In-depth question on IDE / PIO modes for drives

[arcorob]

I recently had ATI tell me that my drives were not running as they should (yes ATI). After checking I found that one optical drive was running in PIO mode (ugg) and others that should be running IDE 5 were running IDE 2

After some research I found a Microsoft bulletin about this that CRC errors on these drives at some time, cause them to STEP down in modes. The problem being, they stay stepped down until you delet the IDE Primary or Secondary and let windows redetect.

All of this I understand and will do. But here is my question for a true expert. I have 4 drives on an ON BOARD RAID (VIA) with two sets of RAID zero striped for speed(4 120 gig drives , Master slave, master slave) so it looks like two 240 gig drives. They run awesome however, these have also been reported as not being "all that they can be".

So my question is, can I do the same process for these, delete the reference to the raid in DEVICE manager and have it re-detect or will I hose something ? WIll my data be okay ? I know it works fine in IDE, but the raid one concerns me. I could reset the raid on startup but I have data I need on there.

The board by the way with on-board raid is the ASUS P4p800 Delux

Thanks to the gur's in advance.......

[Faustus]

Thats a tough one man. In theory you should have no problems at all. Once I formatted my machine when when I reinstalled the raid drivers it was like "oh they are already a raid" and it was back to normal. At the same time I make no promises for your specific situation.

I'd suggest backing up anything truely important first just in case (assuming that like the rest of use you dont do regular backups that is)

When you done just pull it and see what happens. I dont think anything bad is gonna happen, worst case you end up right where you started if it works like mine did.