quester12

hello all

i am working on a pc that has at this point only one pci card attached
its the ati 7000 radon works great.

my specific problem seem's to be related to the 2 maxtor 200gb 7200rev
sata150 harddrives.

the system is as followes:
silver gammer case top handle has reset/power button.
bays are 5.25 =4 3.5 bays are 2 visible 5 internal
motherboard is a msi pm8m-v (v-class) sporting a via(p4m800+ vt8237r chipset).

purchased from tiger direct the cpu case and 2 harddrives.

cpu=celery2.93ghz
award bios ver6.00pg serial ata 150 on board as sata1 and sata2
maxtor hard drives= 6l200m0 on channel0 and 6b200so on channel1.
the motherboard has onboard sound and onboard lan 2 ide 2dim slots.

a pullable bios.
floppy 3pci slots front usb 2 rear usb4 1lan .

powersupply is 350 or better rear standard fan and bottom fan
cooling.
case cooling vented large fan in rear vented front fan
and clear plexiglass center fan .

1 floppy disc 1.44 drive mitsumi.
an lg dvd drive 1cd rw.
the dvd and cdrw are plugedin as seperatly on primary ide1 and primary on ide 2.
each harddrive has fan cooling mounted not so close together for airflow.
one on serial ata 2 and the other on serial ata1.
motherboard is not blocked by cableing.
at present .... baffeled on 15+ attempts at raid configurations and
windowsxp pro installation failures.

do i need to preformat and partition each one of these drives prior to
raid setup and brfore i install windows xp pro.
because i cannot see the raid setup or how to get it to come up first
after i use the software utiity routine found on the msi website.
additional ... my windowsxppro withsp2 does not say its 64bit.
the motherboard drivers disc is ok and their is a sata driver disc for f6.
this is nonintel setup. i think its a via tech serial ata raid bios utility
version 4.50.

got any ideas

im fragin my self.

quester12

crazijoe

Hello and welcome to TSF.
You need to configure your RAID array first through the BIOS. Make sure that RAID is enabled in the BIOS. During the WinXP installation you will need to press F6 when prompted to install the RAID controller drivers. Make sure you leave the floppy in the drive.

quester12

hey;
crazijoe
thanks for the info.

i have tried that same approch neumerous times.

mine starts by asking me to hit tab to get into the raid utility.

then it asks me to pick what i would like raid0 or raid1.

then select boot array.

reset

it doesent work correctly.
if you can checkout the website www.msicomputer.com section support
basic troubleshooting guide at no boot.

see if thir is somthing i am missing.


thanks quester12

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

CraziJoe has given you the right direction for putting this thing on the road and working. There are a couple of other things you might consider.

Do you have any other hard drives like ATA installed on this unit...if so, then disconnect them until you are all set up with the raid array.

Second, most people have better success with downloading the Utility from Maxtor (Maxblast4 I think it is) and preparing the drives for usage by partitioning and formatting them before getting started with the Array. I also use the Maxtor Sata drivers for my unit and they work great. Here is a link to make it easy to find:

http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Another thing is that your Boot Order is easy to mess up on the newer boards with Sata. Might want to make sure your board is set correctly there.

Last, and I don't think this is causing your lack of booting, but your POWER SUPPLY at a 350 is probably stretching quite a bit with this rig. Might want to keep on eye on that issue.

quester12

tumbleweed36;

thanks for your response.

i was hoping someone would bringup the maxblast 4 software.

your suggesting that i format each harddrive using maxblast4 then
partition them then setup the raid config then install winxp pro.

and i should be fine.

2 answer your other drives issue NO NO NO JUST THE 2 SERIAL ATA DRIVES.

AND I WAS SUGGESTING THE ABOVE FORMATTING NOT CRAZIJOE.

LASTLY MY HARD DRIVE THEIR ARE 2 HARDDRIVES NECESSARY FOR RAID CONFIG EACH ONE AT 200GB @7200 REV'S THATS 400GB.

MY POWERSUPPLY IS A MINIMUM OF 350WATTS OR BETTER CROSS VENTALITED .

UM KINDA WONDERING PERHAPS YOU HAVE MISREAD WHAT I'M ASKING.
OR PERHAPS IT IS UNCLEAR.
SOMETIMES I MAY NOT BE ASKING THE PERFECT QUESTION FOR THE ANSWER I REQUIRE.
I BELIEVE I WAS SPECIFIC ENOUGH .
IF I WAS NOT I AM SORRY. if any additional info is required.

i will be happy to comply.

i appricate everyone's assistance from previous to now and to the next time.
looking foward to anyone's help.

thanks to all

quester12

Tumbleweed36

quester12

thanks for staying up late to respond um no problem i understand TIRED.

ok so if i use the bios setup to configure the 2 drives in a raid0 configuration.
then use its set boot drive.

then use maxblast to format and partition each one or the first one designated for boot drive cause it does not show up in intagrated peripherals
my controller doesn't show up.
ya its the onboard controller.

and i want to make both hsarddrives bran spanking new and try agin.

what can i use to do that? any ideas?

thanks

quester12

Tumbleweed36

Hi,

If it is set up to Raid, then you should have two options. First of all, like CraziJoe said and that might be the easiest is to make sure your Boot order is set properly:

CDRom - 1st (the first and second ones can be switched if you choose)
Floppy - 2nd
Raid Array - 3rd (this would be the boot drive.

**Don't forget to save before you exit.

Then, put the OS CD in the drive and turn it on and let it start and be prepared for the F6 hit when it comes.

The second option if that gives you fits, is to download the Maxblast, put in on a floppy, insert it and boot up and do the same job to prepare the drive for usage.

I certainly would try the one CraziJoe suggested first, but YOU MUST make sure the boot order is correct if it is to work.

Hope that helps.

quester12

hi tumbleweed36

ok the raid should be 3rd on the list.

i'll give it a try and get back to ya.

thanks to both

quester12

quester12

hey all i went to several other places and found a free to try prog

disk drive killer.

quester12