Boot from RAID?

[Tremo]

Guys, is it possible to load the OS onto a RAID 0 array and boot from the RAID? Mobo would be an ABIT KG7R. Thanks.

[rangeral]

Yes you can after you setup your array with same size drives preferably with same brand name, fdisk and format for your OS install. You can use ide slots 3 and 4 if this mobo comes with onboard raid don't recall at the moment setting both drives to master.

[Phrost.E]

Hi again Tremo.

I got a KG-7 RAID with 2 x IBMs on the RAID controller, an LS-120 and a Tosh DVD on each primary of the standard IDE controller. Installation was very straightforward. Set the RAID array, partition, format and install. That's pretty much it.

I asked a similar question about 18 months ago regarding the Asus A7V with the Promise ATA-100 controller. With the early BIOS revisions this board was a b*tch to set up as Windows would crash EVERY time during install. The trick there was to reboot in Safe Mode after the 1st crash, which would give you the opportunity to manually install the Promise IDE driver, and reboot. After that the install would continue without crashing.

ONE OTHER THING! In common with the KT7A-RAID, the Highpoint RAID controller on the KG7-RAID shares interrupts with PCI slot 5. Keep this slot free if possible otherwise system stability will suffer. Slot 1 shares with the AGP slot and is another one to avoid unless you have no other option. Slots 2/3/4 and 6 haven't caused me any problems.

[Tremo]

Yo Phrost,

That's about what I plan to build. KG7 with a pair of IBM 40 gigs on the RAID, an LS120 on regular IDE primary, a LiteOn 32123 CDRW on secondary master and a LiteOn LTD163 DVD on secondary slave. I'll probably get an XP1700+ CPU and 2 sticks of Crucial PC2100 256 MB DDR. Should be a "rippin'" machine, and hopefully very stable under Win2K-Pro.

I was planning on using a GF3 Ti200 for graphics and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for the sound. Any comments on those choices?

To finish it off, a 3Com 3C905C NIC.

Any comments or suggestions? Thanks!!

I have a SCSI tape backup drive in an external SCSI enclosure that I share amongst 3 other computers. Any recommendations for a decent SCSI card for this system just for the backups?
Tekram? Adaptec? LSI Logic? SIIG? No need to be able to boot from the SCSI, so no SCSI BIOS is needed. Something cheap but decent.

[Phrost.E]

Hi Tremo.

Sounds like you are on course for a decent system. For your info, here's the rest of my system. It's modest, but well tuned...

Athlon 800
256MB Crucial/Micron PC2100 DDR
SB Live! 5.1
Accton EN1207D 10/100 NIC
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller
Plextor Plexwriter 412 SCSI CDR
Plextor Ultraplex 32 SCSI CD
GeForce 2MX/400

The Plextor gear is superb - the writer is 2 1/2 years old and has burnt well over 1000 discs without a hitch.

The Adaptec 2940UW is excellent for the money - I got mine at a fair for £35/$50. If you can justify the cost, get Adaptec.

I've held back on the graphics front with the imminent release of X-Box in the UK, as well as the nVidia rumour-mill announcements of GeForce 4. I'm neither rich nor a sucker, and begrudge paying OTT prices when there just isn't the software to support it, other than some very pretty tech demos. Having said that, a friend has recently purchased a Ti200 and it IS a great piece of hardware.

Like I said, it sounds like you are heading in the right direction. The KG7-RAID is a pearl and I would recommend it to anyone looking to build an AMD-based RAID system. Of course, all this is personal opinion, but I have a quick, stable system which does all that I ask of it...