unable to setup RAID 0 on my SATA drives.

[jakol]

hi,
hope someone could help me here,
here are the specs:

SONY VAIO VGC-RA825G
Pentium 4 3.6ghz
915p chipset
motherboard PTGD-VX..(done search looks its made by ASUS..but not showing on their site)
BIOS AMIBIOS ver 2.3
1 gig ram
2X 250 gig SATA drives (WD)

the problem: Im unable to setup my hardrives in a RAID array.
Search on Intels Website and looks like 915p chipset has a built in RAID controllers.
Look into the BIOS there is no way to config it there.
Tried to install Intel Application Accelerator for RAID controllers...gives error that SATA drivers are not installed correctly.

I think my SATA drives are using MS generic drivers (just a guess im not really into this RAID/hardware setup)

On my device manager there is no SCSI controllers present which I think it should when your using SATA controllers, all I have are IDE cotrollers.

called sony but they are no help..states my PC is not configured for RAID setup.They wont even tell me the make model of my motherboard.

my Question: Is there anyway I could make this Drives in a RAID array?
PCI controller is out of the question...no PCI slots left

thanks for your help....
edit
PS: I do extensive Video editing in this machine. I know I know ive read all the old Post about RAID, but if i get this thing to work Im going to add another 10K raptor as my boot/temp drive. and my temp video files will be using the RAID array.

[rkr1958]

I did a quick search of intel motherboards that use the 915p chipset. Of the six motherboards, Intel® Desktop Board D915PSY, Intel® Desktop Board D915POM, Intel® Desktop Board D915PGN, Intel® Desktop Board D915PCY, Intel® Desktop Board D915PCM and Intel® Desktop Board D915PBL it seems that none of them have RAID capability.

A further search on the intel site did turn up one motherboard with this chipset that supports raid, the D915PBLL, but I can't find anyone who sells that motherboard.

While the 915p chipset does support RAID, your particular motherboard must also support raid.

By the way, my motherboard, Intel® Desktop Board D875PBZ does support raid 0 and 1, and I had no problem setting up a pair of 160-GB SATA drives in Raid 0.

It just looks like Sony was right and your motherboard doesn't support raid. The good news is, you really don't need raid for video work. SATA-150 is more than fast enough. There's no reason you can't go ahead and add the raptor drive and use all three.

[jakol]

thanks rkr1958 for the reply,
Your right my sata drive can handle video work, i just wanna raid it for the heck and get more performance out of it at least a little, the one that frustrates me though is when i bought this thing its printed on the box that it is RAID ready..kinda false advertising i guess.

I dont think my motherboard is made by Intel just the chipset, its printed on the board (PTGD-VX) looks like its made by Asus but not listed on their site they probably make this boards specific for Sony.

I checked 915p chipset and they do have RAID controllers built in, but i guess it all depends on your motherboard to use that capabilities.

I was thinking of installing SATA drivers for my drives if it will work, but im really walking in the dark to do this...

anyway thanks.

[rkr1958]

the one that frustrates me though is when i bought this thing its printed on the box that it is RAID ready..kinda false advertising i guess.

If it's printed on the box that it's RAID ready then you should be able to configure it for RAID. I know you contacted Sony to no avail before but I'd push this more if you really want RAID. I'd point out to the next person you talk to that the box states that your system is "RAID Ready" and you want to configure it as such. If that tech person can't help you I'd ask for their manager and keep going up the line until you got a person who could. Good Luck and let's know how it turns out.

[thevoelk]

The Help Manual for your model says that RAID is only available through Custom Ordering from Sony. My guess is that you have to tell them to install additional drives and it may come with a PCI RAID card pre-installed.

Honestly, you're probably better off (money wise) buying a RAID card from Newegg and the drives seperately, I can only imagine what Sony would charge to do that.

Windows 2000/XP have the ability to create RAID-0/1 through software. I'm not sure about Media Center. You may be able to, but Microsoft probably disabled that feature if they consider MCE an OS for home users.

[jakol]

[quote="thevoelk"]The Help Manual for your model says that RAID is only available through Custom Ordering from Sony. quote]

Thats what they told me when I called them, and they also told me that they use same boxes for most of their PC's thats probably why the RAID ready print is their and not intended for my particular model.

If I cant RAID it oh well,...honestly i can return this PC at Costco , they have 6 mos return policy, thats what I did with my previous PC not happy within 6 mos of use. .back to Costco...But the hassle of unhooking all the cables , repacking it and installing the softwares on the new PC I think is not worth it for that dang RAID setup.

Lesson learned: next time Ill built my own PC, at least I'll know the in and outs of my PC.

edit:
hmmmm..I have second thoughts, why not return it , I can get the new Pentium D with RAID 0 for almost same price since I got it...do you think they will hate me for returning 2 PC's this year?

[waheed]

wow....you lucky person, return a PC within 6 months. I wish I could do that (though i built my own PC).

Cmon...stop complaining, what hastle. :P

10 min job at most for unhooking all cables and packing it up. Small price for getting a NEW PC.

Hey, if its their policy, its their policy.