Problem setting up raid on new hard drive

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:36 pm

Got a pair of the new WD 16mb cache 250gb hard drives to put on a DFI Ultra in raid configuration. Got the mb setup fine and the raid array and started up to install winXP but running into a problem with the raid array when it comes time to format it, it just sits there at 0% saying its formatting but doesn't. Left it for half an hour and nothing. Tried to do quick format but it says there's disk errors and cant do it.

Tried everything several times and out of ideas. Do I have to test each drive separately? Format individually?

My first raid so is it a disk problem(both brand new raw) or something else?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 8:26 pm

Did you install the RAID drivers from a floppy by hitting F6 when the XP installer started? Even if WinXP detects it without installing drivers, it might need the proper drivers instead of the XP generic ones.

Also, make sure you're running the latest firmware update for the mobo BIOS. Those are big drives. Could be the firmware wasn't designed for them and they fixed it later.

Check your cables.

As a side note, you may want to REALLY think about whether you want or need RAID 0. Frankly the performance benefits aren't worth the hassles and the risks IMO.

Hope this helps...

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:02 am

Got the raid drivers installed, the nvidia required ones, computer recognizes the raid array but just cant format it when it comes time to prior to installing windows.

I'll try each drive individually to test each is OK but want to try the raid array. Cabling was checked and reset a couple times. My first sata as well.

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:39 pm

found an old wd lifeguard disk so ran the tools and partitioned the array and tried it on an nf3 mb, got as far as the format and it started but 4% after 3 hours................tried them alone, same

what is wrong with these drives? or my setup?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:02 pm

This was on a different motherboard? If so it's starting to sound like an issue with the drives themselves. You might want to try contacting the HDD manufacturer.

Do you have a copy Partition Magic you can try formatting one of the drives with? Or can you plug in one of the drives as a spare on a system with Windows installed and see if you can format it from Windows?

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:31 pm

took almost a week of frustration but bad ballistix ram and one hard drive making the death click, both rma'd, swapped out the ram first then same problems so tested each drive on another mb and one was bad and got worse quickly till finally wouldn't recognize