golfnut324

Been banging my head here. I'm installing 2 new hard drives and trying to setup RAID 1. Here's some pertinent info:

BIOS - Award Modular v6.00PG
Intel i875 ACPset BIOS for 8KNXP FB
GigaRAID BIOS V1.38 F/W Ver 02093030
SiI 3112A SATARaid Controller BIOS V4.1.36C
(2) WD 5001AALS-00L3B2 500GB Hard Drives
Windows XP Pro Sp3

Additionally, the CMOS Setup Utility has a SCSI boot option of:
1. Silicon Image RAID Controller (current set to boot to this first)
2. ITE RAID Controller
(Don't understand the significance of that but it might help?)
Current boot order is:
1. CD
2. Floppy
3. SCSI

I have installed Windows on C:. D: is formatted and blank. When I try to run the RAID wizard in the SATARaid config utility to setup RAID1 I get "current system is contained in one of the disks you selected to create RAID 1 set".

I'm ok with installing Windows, F6 and installing 3rd party software but I can't figure which comes first, install Windows - setup RAID1 or the other way around. And I can't get my mind around all this SiI 3112 controller vs GigaRAID stuff.

Can anyone help a "shade tree mechanic" get over the hump on this one? Thanks much for taking the time to read all of this.

Craig

raptor_pa

Set up raid 1 since it is hardware raid - then install windows. You may need to zero wipe the drive so the RAID controller does not see the OS boot loader

golfnut324

Thanks, that may be just the steer I need. So I wipe the drives, setup raid1 by F4 in the boot, then install Windows? Can you point me to a zero wipe tutorial.

Sorry to be a pest. Thanks again!

raptor_pa

killdisk is pretty straightforward windows program, d-ban has a good explanation on the site http://www.dban.org/documentation

golfnut324

Thanks Raptor!