RAID1 setup on existing OS for non boot drive

M

matthewcordaro

New Member
I am making the upgrade to a RAID1 setup for my multimedia collections. I am using a 250GB boot disk where I have 3 versions of windows installed: XP, Vista, and 7RC. So, this setup is not intended for booting purposes and is intended to be used by my different OSs.

I bought two identical 1T Maxtor HDs and a Sabrent SATA II 3Gbps 4Ports PCI ExpressRAID Card. All items have been installed into my computer. The card's BIOS recognizes the HDs and I formatted and paired the drives there for RAID1. Windows has installed updated drivers for my Sabrent controller.

For some reason I cannot see the drive on my system. I've searched all over for any incite to setting this up without reinstalling windows. Is this at all possible? Is there a program that I can download to setup the array that's similar to Intel's Matrix Storage Manager?

Again this is not my primary boot drive.


 

My Computer

System One

I am a little confused - so please bear with me. You have a total of 3 drives. 2 drives are going to be mirrored, neither of which will be the boot drive.

You have two controllers, one for the 250GB boot and the raid controller for the mirrored drives? Or are all three on the raid controller?

Which drive are you not able to see?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    AMD AM2 6000+
    Motherboard
    Nvidia M2N-E SLI
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 7600GT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WD
    Case
    Cooler Master
    Cooling
    Three fans
    Keyboard
    Dell Quietkey
    Mouse
    Dell Optical
    Internet Speed
    10 MBPS
You have a total of 3 drives. 2 drives are going to be mirrored, neither of which will be the boot drive.

-Yes/not quite:
I have a controller on the mobo that has 2 slots. One hosts my 250GB multi boot disk & the other a 500gb media drive. I'm upgrading the 500gb to the RAID1, eventually removing the 500 disk or using it as an additional disk.


You have two controllers, one for the 250GB boot and the raid controller for the mirrored drives? Or are all three on the raid controller?

-2 controllers one mobo and one PCIExprs(RAID1)


Which drive are you not able to see?

-I can not see the raid1 disk in windows explorer. Device Manager recognizes the controller and that there are two disks: Channel 0 Target 0 && Channel 0 Target 1 (both are defiantly the 1TB maxtor's) but windows explorer only shows the original two drives (250 boot and 500 media) not the three it should 250GB 500GB and 1TB RAID1 array



I just want to mention:
I did not change any start up settings in system BIOS just added a PCIE mirrored controller and setup it's BIOS for the array (already paired in PCIe's BIOS) for the two new 1T disks to my existing system.
& the manufacturer's name is Silicon Image.
 

My Computer

System One

Can you set up the hard drives so all are controlled by the PCI controller?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Z46GDU
    CPU
    [email protected] w/6MB L2 cache 1066MHz FSB
    Memory
    6GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    9300M GS 256MB + Intel Integrated 4500MHD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.1" WXGA True Colour Tough
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    320GB SATA 7200RPM
    Internet Speed
    1MB/s
Connect all the hard drives to the PCI controller and disable the onboard controller. Something is conflicting with both of them.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Z46GDU
    CPU
    [email protected] w/6MB L2 cache 1066MHz FSB
    Memory
    6GB DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    9300M GS 256MB + Intel Integrated 4500MHD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.1" WXGA True Colour Tough
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900
    Hard Drives
    320GB SATA 7200RPM
    Internet Speed
    1MB/s
For that suggestion to work the new PCI RAID controller will need a boot ROM and the PC will have to support booting from a 3rd party boot ROM, which isn't usually common on a desktop PC.
Feel free to give it a whirl, but bare that in mind :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    2x AMD FX-74 @ 3.0GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS L1N64-SLI
    Memory
    4GB OCZ Reaper DDRII
    Graphics Card(s)
    2x BFG 8800GTX OC 768MB (SLI)
    Sound Card
    Creative X-Fi Fatl1ty
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP L2045w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    2x 500GB Samsung T166 SATAII
    PSU
    Enermax Galaxy 1000W PSU
    Case
    Thermaltake Armor Extreme Case
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard
    Mouse
    Razer DeathAdder
    Internet Speed
    8Mb ADSL (UK Online)
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