# Need Help Setting up RAID



## AphexDreamer (Feb 9, 2008)

Ok I'm on the laptop trying to configure RAID on my PC. I have the setting for it 0, Stripe Block 64K, Gigabyte Boundary Off and there is one more setting that I have no knowlage of, "Fast Init"...

It asks for it to be on or off and I have no idea because I have no clue what it is, pleaes if you know would you tell me what is best to have set to on or off, thanks.

Please I'd lilke to know as soon as possible, I'm googling as we speak but I can't find an answer.


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## gOJDO (Feb 9, 2008)

you have to give us more info. how many disks? 2?
if 2, for RAID0 set block size to 128kB.


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## AphexDreamer (Feb 9, 2008)

Yes it is two, but I thought 64K was better?


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## Thermopylae_480 (Feb 9, 2008)

Please use more descriptive titles.


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## AphexDreamer (Feb 9, 2008)

Thermopylae_480 said:


> Please use more descriptive titles.



Sorry, sorry... I just needed people to see the thread, won't happen again.


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## AphexDreamer (Feb 9, 2008)

Ok, found out what is....

For those who might end up searching for this in the future.


oh a bit more in depth.

Use the Fast Initialize task to initialize all physical disks included in the virtual disk. The Fast Initialize task updates the metadata on the physical disks so that all disk space is available for future write operations. The initialize can be completed quickly because existing information on the physical disks is not erased, although future write operations will overwrite any information that remains on the physical disks. 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/svradmin/5.2/en/omss_ug/html/vdtkfmt.html

I have also read that it is best to have this set to off depending on what kind of RAID you have 1,0, etc.

Thank you all  who took the time to look at this thread.


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## boxa (May 1, 2008)

Hi Aphexdreamer/anyone else who has this board, can you help me out with setting up raid please?

I dont know much about raid and this will be my first time setting up raid. I have the "Asus M3A32-MVP Wifi Deluxe" Motherboard with its 6 sata connectors I have the following current setup; 

Port 1 - C:\Vista 32 - WD Raptor 74GB 
Port 2 - D:\Storage - Seagate 500GB 
Port 3 - E:\Xp Pro x64 - WD Raptor 74GB 
Port 4 - F:\Storage - Seagate 500GB 

According to the manual the first 4 sata connectors on the board are with the AMD SB600 Southbridge Chipset, and when I was putting the hardrives in, the manual states I should install the OS to either port numb 1 or 3... 
So I currently have Xp Pro 64bit on the second OS drive and Vista 32bit on the first port... I ahve tried Xp Pro 32bit and will soon be getting Vista Ultimate x64 (I can easily install this once I ahve setup my raid?) anyho for the remaining 2 ports I have; 

Port 5 - Sata Optical (DVD Drive) 
Port 6 - Sata Optical (DVD Drive) 

According to the manual etc these 2 ports are with Marvell 6121 Chipset. 

The motherboard manual link (incase you need to check anything out) ;  
http://support.asus.com/download/d [...] uage=en-us 

and I have the latest Bios installed (1002).... 

In bios I have TWO options to setup raid, 

First - Main>Onchip Sata Type (IDE/AHCI/RAID) 
Second - Advanced - Marvell IDE/RAID Function (IDE/RAID) 

I want to raid both my raptor drives in raid 0 (seeing two drives as 1, making it as 148GB?) but not the storage drives as they have all my backup data and plus music/movies/vids/pic's etc so would rather not raid them as 1 of the storage drives is being used as my backup drive...  
So basically how do I setup raid with only the two Raptor drives connected to ports 1 and 3? 
Once I do this I will have to reformat and isntall windows again this time It will only be Vista (after testing it out for the last 2 months I have had no bad points cept it doesnt install my bluetooth usb stick and can be funny with my mic/headset) 

Do I need to format my HD's before trying to setup raid? (this will be hard as I dont know any other comps closeby that I can conenct them to to format em!) 
In bios which option should I change to raid? 
If I changed the first option "Onboard Sata Type" will this also affect my storage drives connected to ports 2 and 4? 
If I changed the "Marvell IDE/Raid Function" that will mean I have to take them two raptor drives off the first and third port and connect it to the 5th and 6th port, which will then label the windows drive as G, and in bios boot options I can only see the 1st and 3rd port drives as boot drives so will this be picked up with it being connected on the last 2 ports? 
What SW do I use to setup raid? Manual states to use the "CTRL+F" to enter its raid setup? 
Didnt know about the "block size" bit, guess I'l make mine 128k if/when I get to that...

Once Ive done that, I want to install 3 partitions for the this raid setup.
Partition 1 - C (Vista) 20GB? or more? 
Partition 2 - D (temp and swapfile) 20GB or more? 
Partition 3 - E (programs and everything else that I need to install/games) the remaining GB! 
source - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] d-separate (read Kwyx's post 11th post down) 

Please can you help me out with this, I have spent ages in testing Xp 32 vs 64, then Xp64 vs Vista 32 and now that Ive finally decided on my OS I would like to have this setup and then make a backup once its all setup fine, if I ever get Vista ultimate 64 I can install that on 1 of my storage drives to test it out (check compatibility/games etc) and then if Im happy with Vista 64 I'l install that over Vista 32 (im guessing it would be a good idea to format the swapfile and programs partitions too to make sure I dont leave any waste files around which could curropt/cause problems with the newer OS) 

Thanks for any help


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## CrackerJack (May 1, 2008)

To use RAID, you need to reinstall windows if haven't already. If your going from IDE to RAID.


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## boxa (May 1, 2008)

Im aware of that, and its in my post please read it all, I know I will have to install windows again but thats got nothing to do with what I would like to know....

Theres alot Im unsure of so I would really like all the help I can get before trying to raid my drives (using the same comp to view this/internet so will need it printed out etc if must)


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## CrackerJack (May 1, 2008)

boxa said:


> Im aware of that, and its in my post please read it all, I know I will have to install windows again but thats got nothing to do with what I would like to know....
> 
> Theres alot Im unsure of so I would really like all the help I can get before trying to raid my drives (using the same comp to view this/internet so will need it printed out etc if must)



i was mainly talking to AphexDreamer

Well first you want to back up your drives. When you make RAID your going erase everything on them. So make sure you have everything you need backup. Then just go in to bios set the controller to RAID. Then setup the RAID with the RAID Ulitiliy. Install windows. If your using Windows XP you'll need a floppy. With Vista you can put the RAID drivers on a pen drive. 

Hope this helps


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## boxa (May 1, 2008)

So If I just go ahead and set bios to raid, start the raid setup program and install

*** wait I know this wouldnt damage the drive unless I boot into windows so I tried that, I went into bios , change sata type to raid and then rebooted pressed CTR+F and after pressing 2 to "define LD" I cannot go any further

So no that wont help, and thats exactly why I have posted so many questions Im unsure of, please dont just post the quick remedy without fully reading the problem(s)....

btw thanks anyway for replying so quickly


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## AphexDreamer (May 1, 2008)

You need to enable either RAID for AMD or RAID for Marvall through the BIOS. Based on my research RAID from AMD performs better then the Marvall. 

Then based on which one you use, AMD or Marvall, plug in the SATA cables into the apropriate slots on your MotherBoard (which I think are the RED ones).

Now when you boot up, you will see the Marvall or AMD screen. I think for Maravll you press ctrl + m to enter the  configuration screen and for AMD crtl + f, it should say.

After you enter the configuration screen just create a new RAID of how ever many hard drives you want to RAID, if you choose 0 you will achive much more performance and 1 is generally for backing up data.

I think thats it, I'm at school right now and have to leave soon, hence I am rushing with this. Good Luck.


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## CrackerJack (May 1, 2008)

AphexDreamer said:


> You need to enable either RAID for AMD or RAID for Marvall through the BIOS. Based on my research RAID from AMD performs better then the Marvall.
> 
> Then based on which one you use, AMD or Marvall, plug in the SATA cables into the apropriate slots on your MotherBoard (which I think are the RED ones).
> 
> ...



nicely said, just one thing. the sata connectors colors are different for different brands. but mostly the same color. if you have to two different colors you'll have to look in the manaul to see which is which. I've got all orange. My other pc has 4 black and 2 purple.


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## boxa (May 1, 2008)

nice one, thanks for the replies.

I cant just redo it as I already have it setup as posted before

"Port 1 - C:\Vista 32 - WD Raptor 74GB 
Port 2 - D:\Storage - Seagate 500GB 
Port 3 - E:\Xp Pro x64 - WD Raptor 74GB 
Port 4 - F:\Storage - Seagate 500GB 

According to the manual the first 4 sata connectors on the board are with the AMD SB600 Southbridge Chipset, and when I was putting the hardrives in, the manual states I should install the OS to either port numb 1 or 3... 
So I currently have Xp Pro 64bit on the second OS drive and Vista 32bit on the first port... I ahve tried Xp Pro 32bit and will soon be getting Vista Ultimate x64 (I can easily install this once I ahve setup my raid?) anyho for the remaining 2 ports I have; 

Port 5 - Sata Optical (DVD Drive) 
Port 6 - Sata Optical (DVD Drive) "

So from the AMD sata control screen I pressed 2 to get to "define LD" but cannot go any further, ESC back out to the menu where Option 3 is to "delete LD", so I think because I already had them setup as AHCI I would need to "delete LD" first then can define once the 2 drives I want to be in RAID 0 have been setup, now this brings a new problem (but again was posted in my original post) the AMD Sata controller controlls 4 ports, the master ports are numbered 1,3 which is where I have the main drives connected to (these are the WD raptors I want to raid) but I also have my backup drives connected to ports 2,4 which is controlled by AMD sata chipset. So If I raid the two main drives what will happen to the backup/storage drives? I dont want to change them in any way or form.
Im guessing a workround/safe way would be to connect the back/storage drives to the Marvel sata ports and connect my two DVD drives to AMD 2,4 sata ports. Will this work?

tbh I would love to setup raid without having to change the wiring of my sata drives  so If I can get ports 1,3 to Raid 0 without it affecting ports 2,4 (damaging/curropting them) it's the best option!


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## boxa (May 5, 2008)

update

since setting up raid the Sata optical (CD/DVD/re-writer etc.....) dont show in bios or on boot list so basically untill windows loads they are not accesible which meant I had to take out the ancient IDE connector and link up DVD drive from my ex rig. Ive google "setting up raid M3A32" and found only only 2 others having a similiar setup with the same prob, so far there is no fix for this but if you got summat I can try I will give it a shot.

this is what I did;

tried my 2 raid HD's in ports 1 + 2 (red colored for this motherboard), with my backup sata drives connected to ports 3 + 4, my Sata DVD drives connected to the marvel ports (5 + 6)
tried raid setup with optical connected to ports 3+4
tried using a PCI sata/raid card and connected the sata optical drives to this
(someone has tried setting up raid on the marvel ports 5+6 so I didnt try that)
Iv tried all the possible settings in bios too

anyhow, I setup raid by;
changing "onboard sata type" to raid, CTRL+F for menu during post, deleted the "LD" - option 3 (only because my drives were setup as AHCI before, someone trying to setup using an IDE setup may not have to delete LD's)
Then option 2 "define LD" cant remember exactly the next few screens but I think the first 1 is to choose the drives you want to raid, then to choose what type of raid you want. I know one of the last screens asks if you want the maximum size for the raid.

booted up using windows cd and installed windows vista.
according to the partitionin guide its best to format the pagfile/temp drive as fat32 and then using performance options in windows set the pagefile to any chosen minimum but the maximum being double your RAM, when I formatted using fat 32, I kept getting error maximum "must be equal to or more then the mimimum and not exceed 4096 MB" tried loads different values but yeh cant set max higher than 4096, but still get the error, so to work round this I tried setting both max and min the same amount. This worked but could not set both to 4096, 4000 works though!

As I partitioned the Pagefile/temp drive to 20GB and my RAM being 4GB I wanted more then just 4000 MB as my pagefile, so I tried formatting using NTFS now I could set any amount I wanted.

First boot - Vista loads uses about 500-700 MB ram, after updating it uses 900-1000MB, after installing SP1 and isntalling all updates/drivers programs and games it uses 1100-1700MB, but sometimes if left idle long enough itl go below 1000MB.

anyhow thanks for the replies/help, I had to install vista 3 times  my fault, when I went to install the graphics drivers I checked ATI site and found 8.4 drivers, so I installed "catalyst Software suite" basically isntalls everything, soon as comp shuts down it would not load into windows at all, no safe mode, cannot do a repair via windows cd either so that was the first install down the drain, second time I felt like being smart and made a restore point before I installed the new catalyst software suite, so this time I rebooted thinkin if it fcks up I can do a restore. Same crap happend and I tried repair via windows CD which then lets you choose restore (after repair fails) but this didnt work  , windows repair also gives an option to use backup/restore a entire computer but I dont know if this will work after this type of prob...
That was the second install down the drain lol, 
I had 8.3 installed before I setup raid so I knew they worked but remembered the first time I updated from 8.1 I had the same prob and I fixed it by downloading and install the drivers seperately then installing CCC seperately and then finally Avivo. So on the third install I did exactly that and its worked 

Iv now made a complete computer backup just incase as its still early days of my first ever raid setup, but just incase your wondering why dont you have back/restore on windows, probably because it comes with Vista Ultimate only? Im not sure anyhow Ive just done all my programs and games now so will make a new back, plus later install Acronis and make a back up using that just in case..

Windows is alot faster, boot time is 50% faster now and overall everything install's downloads etc faster. Gaming is slightly faster.

Iv turned UAC off and set superfetch to "2" default is "3" which loads everything you would use into ram on boot. changin it to "1" will just load boot requirements (hence being the fastest) but with my rig Im happy to keep it at 2 which I think loads the boot requirements with a few programs into ram. also taken system restore off since this has been a part of windows Iv never used it and even when I have (for a comp Iv fixed for others) I still feel like it stores the crap which can cause issues somewhere which can then later on come back again.


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## CrackerJack (May 5, 2008)

yeah i have to pull on my sony ide burner too. i can see it in bios and windows, but as soon as you open the drive it crash. driver handle error


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## boxa (May 6, 2008)

regarding the partitioning, I think I could have reduced my temp/pagefile partition to maybe 10GB and have this added to the programs/games install partition/drive, I tried to install everything I could possibally think of, all my games were installed, I have some more steam games too but they are on my old steam ID which I gotta log out my current steam and then install them too (may do later). Theres no real point in filling up the programs drive but I wanted to check if it has any impact on the performance, I may later Change My windows Drive to 30GB from 40GB (suggested amount is 20GB, but Ive installed main drivers/programs on this drive too), lower the temp/pagefile drive from 20GB to 10GB, saving 20GB which can be added to the programs drive... anyhow heres a screen to show my drives, for some weird reason I get an extra SCSI DVD drive ( J: ) :s


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