RAID Advice – 4199 days old

[floppybootstomp]

I been thinking about it for a while, now I think I'm going to go for a RAID setup. Using an Abit KT7 RAID with Athlon T-Bird 1.2 @ 1.320, 256MB Crucial 133 CS2.

Have a couple of IBM 20Gb GX60P I'm going to use in a Striping array. They'll be replacing an IBM 30Gb GX75p which has managed to pick itself up a virus 'WORD_BADTRANS.B'.

Picking up the virus was the clincher, I think I'll wipe the bugger clean.

I'm using XP, so could anybody confirm this is the right way to go about it?

1) Attach 2 formatted HDD's to IDE's 3 + 4. Both HDD's set to 'Master'.

2) Set all boot devices to ATA100.

3) Enter RAID controller set-up and configure as stripe. Turn computer off.

4) Set first boot device to CD ROM drive.

5) Boot and install XP.

6) Re-boot and set first boot device to ATA100.

Will it really be as simple as that or is there anything else I should know about? TIA.

[tim]

...but let's look more at no. 3.

What stripe size do you want to use?
I would reccommend 8K stripes as a good starter. This gives good performance for 4K clusters in my experience

Also, there is no need to 'turn off computer', the raid bios will offer to re-boot the machine. This is all that is required.

Backwards to no. 2 now,

There is no need to keep all the boot devices at ATA100 to use the RAID drive. I use :

LS-120
ATA100 (for WinXP)
CDROM

or

LS-120
IDE0 (for Win2k & Win98SE)
CDROM

Good luck m8

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks Tim

I'll go with the 8K then. I'll be setting it up in the morning, will let you know how I get on

[martzweb]

Raid is the way to go..... the transfer speed will impress the hell out of you

I'll leave my fone on if you need any help with setting it all up

M

[tim]

What version of MOBO and HPT370 bios you got on the KT7R?

I just upgraded to KT7 bios 64 (release) with HPT370 bios 2.0.1019. Put together with the official 2.0.0919 drivers the raid runs sweet with none of the mouse stutter problems of the 1.1 and 1.2 drivers.

If you're gonna go that route, update the BIOS before you define your striped array. Also, create a driver disk with the 2.0.0919 drivers on so that you can use F6, on installing XP, to use the later driver.

If you're a bit worried about flashing the BIOS jus' give me a call and i'll talk ya thru it. I'll put the basics here :

0) Make a note of all the relevant BIOS settings before they get wiped!

1) Go get the DrDos7.X floppy image from http://www.bootdisk.com/. Run this program to create a boot disc for doing the BIOS flash.

2) Get kt764 official release from http://www.biosmods.com/ (right hand side under latest BIOSes). Unzip the contents onto the floppy created above.

3) Get kt764 + hpt20d (under KT7 final) from http://www.biosmods.com/. Unzip onto the same floppy.

4) On the floppy, rename kt7_64.bin to kt7_64.old. Then rename 64201019.bin to kt7_64.bin.

5) Boot from the floppy and type 'RUNME'. Press enter a number of times to get past the warning messages. Wait until the process has finished and turn the computer off.

6) Reset the CMOS using the jumper on the MOBO

7) Restart the computer and enter the BIOS to amend all the settings back to where they should be.

8) That's all folks!

[floppybootstomp]

Cheers Martz

Thought I'd best wait til the morning, will have a clear head and an empty house then. No work tomorrow But got work Saturday & Sunday

[floppybootstomp]

Upgraded the BIOS from UL (The one that came with board as new) to Binary's modded XP logo BIOS a coupla months ago. I have a BIOS Saviour fitted as well.

For the sake of simplicity I was going to go with all the drivers XP provides. That's what I'm using at the moment, have had no probs at all.

Whaddya reckon?

[tim]

What version of MOBO and HPT370 bios you got on the KT7R?

If you want best performance, go with my suggestion above. Just make sure you have not had to many of these

[floppybootstomp]

That one slipped by me

OK, to verify, Bios 64 is the latest version for the KT7 RAID and HPT370 drivers 2.0.0919 are the latest (or best) for a RAID array?

Until I upgraded to XP from WIN98 I was still using the original Raid drivers that shipped with the board, never had any probs. I'm using one HDD on IDE 3 atm.

I've also never had problems with any mouse stuttering - is that problem peculiar to RAID?

I also just had a look in Device manager and the HPT370 drivers XP installs are V5.1.2600.0 I'm a bit confused, I'd assume that's a later version than 2.0.0919. Are the drivers you recommend better?

[martzweb]

i found the default xp drivers are ok, except under heavy disk access where stuttering occured..... the new htp drivers for the 2.0blah blah bios work well.......

[floppybootstomp]

I sink I see where I being ze dumbass here. I seem to be confusing the OS drivers with the Highpoint BIOS drivers, yes?

I'm not sure about this, how do you upgrade Highpoint Bios drivers?

When I upgraded from UL to 3r Bios, the file I got from Binary's site had Highpoint Bios drivers included, V103b as I remember. Does the Highpoint Bios upgrade take place when the main Bios is flashed?

Sorry to be a bit of a ficko here, but I really am a bit confused now

[tim]

OK, to verify, Bios 64 is the latest version for the KT7 RAID and HPT370 drivers 2.0.0919 are the latest (or best) for a RAID array?

Yes that is true!



The HPT370 BIOS comes as part of the MOBO BIOS. It's the only way to update the HPT bios when it is built into the MOBO like on the KT7-RAID.

The MS V5.1.2600.0 driver is the same as the 1.05 driver from the Highpoint-tech site.

[floppybootstomp]

It's beginning to get a little clearer now I honestly didn't realise the Highpoint controller was able to be flashed. It's an Eprom, just like the main BIOS chip innit? I never knew that.

Now the above instructions are making sense. I'm glad I posted this, I think I've actually learnt something here (here's hoping ).

Time to visit Binary's site I think, thanks, youse two's

Until the morning comes then..... :joy:

[tim]

It's an Eprom, just like the main BIOS chip innit? I never knew that

It's actually on the same 'CHIP' as the BIOS. It will comes as a complete bios of it's own after the main bios. That's why it can be changed indepedently of the main bios.

On KT7 (non-RAID) it will be there still but just ignored as there is nothing to use it.

[floppybootstomp]

Oh. Boy. So, on RAID mobos the controller is an onboard static IC and part of the main Bios has the means to 'talk' to it? Am I getting this right?

[tim]

That's about right.

It works like this.

When you boot the PC, the contents of the bios 'ROM' is copied to the main RAM somewhere (not sure where) before it starts the boot process.
This is called ROM shadowing, moving the BIOS code to faster RAM memory.
Then when the BIOS goes round and inits all the devices it TELLs the HTP370 chip where to find it's bios.
The HPT chip then runs it's bios to setup and control any devices connected to its IDE channels. You see this as the start-up detection process where the HPT bios version number is shown.

[floppybootstomp]

Yup, understand that, believe it or not

Now then, I've just downloaded three files from Binary's site, they are:

Kt74a - the official Abit release.

The modded Bios, with HPT370 bios drivers v.2.1.0919 & other stuff.

The modded bios as above but with an epa logo.

I've unzipped them and saved them with easily recognisible labels.

I know about creating a Bios flash disk, have that stuff from bootdisk.com, so where do we go from here? (pretty please )

[floppybootstomp]

I decided to follow the instructions you posted above and below is a pic of what I now have on my floppy disk to flash.

The only thing that bothers me is that the file I downloaded as the official Abit kt764 release didn't come up as a '.bin' file, but as a batch file. I renamed it to 'old' anyway.

Does it look right?

[tim]

I went thru the steps myself to make sure it was right.
My 'official' bios was kt7_64.bin.

Ah hold on a minute, have you got your explorer to show extensions?

The WHOLE filename must be 'kt7_64.bin' for the flash process to find it. If you look on RUNME.BAT you will see this :

@echo off
cls
ECHO !-------------------------------------------------!
ECHO ! !
ECHO !Please DO NOT run this batch file under Windows! !
ECHO ! !
ECHO !-------------------------------------------------!
pause
call abitfae.bat kt7_64.bin

You can see the name it wants there, or you could just change the RUNME.BAT file to point to the BIN file you want to flash.

[floppybootstomp]

I can see where I went wrong. Getting a bit late now innit When I downloaded the official Abit Bios, cos it didn't have a Zip type logo, I assumed that was it, complete, didn't need to be unzipped.

When I clicked on it, however, all the relevant files was unzipped.

So this is how me floppy flash disk looks now - looking better?

[tim]

Looks good! Go fir it

Oh, and don't forget to create an updated HPT370 driver disk to use when installing XP. Use F6 upon install startup to add extra drivers.

[floppybootstomp]

I'm not sure if I see the point of downloading the official Abit Bios first and then making it 'old'. Would making it 'old' be just the same as deleting it?

I'm wondering why I just couldn't take an old Bios Flash disk (my old 3r flash disk for instance), delete the .bin file and add my new .bin file, the combined Bios/htp drivers/epa logo.

Also, I've now had 3 conflicting pieces of advice on stripe size. I'll be using NTFS so I'm a little unsure of which size to use.

Here we go

[floppybootstomp]

In the end I followed Tim's above advice to the letter and I now have me's a new BIOS & Highpoint drivers.

Now on to the next bit, where's that screwdriver...

[tim]

I'm not sure if I see the point of downloading the official Abit Bios first and then making it 'old'. Would making it 'old' be just the same as deleting it?

Yep! I just assumed that you (and others reading this thread) do not already have a clean boot disk with the flash software included.
Anyway, it's always safer to start clean when doing potentially dangerous things like flashing the BIOS.

Did you remember to create that HPT370 v2.0.0919 DRIVER disk for when you do the install?

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by tim


Did you remember to create that HPT370 v2.0.0919 DRIVER disk for when you do the install?

Um, nope I didn't. I assumed those drivers would be loaded when I flashed the BIOS as per your instructions above.

Anyways, I'm on that machine right now and I'm stripin' baby!

Everything seems to be OK, haven't overclocked yet and I've got a million and two bits of software to install, but hey, - it worked

Had a few minor niggles along the way:

When I switched the Bios Saviour, it wouldn't POST. I had to reset the Bios with the jumper to enable a POST.

I asked for an 80 way cable when I bought the HDD, stupid supplier gave me a 40-way so for a while there I wondered why I couldn't enable UDMA 5. Fortunately I had a rummage around and had one in a box full of old cables.

After fitting got a POST error, lots of beeps. I'd managed to dislodge the RAM when fitting IDE cable to mobo.

Other than those few panic-inducing moments, all was largely OK.

[tim]

Um, nope I didn't. I assumed those drivers would be loaded when I flashed the BIOS as per your instructions above.

You flashed the HPT370 *BIOS* to the new version.

The *DRIVER* is what Windows uses to access the hardware HPT370 correctly. Two different things.

I would recommend you update to the WinXP HPT370 driver version 2.0.0919 (get it from the highpoint-tech site). It's an extra .ZIP file within the Win2K driver .ZIP file.

[floppybootstomp]

I seem to have a bit of a mental stumbling block with this one don't I

OK, understood, will do

Martz, Tim: You're both allowed to take One chocolate decoration off the tree

[muckshifter]

WELL DONE THE FLOPS

[floppybootstomp]

High praise indeed coming from your good self

I've overclocked it back to what it was, gradually loading applications on, have processed first WU for UD. It's looking good.

And it's most definitely faster :spin: