Hi group,

Firsttimer in here: if this group is inapropriate for my question,
please direct me te right way. :-)


First some tech stuff, question follows:

--------------------------------------------
Running XP SP3
Hardware: Motherboard: ASUS P5K-e

Intel® Chipset Identification Utility says:
System Information Chipset
Detected Chipset: Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset
Chipset Components
Memory Controller: Intel(R) 82G33/G31 Memory Controller Hub
I/O Controller: Intel(R) 82801IR Intel(R) I/O Controller Hub (ICH9R)
---------------------------------------------

I have 2 SATA HDs in my machine that were working as RAID1 earlier.
I remember installing them as RAID1 Array during XP installation by
pressing F6 (Load Thrid Part SCSI/RAID drivers).

During normal boot-up I always got: Intel® Matrix Storage screen (which
I could enter by pressing ctrl-i to configure it).
My RAID1 functioned normal.

How I screwed up:
My machine never booted the first time, it always needed a second try to
get past POST message and into windows boot.
So I fiddled around in the BIOS, and decided, in my endless wisdom, to
change my SATA from IDE to RAID. --> WRONG!
No more booting at all. :-(

No problem, I thought, let's put it back to IDE.
Now my machine boots again, but my drivers for RAID (Intel® Matrix
Storage) are totally gone.
I have now, of course, an extra HD, since my RAID1 is gone, which is
indeed a mirror of the C-drive I boot from now. (Better maybe: it WAS a
mirror, since I have no more mirroring going on now. )
The Intel® Matrix Storage Manager (a windows application) fails to start
and says it misses the required plug-ins.

How do I reenable RAID1 on my XP?
I DO have a floppy with the right drivers, the ones I used with the
first time install.

Any advise?
I don't feel like reinstalling my whole XP and all the apps on it.
I read through the manual of intell, but they adress only loading the
RAID drivers during XP setup.

Thanks.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

Erwin Moller schreef:

Hi,

I fixed it. :-)
In case somebody else runs into a similar problom, maybe this helps:

What confused me was the fact my SATA-controllers were in IDE mode, even
though I had RAID1 up and running.

This is what I did:
1) Update my BIOS. (Version P5KE1013 in my case)
2) unplug second drive
3) booted -> go to BIOS -> changed my SATA controller from IDE to RAID.
4) Reboot -> Check if if Intel® Matrix comes up during boot.
(It did in my case)
It reported degraded RAID array (duh, 1 drive was disconnected)
5) booted into Windows, where Intel® Matrix Storage manager complained
it missed a drive.
6) shut down.
7) inserted the second SATA drive
8) Rebooted.

All works fine now (it is rebuilding now.)
And I am glad my BIOS reports my drives now on SATA controller as RAID.

Oh well, sorry for the noise. ;-)

Regards,
Erwin Moller