Clean install of XP with RAID 0 help PLEASE?

[MJB]

Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m going to reconfigure my two SATA 80 Gig drives to a RAID 0 (there is only room for two SATA on the Motherboard †“ this one http://uk.shopping.com/xGS-asus_k8vs...kin_id-7000297). Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢ve got the motherboard manual telling me how to do that and it looks achievable! This will give me 160 GB and by reading up online it appears to be recommended to partition this drive and put the OS in a partition of its own (what size would I need??) and maybe another partition for Programme Files as it will decrease the seek time on the principle that its quicker to find data on a 50 GB drive than it is on a 100GB drive?

Anyway, my concern is that my current OS is on a third 80 GB drive (EIDE) and the BIOS is set to look for this drive on boot up AFTER the CD drive. If I boot from the Win XP CD and follow all the instructions to set up the RAID and do a clean install of Win XP, will I be able to alter the BIOS to look for the new drive on boot up, otherwise it will go straight to the old OS wonââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t it? Might it make things easier to take out the third drive first and then reinstall and format it after Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢ve got everything else set up and working?

This is the decision Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m not sure ofââ‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¦ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢Ã ¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚¦..so if anyone can offer any advice it would be well appreciated!

[MovedGoalPosts]

Having messed around with RAID a while ago when I killed mine, due to a BIOS setting, my first suggestion is proceed with caution.

You should be able to install the windows XP to the SATA drive without disconnecting the existing HD first. Only thing is Windows will insist on calling your new SATA Raid a D or other letter rather than C. When you boot from the WIN XP CD at the install options be very clear that you are getting the right drive.

If you want your new windows to be on C, then disconnect your existing HD.

If your SATA board is an older one, make sure you have the SATA RAID drivers on floppy ready to load using the F6 button during the initial pre windows CD startup.

As for size of partitions, my current Win XP only need 3.5GB, but then there is the further 1.5GB that the swap file seems to want For real speed the swap file needs it own space where that doesn't get too fragmented. Put it this way, if your C drive, is to be Windows and a few other OS files, together with the swap file, 10GB should be adequate. Windows by default though also puts the program files, which includes some OS installed files on the C drive so you might want to play safe there and allow 16GB for the C partition. As you install other programs stick them on the D drive. I'd then have an E drive for all your data (remember you can redirect My documents and stuff to other locations).

[MJB]

Originally Posted by Rob C

Having messed around with RAID a while ago when I killed mine, due to a BIOS setting, my first suggestion is proceed with caution.

You should be able to install the windows XP to the SATA drive without disconnecting the existing HD first. Only thing is Windows will insist on calling your new SATA Raid a D or other letter rather than C. When you boot from the WIN XP CD at the install options be very clear that you are getting the right drive.

If you want your new windows to be on C, then disconnect your existing HD.

If your SATA board is an older one, make sure you have the SATA RAID drivers on floppy ready to load using the F6 button during the initial pre windows CD startup.

As for size of partitions, my current Win XP only need 3.5GB, but then there is the further 1.5GB that the swap file seems to want For real speed the swap file needs it own space where that doesn't get too fragmented. Put it this way, if your C drive, is to be Windows and a few other OS files, together with the swap file, 10GB should be adequate. Windows by default though also puts the program files, which includes some OS installed files on the C drive so you might want to play safe there and allow 16GB for the C partition. As you install other programs stick them on the D drive. I'd then have an E drive for all your data (remember you can redirect My documents and stuff to other locations).

Cheers Rob. Yes I already have a floppy with the required data as intructed by the MB manual. I'm thinking it best to disconnect the old C drive then just to be safe

[MovedGoalPosts]

When you do reconnect, having got your new windows install up and running, if you edit the boot.ini file on the C drive (your SATA RAID) you'd be able to dual boot from the old windows drive too.

[MJB]

Originally Posted by Rob C

When you do reconnect, having got your new windows install up and running, if you edit the boot.ini file on the C drive (your SATA RAID) you'd be able to dual boot from the old windows drive too.

My aim is to put the drive back in and reformat it for back-up data. Can't I do that using XP Disk Management?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Yep later on once you have the SATA RAID running, you should simply be able to reformat. So no need for the dual boot thingy. Of course I'd suggest yo make sure you've copied over any essential data before you do that