RAID: disabling; using non-HD devices

[tucsontier]

i got my ecS KV7tA3 3.x board, and I am having trouble with the device setup. as some people were suggesting for a configuration, i put each device on a separate ide channel as master. Originally, I had my cd drives on the raid connectors, and my harddrive on my ide1 controller. this didn't work because the cd drives didn't appear to be detected. Then, i switch so my hd is now on raid and the cds on ide1,2. it seems this will work, but now the raid software automatically sets the hd up for striping. I read something in here about disabling raid, but can't seem to figure out how. I'd rather just avoid it altogether until i figure it out later.

1. How can i make my cds work on raid jsut as devices? Does my os need to just detect and install the raid stuff?
2. can i turn off my raid? will it automatically setting up my hd cause me problems?

tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

What does the manual say? Is there a jumper on the boards for disabling RAID or maybe a setting in Integrated Peripherals?

[tucsontier]

went through the manual for both the motherboard and the promise one that came with it. I couldn't seem to find a jumper for it anywhere. the only raid-related header seemed to be for the raid LED. In the bios, I couldn't find anything that seemed to deal with it specifically (enabling/disabling), though you can boot from a scsi device. There are a lot of features in the bios, though, that i'm unfamiliar with and weren't really clarified in the manual.

New thought: The HD booted and i don't think i had scsi selected in the boot sequence. does that mean it is probably just acting as IDE3, even though the fasttrack lite pops up to tell me it's configured for raid0?

Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

The Promise will set individual drives as RAID 0 arrays, but it won't actually tie two drives together without you selecting it. It's bogus really - although the Promise calls each drive a RAID 0 array, it's really a single drive.

[tucsontier]

gotchya. Anyway to disable/byspass this fastrack lite scanning software?

Also, what about the cd devices? Granted, i was/am having problems with the win98 boot disk...

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=650385#post650385

...so I'm not sure if the problem was controller related. Also, when i did put in a hd that had an OS already while the cds were on the arid controller, the raid was not installed in the OS. got the pop-up to install it, but the drivers were on the cd. If i need this isntalled to operate the cd drives in windows, than i'm in a catch-22 in that configuration. Let me know if this train of thought is running in the right direction.

Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

I have the same controller on an MSI KT3. I can disable RAID in Integrated Peripherals. If you cannot disable yours, you're stuck waiting that 30 seconds (ridiculous, aint it?). Oh - you can press and hold ESC to bypass.

If you are going to run the CDROMs on the Promise (not recommended), you'll need the drivers.

[tucsontier]

I went through various configurations and I think I grasp it now. I'm running a test platform of win98, though, and for some reason it is randomly lockingwhen booting into windows98, even after all drivers are loaded. Via has some driver stuff on my cd that is being used to update, and i wonder if anyone has had a problem with any of it.

Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

Oh yeah...the 4in1 drivers are very important - always.