Tony, you didn't give enough information for anyone to answer your question 
completely.

First of all, does the motherboard support this Raid configuration that you 
want, or do you have some software/hardware combination to make it work?

I will assume that the motherboard supports it.  In that case, you must 
install the Raid before you install Windows.  Most likely, during the 
boot-up, you will have to press "F5" or something.  This will take you to 
the Raid setup screen.  At that time, you will tell the system how you want 
to configure it (as I see it, you want some combination of striped and 
mirrored, but I have forgotten the meaning of the numbers).  The system will 
set it up. If, as I think is the case, you are having two disks striped, and 
then mirrored, your Windows will only see one logical drive of size equal to 
two physical drives (I have not done this 0, 1 combination.  Only the 
striped.)  Then, if I recall correctly, you can partition the "one drive" 
using Fdisk (I am not sure of this).  Windows will install on top of that, 
after formatting.

I am not one hundred percent sure of the above, but it is basically correct. 
You need to look at the documentation that accompanied your motherboard to 
find out more.

If, on the other hand, you are using some add-on Raid card, then you need to 
follow the directions of that card.

This information should get  you started, and, perhaps, allow you to ask a 
more specific question and supply details to the method that you intend to 
implement your Raid.  For example, what motherboard/cpu you are using and 
what hardware you are using to implement the Raid.

Dean Kukral

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Anthonyjs2005" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 8:13 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] First boot


I'm just about ready to install windows XP professional into a newly built 
system. Confusion abounds. I have 4 WD2500HD I want to run as Raid 
0,1.Should this array be configured before the windows install ? Is C drive 
all 4 of these drives or just one? In other words is windows going to 
install on all 4 drives striped/mirrored or what? I'm not sure how to 
partition these drives.  When I put my created boot up disk in floppy, do I 
save bios immediately before I make any changes? Can anyone please help? I 
don't want to screw this up. Thanks, Tony.

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