Guys, I really need your help. This is my first build. (my husband thinks I’m crazy to do a build, but I’m so close) Putting it together was fun and exciting but now I’m stuck and have no idea what to do next. I can’t get the XP SP2 to load up. It shuts it self off. I think the problem may lies with the HDD drive set up.

What I have is 5 sata drives
2/ Seagate 250gb one is for the OS boot drive and the other for Adobe premiere and Photoshop cache and temp files.
2/ Hitachi 320GB for a Raid 0+1 configure
1/ Samsung SH-S203N writer

There are 6 sata ports on the ASUS P5B which are supported by the Intel ICH8R chip and can be configured by the Intel ICH8 32 bit RAID. There is one more sata port associated with the JMicron JMB36X 32bit RAID/AHCI. I have downloaded all the latest drivers and I’m using the 1226 Bios for the P5B deluxe.

So, first I need to know:
1. What is the best configuration for plugging in the Sata drives into the MOBO sata ports? I have the Samsung DVD plugged into Sata port 1 and two 250 drives into 2 and 3. Hitachis port 4 and 5, all on the ICH8R chip.

2. What should I set in the bios? I tried setting the HDD's in the Bios> Main>configuration> raid (3 choice here IDE, raid or AHCI) and loading the 32bit .EXE Intel drivers through a floppy drive at the window setup F6 then S, but it returned saying the file txtsetup.oem could not be found.

I would really appreciate your help and suggestions.
Desprate wife in OR.

My build:
ASUS P5B deluxe (used)
E6600 CPU with Zalman 9500 heatsink
Crucial PC2 6400 CL4 EPP DDR2 Unbuff (new)
Radeon X1900XTX (used)
PC Power&Cooling silencer 750W (new)
Microsoft XP Pro SP2 OEM (new)
Samsung SH-S203N DVD writer (new)
2 seagate 250GB (new)
2 Hitachi 320GB (new)

The intel .exe file that you get from the intel website needs to be executed, which will create the floppy properly with the RAID drivers. From your description, it sounds like you've added the .exe file to the floppy which F6 cannot use during XP install. Can you confirm this?

I also run a P5B Deluxe, with a mixed RAID setup, and there's a problem with the configuration of the sata devices that you want to setup. everything seems ok except for the 2x320GB hdd drives. You wrote that you want to set them up in RAID 0+1, that's not possible with 2 drives. For RAID 0+1 you will need 4 drives. you can setup the 2x320GB drives in either raid 0 OR raid 1, depending on how you want to use the drives.

to get to your questions:

1)
plug the 250GB drives into SATA ports 1 and 2 (do not create an array)
plug the 320GB drives into SATA ports 3 and 4 (create an array with these 2 drives)
plug the optical drive into either SATA ports 5 or 6

2) if you boot from the ASUS driver cd, it should give you some options to "create" a driver disk. this is the only way you can properly create a driver disk to install windows. just copying drivers onto the disk doesn't work.


hope this helps, good luck with your build!

Actually, the Intel chipsets support Matrix RAID which allows you to create 2 different RAID arrays on a single array. So, it is possible with the ICH8R to create a RAID0 and a RAID1 using only two HDD's.

Also, the Asus CD is not the only way to properly create a driver disk. My optical drive has never touched the Asus cd that comes with the P5B-Deluxe. All drivers, including the create-a-floppy executable is available from Intel's website. It sounds like the OP has the .exe file needed to make the floppy.

pinaplex is correct though, you can use the Asus CD to create the floppy disk you need for F6'ing drivers during XP install.

rwp,

i see your point that it can be done. but IMO, why would anyone want to create a Raid0+1 array using Matrix Raid with only 2 drives? There would be no redunancy if one of the drives failed, which defeats the purpose of having a RAID1 array. Its one of those things in that it's possible to do, but doesn't make any sense to do so. Am I missing something?

I'm not sure what would happen if a matrix RAID 0+1 is challenged with a drive failure. Logically, it seems that if one drive failed, you would lose everything even on the RAID 1 array unless it was at least twice the size of the RAID0 array, right? This is giving me a headache. The OP really should stick to RAID1 for the back up 320GB drives or get a third drive and go RAID5.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. pantheman, if the F6 trick isn't seeing any RAID drivers, you've set up the floppy wrong. Follow pinaplex's description on how things should be hooked up and try again with the floppy set up right. Alternatively, you can slipstream the RAID drivers to your XP install disc. Google "nlite" for an easy to use program that will do this for you. With a slipstreamed disc, there is no need to F6 the drivers during XP install.

I think rwp totally missed it with his reply. I think rwp is thinking raid 0+1 is either raid 0 or raid 1. But in fact, raid 0+1 is completely different from raid 0 or raid 1. For raid 0 or raid 1, you only need two drives. They are either striped or mirrored. But for raid 0+1, it is a striped set in a mirrored set... which requires a minimum of 4 drives.

As for rwp's link to Intel's Matrix RAID... he is correct: you can create a raid 0 AND a raid 1 on two hard drives... but I don't think it's what the OP had in mind as far as raid 0+1. Let's say in this case you have 2x320GB (hd1 and hd2) hard drives. Using Intel's Matrix RAID, you can specify 40GB on hd1 and 40GB on hd2 as a raid 0 set. Then you can configure the rest (280GB on hd1 and 280GB on hd2) as a raid 1 set. That's what the Intel Matrix RAID gives you - and that my friend is very different from a raid 0+1 configuration.

WIKIPEDIA IS YOUR FRIEND:
"RAID 0+1: striped sets in a mirrored set (minimum 4 disks; even number of disks) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity. The array continues to operate with one or more drives failed in the same mirror set, but if two or more drives fail on different sides of the mirroring, the data on the RAID system is lost."