Hello rcardalda, I checked the Dimemsion 8400 system and it shows 4 SATA connectors and also an IDE connector. You did not mention which type drives you have or ordered. Also you didn't mention if you wished to use the original drives for any purpose. These options needed to be decided to determine the best way to proceed. Assuming you wish to keep the original drives and if the drives are SATA, I would disconnect the original drive cables and leave them in the system. Then install the new drives and connect them to the motherboard. You then would boot the system and press F2 to enter the BIOS to set the boot order. The first boot device may already be the CD/DVD drive, but if it is not, set it to that. Make sure the second boot device is the hard drive. Then reboot and enter the Raid Configuration and set up your Raid1 array. With the original drives disconnected, they will not show in the Raid Configuration Utility. After the Raid1 array is created, insert the Windows XP CD in the optical drive and reboot. The system should then boot to the Windows XP setup. Here is where you will need the Raid drivers. You will have already copied them to a floppy disk and have the disk inserted in the drive. At the start of the OS install, a screen will appear at the bottom, a line will appear asking to press F6 to install other drivers. You must press F6 immediately and a few screens into the setup, you will be asked where you want to install the OS. Choose the Raid1 array, choose a quick format, and continue the process. At some point you will be asked to press F8 to accept the liscense agreement. Also a screen will appear and ask to load the Raid drivers. Just choose the drivers from the floppy and they will be copied and the install process will continue. The system will reboot 2 times and remind you to remove the floppy disk. Do not press the "Boot from CD" option except for the very first time. Doing it again will result in the OS being installed again. After the OS is installed, the other drivers will need to be installed. When all this is done, shut the system down and reconnect the original drives and reboot. The system will detect the drives and show new hardware found. You can then copy any data from the original drives to your new array. You may want to leave the original drives in the system or remove them. If you remove them, go into the Raid Configuration Utility and "break" the array for these drives. They will have to be reformatted to be used as single drives. I am trying to recall this from my memory so I may have left out something. I hope not. If I have, others will correct me. Before you do this think it through. It can be done fairly easily. Hope this helps.

Your 1000Gb hard drives will not work with the original Windows Service pack 1. Your going to have too slip stream the service pack 3 into the Dell XPS rescue disc. Have to do this on a seperate computer. and then burn the merged programe to a new disc and start it up that way. Either that or Buy a 60 gb hard drive and install it and do the recue disc on it then install the service pack 3 into it. Then you can install the 1000gb hard drive and move everything over to it. remove the original 60gb and then install the 2nd 1000gb hard drive.

Thank you Centarus05 for the information, could you please let me know how I should do to merger the Service Pack 3 into the Dell XPS Rescue disk, I can do it in this computer, while it still run.

Thank you.

Raul.

Thank you Hanspuppa for all the information, the drives I've bought are 1TB Western Digital Caviar Serial ATA drives, I haven't thought about using the old disks, I might leave them installed. If I leave them installed, is there a way of setting the boot sequence to boot from the new array?

Are you familiar with the hard drive capacity of Windows Service Pack 1, I've received a reply from Centarus05, but I don't understand how to "Slip Stream the Service Pack 3 into Dell XPS Rescue Disk" and burn a new disk.

Thanks for the help.

Raul.

Thank you Hanspuppa for the information, on the boot order I know it can be set with the motherboard setup, choosing from array, floppy or optical drive, I don't know what happens with two arrays installed into the same computer.

Just in case, do you know where I might get the procedure to slipstream the service Pack 3 into the Dell rescue disk?

Thanks again for the help.

Raul.

Hello rcardalda, I am not quite sure about what the other poster is talking about. He may be mistaken since you want to create a Raid array. I have a home built system that I had 2x500 GB drives in a Raid0 array that yeilded me 935 GBs and also 2x160 GB drives in a Raid0 array plus a single 250 GB IDE drive, and 2 optical drives. I used the smaller Raid0 array as a backup and also the 250 GB drive as a redundant backup due to the inherent risk of loss data on Raid array if one or more drives fail. With your Raid1 array, you could replace the failed drive and rebuild the new replacement drive from the other Raid1 drive. I have used Raid arrays for 12 years now without any issue at all, but have now gone to a single drive because of the newer drive speeds are about equal to the Raid0 arrays. I installed the OS with XP SP1 without issues. I later upgraded to SP2 and then SP3 all without any issues. Concerning the boot order, I believe, but not certain since I don't know your model number, but you probably can select the boot drive from within the BIOS. At least that is the case on most systems, however yours may be different. Slipstreaming is a procedure that allows you to add the Service Packs to an existing OS Disk. It is not all that complicated but must be done exactly or the Newly created OS Disk will not work properly. I have done this before without issues, but it can be a little of a hassle to those that are new to it. Hope this helps.

Hello Hanspuppa, I've tried to install the drives bu I got a Blue screen Error 7B.

 I've bought two WD 1TB Caviar Black SATA hard disks, I've replaced the drives and set up a Raid1 array with the Rom application, when I try to install Win XP Pro Sevice Pack 2 into the Raid1 array using the corresponding driver, the Win installation goes normal until it finishes and reboots to start Windows, at this time I've got a BSOD (blue screen) with error 7B.
I've tried breaking the array and installing the OS into just one of the disks, but I've got the same problem.

The drivers I've supplied when installing Win XP Pro are the "Intel 82801FR SATA Raid Controller (Desktop ICH6R)" and "Intel 82801FR SATA AHCI controller (Desktop ICH6R).

Windows came up with a message stating the drivers in the Win CD where newer that the ones I was supplying, I've tried first with the one s in Win CD and then with the old ones, neither one worked.

After breaking the array with the ROM program and trying to install Win in just one drive, I had the same error.
With the Repair option of the Win installation, I was able to get to the disks in DOS mode, they can be read but the is no way to get Win to start in graphics mode. I'm getting a BSOD with Error 0x0000007B,0xBAcc3528,0x0000034,0x0000000,0x000000).
I've replaced the new drives with the old ones and everything works well for now.

Any help?.
Raul.

Hello rcardalda, It seems you may not have the BIOS set up correctly.

I would start all over, since you have no data on these drives.

Boot the system and let it pass the Dell Logo screen and when the next screen appears, press ctrl and I at the same time to enter the Intel Raid Configuration Utility.

Once there, if the drives are set to Raid1, break (delete) the array, and then create a new Raid1 array using the two 1 TB drives.

Then reboot the system and when the Dell Logo screen appears, press the F2 key to enter the BIOS.

In the Drives Section, on the left, locate the Raid1 array and make sure it is enabled.

Then go to the Boot Sequence section and make sure the Onboard CD\DVD drive is the first boot device and the Raid1 array is the second boot device.

Save your settings and reboot the system with the OS disk in the optical drive. Have your drivers available for the setup on a floppy disk.

When the Windows setup screen appears and you see the line appear at the bottom of the screen to Press F6 to load drivers, press it.

The install should proceed and copy all the needed files to start the install.

It will then reboot, but you must remove the floppy disk before it reboots.

When you see the first reboot, and it shows "press any key to boot from CD", do not, or the install process will start again.

The install should proceed successfully.

The error you are getting is one that has to do with the system not finding a bootable device, which is the Raid1 array, probably because it has not bee set correctly.

Hope this helps.

@ rcardalda:  Slipstream XP SP 3 into your XP CD :emotion-5:

What you'll need (I've included URL's where to get the recommended programs.  Simply copy/paste them into your browser):

    * A Windows installation disc
    * nLite:  http://www.nliteos.com/
    * .NET Framework 2.0:  http://www.filehippo.com/download_dotnet_framework_2/
    * A copy of Service Pack 3 (SP3) for XP (32-bit):  http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/windows-xp-service-pack-3.html
    * A working Windows system, with at least 1GB free hard drive space
    * Blank CD or DVD
    * WinUpdatesList (recommended):  http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wul.html

Hanspuppa, thank you for your interest and colaboration, I wanted to rely to you the information that helped me solve my problem, you never know, you or somebody you know, may need the information one day.

The proble is Win XP PRO Service Packs 1/2 do not recognize Raid arrays of 1TB, you have to slipstream the installatiopn disk with Service Pack 3, I've did it with a program called nLite, which does a great job and now I'm able to run the computer with the 1TB disks.

Regards.

Raul.

Thank you very much for your help, I've followed the instructions in your post and everything went well, no problem, I'm running my computer with the new Raid1 array of two 1TB western Digital disks.

nLite is a great program, there is no information or at least I haven't found it about Win XP Service Packs 1/2 not working with 1TB disks.

Thank you again, it is really good to receive good information when you need it.

Regards.

Raul.