Internal ZIP100, DVD/CD & RAID

[tucsontier]

i'm still having some problems related to putting other devices on the RAID channels. for example, the ZIP drive does not seem to be detected, nor the cdrw/dvd drives.

Is your experience that merely the raid drivers need to be installed and it will work? Ultimately, if i want that zip in there, i need it or a cd on the raid connector

tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

First of all, installing CDROMs to the RAID controller is a bad idea because you will not be able to boot from CD then.

Second, the RAID controller cannot host Zip or CD.

If you are intent on moving these drives off of the IDE controller, pick up a Promise, Maxtor, I/O Magic or SIIG IDE card and put them there.

[tucsontier]

It would be "fine" to put one of the CD devices on RAID, and leave the other on an IDE controller. I'm not sure what you mean by "host," though.

I probably should get a card anyway if I really want that many non-HD devices, but I also want to find out what will work in a pinch. and I'm pinched.

Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

Put it this way - the RAID controller can't load those drives. You're wasting your time.

Why are you doing this? Why don't you follow convention and put the hard drives on RAID and the others on IDE?

[tucsontier]

The only reason is because of the ZIP. With the Harddrives on the RAID, I can't seem to make any of them C. the ZIP would become C. if I (could) put a ZIP on the lowest RAID, or slave to the HD on the first RAID controller, then I wouldn't have to worry about it.

However, based on your latest post, I guess I will probably move to the following configuration:

IDE0,m: DVD
IDE0,s: boot/OS HD
IDE1,m: CDRW
IDE1,s: ZIP100
RAID/IDE2,m: Storage/game/media HD

The main issue is on how to integrate the ZIP drive without it becoming the C drive.

Thanks,
Matthew

[tucsontier]

Bill,

Just wanted to say thanks for all the help you have been over the past weeks.

Thanks,
Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

If the Zip is loaded as a slave, it can't boot. The same goes for your HDD. The DVD should not be the master to the HDD.

The reason that you cannot boot from the HDD on the RAID controller is that you haven't selected it in the boot sequence. The definition for the drive on the RAID controller isn't created and thus is not selectable in the boot sequence.

This is the way it works:

1. Install single or dual drives on the RAID controller

2. Allow RAID BIOS to define the role of the drives.

3. RAID BIOS adds the above definition to the selectable list in the boot sequence. It lists each drive as an array if you don't create a two-drive array.

4. Select the "array" for booting after floppy or floppy and CDROM.

ATAPI Zip drives are a pain - I know. Make it a slave - always.

[tucsontier]

That disagrees with what I have done so far. One of my original configurations involved the ZIP100 as -slave- to one of the CD drives, and it booted (if it was in the boot sequence). It came up as C and my OS HD as D, cdroms as E and F

Also, my HD on RAID -is- booting, even without being displayed as bootable in the RAID setup. It boots whether I have HDD-0 or SCSI selected in the boot sequence. Problem? even my manual says i need to let it be detected as an array, fdisk, format, and set to boot. i never set it to boot, but maybe i should go into the setup and find out if it did it automatically.

Tucsontier

In case not setting it up correctly, but still booting, could be causing my win98se problem, please go here:

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109266

[BipolarBill]

What a mess! The first thing I would do is put that Zip drive aside. I have one and I refuse to add it to my setup until last for the very reasons that you cite. I rarely use it these days anyway, thanks to CDR.

After installing Win98 to a simgle drive on a RAID array, the first thing to do is install the RAID driver in Windows. Updated versions are recommended from Promise or Highpoint-Tech. I wouldn't reboot the first time unless it was installed. If I were having as hard a time as you, I would buckle and go RAID 0.

After installing the Zip to IDE, make sure BIOS is set to None for that IDE channel. Don't let BIOS recognize it as a drive! Next, make sure that it hasn't been added to the boot sequence.

[tucsontier]

I was thinking about disabling that ide channel, except that if there is another device on the channel, it might screw things up if i want to boot (say it's a cd rom). Currently, the zip is aside, and I am concentrating on the issues of why win98 isn't booting properly.

do you suggest I go back to the beginning and attempt to select the raid disk as bootable? whenever I boot, it -does- say it is set for RAID0 striping.

Thanks,
Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

Yes I do. Understand that when you stripe, alternate data is sent to each drive in a 2-drive set. What happens when 1 drive is set as it's own RAID0 array is that all data is sent alternately to a single drive. It increases overhead a bit, but it works.

[tucsontier]

Regarding my wni98se loading problems, could any of them be caused by the HD booting on RAID and not being selected as a "bootable array" in the fasttrack setup?

Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

That could be a problem. If this were Win2K/XP, you wouldn't get that far. Win98 is forgiving enough to screw you up completely. Stick to the basics. ;)

[tucsontier]

The hd that is on the RAID controller has my OS. I currently have DMA running. if this drive does not use DMA, could this also be causing the win98 loading problem?
Looking fora bunch of theories I can test when I get home

Tucsontier

[BipolarBill]

I doubt it. Any drive newer than about 1997 is DMA capable.