Setting up an IDE RAID array is not that difficult. There are some things you will need and some things you need to
do first.
- Make sure you have a valid, working system disk before doing anything. Create it and test it. Make sure it also
has the necessary files to boot your CD-ROM. If you have a CD backup, you will need to get that CD-ROM working
before you can proceed. - In # 1, I said “If you have a CD backup”. In Step 2, I say, “Make a CD backup”. Or some kind of backup. Unless
you are setting up a simple RAID 1 array, your data on the first drive will be hosed. You are starting your system
from scratch. So, before doing anything, make backups of everything you deem important. A more thorough solution
would be to create an image file of your whole drive and back it up on a CD. - Wet, rinse, repeat step 2. (Just emphasizing.)
- You’ll need hard drives and a controller. You will need at least 2 hard drives, possibly more depending on the
type of RAID you are doing. Get a RAID controller that matches your drives’ specs.
Start playing:
- Grab some standard IDE ribbon cables and connect your two hard drives to your RAID controller card. For two
drive configurations, use one cable per drive, and attach each drive to its own channel on the card. For four-drive
configurations, use a cable per 2 drives, just like you would with a standard master/slave setup. - Going with the previous step, you need to act as if each channel on the RAID controller is an IDE channel of
your motherboard. Thus, if you only have two drives, each drive should be set to master. If you have four, each
channel should have one master and one slave. - Install the controller into an open PCI slot.
- Connect the hard drives to the case, as you would with any other drive installation. Be sure to connect the
power leads, too. - After confirming everything is in place and ready to go, boot the PC. You will likely be brought to a
configuration screen for your RAID controller. Here you will need to configure the array type, such as striped,
mirrored, etc. - Insert your system disk into Drive A: and reboot.
- Use FDISK to partition the array.
- Likewise, format the array. All this is just like any normal installation.
- Restore your programs and backup data.
- Pat yourself on the back. Twice.
Things to Watch
There are two major points to keep in mind when installing RAID in your system.
First, your motherboard must have a good bus-mastering DMA sequencer on board. Bus-mastering is a technique which
allows hardware to communicate to other hardware on the same bus without going through the processor. This reduces
the load on the CPU. The DMA sequencer is what assigns your four of eight bus-mastered DMA channels to your PCI
slots. Not only does your RAID controller have to be installed into one of these bus-mastered slots, but the DMA
sequencer must be robust enough to handle it. This is kind of a trial and error thing, although some controller
manufacturers will post on their web site a listing of tested motherboards that will work well.
Second, your RAID card is picky in that it wants to be in the very first bus-mastered slot on the motherboard. You
will need your motherboard’s manual to determine which slot is the first. Some boards count their bus numbers from
the top down, others from the bottom up. Some start from the AGP slot and count down. So, since the RAID controller
needs to be first, make sure it is. If you have a PCI video card, make sure the RAID controller is above it (or
whichever slot is numbered first). If you’re using AGP, pay attention to see if the first PCI slot below that
shares an IRQ with the AGP video card. If it does, you’ll need to move the RAID controller down a slot. The manual
is your best reference. In a crunch, you can always use trial and error – remove all cards from system except for
RAID and video, and move around until it works, then re-install all the other cards.
Conclusion
I hope you found this article useful. RAID is defintely a viable option for the speed freaks out there. Some of us
even have a few hard drives lying around with decent specs. Popping a cheap RAID controller into a system and
putting those drives to use could really improve your system’s performance.
The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.
