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Toothless01
38 Posts
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4012
July 31st, 2004 20:00
Non-Raid setup problems
My system: 2 month old Dell XPS Gen2, BIOS version A05 6/28/04, P4, 3.0, HT, 1024 ram, Master HD Maxtor 120gb sata, NEW secondary Drive (storage) Maxtor 250gb sata, WinXP Pro SP1, everything updated on system that I can think of :)
Please note: by default (according to Dell Tech Support) RAID is "on", both hard drives are recognized and running fine.
When I turn Raid "off" (in setup) hd's recognized and running fine, except on each reboot, installing new hardware. Windows tries to install Primary and Secondary IDE controller, after install, both get a " driver is not intended for this platform" and exclaimation mark by both Primary and Secondary Controller in Devise Manager.
When I turn Raid back "on", on reboot, I get to the Phoenix Bios screen for a couple of seconds and then to Windows desk top. No problems with both hard drives recognized and running, and the Primary and Secondary IDE controller as stated above are no longer on system.
By default, (according to Dell Tech Support) Raid is "on". With the original install of Windows, it is looking for all devices when I turn raid "off", thus the IDE controller new hardware install. The only 2 fixes is 1) leave Raid "on" and continue to get the Phoenix bios screen for 2 seconds or, 2) re-install Windows, and I am assuming, with Raid "off" during the install. I did notice when I was in the Phoenix Bios screen, CONTROL+I, that I could turn Raid off, BUT that would erase all data on both Hard drives.
Question.......Can I get my system to Raid "off" without reinstalling Windows? and with my current setup, with Raid "on", is that hurting the performance of my 2 sata hard drives.
Please note: I am not interested in the RAID setup with my 120gb and 250gb sata hard drives as I dont have matching hard drives. I only intended the new secondary hard drive (250gb) for storage of converting old video to dvd/cd's etc.
Thanks for any and all replies.
Message Edited by Toothless01 on 07-31-2004 04:54 PM
Toothless01
38 Posts
344
0
Posted August 2nd, 2004 18:00
Thanks Tom for your response. Brings me to another question. If I would set RAID to "off" in the Phoenix BIOS screen, that options states that all data from both hard drives will be deleted. Would the Phoenix BIOS be the best way to reinstall WinXP for the non-raid setup? ThanksNot sure if I fully understand your questions, but assuming you have one drive I would just boot off your Windows XP CD, and install that way. You have the option to delete the parition and re-create/format the new system drive then. If you have RAID, I may take the approch of deleting the RAID array then install on one drive and migrate to RAID 1 or 0 after having the system setup.
Never went through a re-install yet on my XPS but the migration process that I did do was fairly painless and worked well.
If your going to continue to use RAID SATA onption on, you have to make a pre-install driver diskette using the utility in you driver CD, or download it off the Dell web site. Personally like I stated earlier I see no advantage of turning the option off even for a none raid system, but I could be wrong. Having it on, leaves you options to setup RAID later without re-installing everthing.
Toothless01
38 Posts
344
0
Posted August 3rd, 2004 03:00
Sorry for the confusion. I have 2 sata hard drives, both Maxtor, a 120gb(came with original system) and a 250gb (for storage). Think I will take your advise, leave it be, and dont mess up something that is working for me. Thanks again for your second response.
TomXPS
1310 Posts
344
0
Posted August 2nd, 2004 03:00
Personally I would leave the SATA RAID to on. Do not think you have any performance gain in none SATA RAID mode.. The biggest advantage is you be ready to setup RAID 0 or 1 by adding another SATA hard drive that matches your current drive. Real easy to setup. If you re-install with the SATA RAID to off, might work but I think your in a catch 22 if you ever want RAID, because the Pre-OS RAID driver can only be installed on OS install by pressing F6 shortly after booting up. I think if you try to change the BIOS to SATA ON, the system will not boot because the driver needs to be installed when in that mode. I observed this behaivor when I was expermenting with the second drive I bought before setting up RAID on by XPS gen 2.
Anyway I have RAID 1 setup on my system, and really like the protection of have mirror copy of my file system, so if I have a failure on one drive I will loose nothing.