Configuring RAID.

Just finished building a new box. I'm using a SATA HD, never used it before,
and the bios settings are a bit confusing.

I just have one HD, and want to boot with it. Can somebody here kindly
explain what I need to do? I have an Award bios, and also have the RAID
utility from MSI> do I want to mirror or stripe? That kind of
thing.....What's the sequence of what I need to do and WHY, please.

TIA!

You need to expand the SATA drivers to a floppy..XP will only read them from
a floppy....That are on the mobo disc
With just one drive You get no benefit of RAID........its usually 2
identical drives...Search RAID on Google.
Connect the SATA drive to the SATA1 connector..enter the BIOS and set this
as your boot drive...usually 2nd boot drive...set CD as 1st boot.
restart and place the XP CD in ...the XP installation screen should come
up..read the screens carefully there will come a point where it asks you to
push F6 in order to load SCCSI or other drivers...at this point you point
the installer to the Floppy drive from where it will install the SATA
drivers........it should be smooth sailing from then on.

Some mobo dont need the above procedure...your manual should tell you.
Some mobo need to install the SATA RAID drivers for SATA to work even if
RAID is not used...your manual should tell this
aren't manuals great!!...if all else fails read it
peter

"Travis McGee" <nothere@aol.com> wrote in message
news:5cGdi.1371$iz5.1159@newsread4.news.pas.earthl ink.net...
> Just finished building a new box. I'm using a SATA HD, never used it
> before,
> and the bios settings are a bit confusing.
>
> I just have one HD, and want to boot with it. Can somebody here kindly
> explain what I need to do? I have an Award bios, and also have the RAID
> utility from MSI> do I want to mirror or stripe? That kind of
> thing.....What's the sequence of what I need to do and WHY, please.
>
> TIA!
>
>

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:21:05 +0000, Travis McGee wrote:

> Just finished building a new box. I'm using a SATA HD, never used it before,
> and the bios settings are a bit confusing.
>
> I just have one HD, and want to boot with it. Can somebody here kindly
> explain what I need to do? I have an Award bios, and also have the RAID
> utility from MSI> do I want to mirror or stripe? That kind of
> thing.....What's the sequence of what I need to do and WHY, please.
>
> TIA!

Don't bother with RAID. You usually need two identical drives. It is
unlikely you will see any significant performance increase and will end up just making
the maintenance of your machine more troublesome.

"Bhagat Gurtu" <bhagat14@hindiblogs.com> wrote in message
newsan.2007.06.19.04.20.16.750525@hindiblogs.com ...
> Don't bother with RAID. You usually need two identical drives. It is
> unlikely you will see any significant performance increase and will end up
just making
> the maintenance of your machine more troublesome.
>

OK, but can I use this HD or not? Do I load the driver or not? What should
my bios settings be?

The manual is very unclear on this........

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:21:29 +0000, Travis McGee wrote:

>
> "Bhagat Gurtu" <bhagat14@hindiblogs.com> wrote in message
> newsan.2007.06.19.04.20.16.750525@hindiblogs.com ...
>> Don't bother with RAID. You usually need two identical drives. It is
>> unlikely you will see any significant performance increase and will end up
> just making
>> the maintenance of your machine more troublesome.
>>
>
> OK, but can I use this HD or not? Do I load the driver or not? What should
> my bios settings be?
>
> The manual is very unclear on this........

If your motherboard is modern (i.e has SATA connectors), it will just work.
Plug the drive into the first SATA channel and power the ****er up. You
will need to set the boot options in the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD
drive.

"Bhagat Gurtu" <bhagat14@hindiblogs.com> wrote in message
newsan.2007.06.19.06.15.05.552750@hindiblogs.com ...
> On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:21:29 +0000, Travis McGee wrote:
> If your motherboard is modern (i.e has SATA connectors), it will just
work.
> Plug the drive into the first SATA channel and power the ****er up. You
> will need to set the boot options in the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD
> drive.
>

Good! I guess I wasn't clear about what I wanted, due to the fact I don't
know what I'm doing! Thanks
Travis