This is correct. Once you enable the RAID configuration, the underlying
filesystem on the disk, even if Windows was currently installed on it, may
become invalid. In addition, Windows needs a different driver loaded (as was
mentioned by Tony) to even see the drive since the disk controller presents
a different HW interface to the PC once RAID is enabled. That is why the OS
becomes inoperative when you enabled it.

At the very minimum, you would have to do a "repair" install of the OS
(booting from the Windows CD), loading the proper RAID driver. I have never
tried this, so it still may not work. It may be required to do a full format
and install of Windows.

For either the repair or full install, when the Windows CD boots, you will
need to press F6 when prompted, and insert a floppy with the RAID driver or
Windows will not recognize the RAID array.

Having said that, I would recommend having the OS on a third disk that is
not in a RAID configuration. When using RAID 0, the filesystem is laid out
as alternating stripes (the stripe size) between the members of the array.
If ANY of these members fails, the whole filesystem is typically lost. By
having the OS on a separate disk, you reduce the chance of an unbootable
system because of a RAID member failure.

Unless you need the speed or single large volume of a RAID 0 setup, you may
wish to format them as two separate filesystems.

Russ Poffenberger
[log in to unmask] 

-----Original Message-----
From: Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tony Mayer
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 7:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] RAID configuraion


Robert -

You only need two drives...but when you activate the RAID, you will not 
"see" 2 drives.  They will appear as 1.  You then need to install the OS 
on that single drive (make sure you have the driver disk for RAID that 
comes with your motherboard...you might even need it to be on a floppy...)


Tony Mayer



Robert Pettigrew wrote:
> I built a computer with a MSI mobo (K9n4 500 SLI) 2 Seagate HD 250 GB, 
> 2GB Muskin memory, AMD 6000+ cpu.Do I need 3 hard drives to make raid 
> work,1 for OS and 2 for raid? I have the two drives working fine as 2 
> drives,but system won't boot up when i activate raid. I thought I 
> followed the instructions that came with the mobo and I had friend 
> come over to try his luck. ANY help would be apprieciated
>
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