installing raid after winxp has been setup

[kababoom]

hi! can anybody advise me the steps on how to add a raid card to winxp after it has been setup?
Can i just update winxp configuration without reinstalling winxp again. thanks in advance

[silencio]

There's a couple things to consider.

First, If you plan on adding just moving the drive you currently have XP on to a raid card and adding a drive as a mirror (raid 1) you'll have problems booting to the drive because XP was initially installed with IDE storage drivers.

Second, again, if you're planning on moving the existing array to a raid card and creating a new array you will be able to create a mirror (raid 1) but not a stripe (raid 0). A mirror will copy your existing drive to the new drive, a stripe will destroy your old drive. well, not destroy the drive but it'll destroy the data.

Third, if you are going to keep the old XP drive and add a raid card with two new drives your bios needs to be configured to boot from the IDE first. New boards will do this, some old boards won't.

Worst case scenario you may have to reinstall XP but you can install over the old install (by deleting the existing one) but your data and documents will all still be on the drive as long as you don't format it during the install. Then you'll have to move your old data from the old profile folder (c:\documents and settings\username) to the new folder that will be created in "c:\documents and settings\new username"

[kababoom]

actually i'm trying to move my hdd to the raid controller w/o adding new drives? do i need to resetup winxp just to add raid functionality to winxp?

[silencio]

Well, raid is not going to give you any performance benefit with one drive.

[confus-ed]

actually i'm trying to move my hdd to the raid controller w/o adding new drives? do i need to resetup winxp just to add raid functionality to winxp?

Huh ? ... you need at least two drives for it to be RAID (one thing can't be an 'array' -well it can mathematically, but not practically !)

Or do you mean you have a raid card & later you'd like to put your current install into an array ? ... I'm confus-ed as to what you are up to

Anyways I'm well used to my confus-ed-ness , so have a look at this link & see if that explains what you want RAID Goes Mainstream

[kababoom]

Huh ? ... you need at least two drives for it to be RAID (one thing can't be an 'array' -well it can mathematically, but not practically !)

Or do you mean you have a raid card & later you'd like to put your current install into an array ? ... I'm confus-ed as to what you are up to

Anyways I'm well used to my confus-ed-ness , so have a look at this link & see if that explains what you want RAID Goes Mainstream

actually i want to boot my existing hdd on this raid card so i can feww up the onboard ide for other devices

[confus-ed]

actually i want to boot my existing hdd on this raid card so i can feww up the onboard ide for other devices

Man, I hate all sentences that begin 'actually'

But I suppose I asked for it .... Ther's no reason why you can't just use most RAID controllers in this way (i.e. as an 'extra' pci IDE controller) Usually its just a matter of setting a jumper & plugging it in ... however that's dependant on whether it can be a boot source(in the m/b bios) & whether the card can indeed be used just as an ide contoller - I'll be needing details of both to say ...

Lets forget all about raid for now (you want this as an ide controller not a raid contoller ) so is it onboard (the motherboard) or seperate ? - if its seperate it might be tricky to boot from .... infact give me details of all the devices (HDs & CDs) you want available - & we'll see what might be the 'bestest' arrangement.

[Ya_know]

Actually, silencio's explained it best, it can't be done without reinstalling XP in some manner or fashion. What more could you possibly offer here Confus-ed?

[confus-ed]

Actually, silencio's explained it best, it can't be done without reinstalling XP in some manner or fashion. What more could you possibly offer here Confus-ed?

Actually read it !

He wants to use his 'RAID' card as an additional IDE controller, not RAID at all - ACTUALLY ! So SIlencio's comments though valid are nothing to do with the price of fish

[Ya_know]

Actually read it !

He wants to use his 'RAID' card as an additional IDE controller, not RAID at all - ACTUALLY ! So SIlencio's comments though valid are nothing to do with the price of fish

But to move from one IDE controller to the other, would require the same fish...

[confus-ed]

But to move from one IDE controller to the other, would require the same fish...

Ya_know you are just causing confus-ed-ness now

There might be no need to re-install xp at all ... should I say 'actually' now ? (I want a 'shakes head' smiley!) ...

[Ya_know]

There might be no need to re-install xp at all ...

Do expound...

[silencio]

The last time I installed an IDE controller with a fish I couldn't get anyone to come near me for a month.

[silencio]

There is a way to change the arc path of the boot.ini and drop the scsi driver in the root as bootdd.sys but it's not for the faint of heart.

[confus-ed]

Do expound...

What tack SIlencio is on defeats me ... but I'll answer this since its vaguely related.

If he wants to use his 'Raid' card as an additional IDE controller (just so he has more channels/ability to add IDE devices), WTF is wrong with leaving the disk on IDE 0, that won't require a new xp install will it?