This means that when you write to the array it writes to both at the same time splitting the data accross both drives. This supposedly doubles the speed writes occur at. If one drive fails you loose all your data as the files are plit in half between the drives.

RAID1 takes 2 drives and "mirrors" them. This means that it writes the exact same data to both HDDs giving a backup if one drive fails. There are no speed enhancements from RAID1 it is for data recovery. This is effectively instant backup of data.

When you RAID0+1 you have two stripped RAID0 arrays being written to with the same data gaining both speed and data recovery capability.



My advise (having used RAID for years and in the last 2 months removing it from my machine) unless you are really needing that extra write speed or unless you are really paranoid that the drives might fail, the best solution is to get a SATA drive (which are faster than the IDE ATA drives) and use the IDE or other drive to back up your data to.


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## MAQ_FR (Mar 17, 2005)

LilSassy

Like Moonshadow, I don't know this board, but I do agree that unless you are adding another drive, Raid isn't needed.

If you enter the Bios, there should be an option for the controller:

Something like:

Controller - SATA - Hostraid with option of Enable or Disable

I would select disable.

If that option isn't there, it "should" automatically detect the single drive as J-Bod (not Raid 0) which is a single disk not part of a raid array.

[ J-bod = Just a bunch of Disks]

I suspect also that you will need a driver to correctly detect the controller during install (I don't know if XP has an inbuilt generic driver for yours) that should have come with the mobo.

I guess also that you will have to do a "clean" install of XP to allow it to correctly configure itself.

I don't see how you can get a SATA & IDE cables mixed up, as a CD rom will have a normal IDE connection and a SATA connection is a narrower cable normally ( someone please correct me if I am wrong - I have never seen others) like here (it's only an example):

http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/sata/SATACables.php 

The red cable in the picture is a SATA data cable, and the wide end is a standard sata connector (in my book anyhow)

dunno if that helps or not

regardz

Maq


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## LilSassy (Apr 20, 2005)

I think this answers my question. I am not running RAID, nor do I have any intention of running RAID. However, I DO have an onboard VT6410 IDE Controller that controls IDE2 & IDE3 and it requires that *Onboard H/W RAID * be enabled in the BIOS. Is this not enabling RAID of some sort? I assume this means that in order for my IDE hard drive to be recognized on IDE2 or IDE3, I *HAVE* to run it in some sort of RAID mode, even if not with other drives. There is a separate IDE RAID Function bookles for the VT6410 chipset that describes all the RAID setups, including JBOD, which I've read elsewhere is what I need to do. But I have to install drivers since I just enabled the controller as XP does not appear to be supplying a generic driver. It does NOT automatically recognize the drive as JBOD. Since I already have a fresh install of XP on the new hard drive, and XP did find the IDE Controller when I booted it up plugged into IDE1 spot, I should just be able to install the driver from there and then reboot after moving the CDROM to IDE1 and the HDD to IDE2, shouldn't I?

I understand that SATA is a totally separate function and that the cables are drastically different. I know where they plug in. However, I have no SATA peripherals at this time and do not have that function enabled. I didn't have the IDE Raid Function enabled either because I don't intend to run RAID, but it appears that I HAVE to enable it to get my hard drive recognized.

I'm basically looking for someone with experience to verify this since I know nothing about RAID and did not know that there was such as thing as JBOD.

Thanks! :smile:


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

H/W RAID does need to be enabled in the BIOS and you will need to install the drivers for the VT6410 IDE Controller.

You wanted experience. This thread will help you out.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=40632


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## LilSassy (Apr 20, 2005)

Thanks Crazijoe. Everything I know I learn from troubleshooting my own computer problems, but it pays to ask those "in the higher know" so I don't waste too much time going down a dead end street. Point me in the right direction and I'll spend hours figuring it out. It would have helped if the manual would have been more explicit. It shows how to set up all the different RAID functions, but it doesn't specifically tell you that you *have* to run one of them to get the hard drive to be recognized. It's my understanding that RAID can be disabled on some boards and they will pick up a single drive as a normal non-RAID setup. Apparently not mine.

Thanks again.


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