I'm having trouble installing internal hard drives.

A

andrewanimation

New Member
Hello,

I'm having trouble installing internal hard drives.

The computer is a desktop Dual Xeon 3.06 GHz, and the hard drives are two Seagate 7200.16 500GB SATA 16M drives.

I want to set it up in a RAID1 mirror array, so one 500GB mirrors the other.

I started with just one of the two hard drives, removing the jumper block that limits the speed from 3GB/s to 1.5GB/s operation, put the SATA data and power cables in there, (2 connections in all), slid it in a bay, and screwed it in place.

But the Windows XP Pro install CD said there were no hard drives detected.

What should I do?

Thank you
 
Can you see the drives in the BIOS?

You don't set the RAID array in the OS you have to config them before (usually to enter the setup for RAID press the F* button after the BIOS post screen when you boot up). Think it might be F10...

Also look in the BIOS before you set them up for extra options.
 
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Does that mean I should connect the second drive right now as well? Maybe the XP setup will recognize the drives after I set up the RAID1 array with both drives. I'll try that now.
 
Yeah get the drives connected, go into the BIOS and check your PC can see them. Then quit out the BIOS and enter the RAID config. Go though the setup for RAID1 (mirroring). Then install the OS as normal.
 
I connected the second drive, and I'm in the BIOS. Where do I go to check if the PC can see the hard drives? I'm new in dealing with the BIOS. I may also need help with how to enter the RAID config after this. Thank you
 
In the BIOS look in the Standard features to see if the drives are connected and running. After you have confirmed this quid out the BIOS and enter the RAID setup. After doing that put in your OS CD and install, job done.

If you still cant see the HDDs when installing the OS you might need to install SATA drivers from a floppy disc (lets hope this dont happen, usually only with older PCs you have to do that).
 
I exited out of BIOS that first time, and can't seem to get back in. Even tapping F3 (it says to hit F3 for BIOS) multiple times doesn't let me in again. Instead, it soon goes to 'Operating system not found.' But when I was in BIOS, I didn't see any indication of the hard drives being detected. Do I have to run some sort of Seagate disk or floppy? None came with the drives, but I'll look at the Seagate site right now.
Thanks
 
What motherboard do you have? In bios you have to enable the raid function if your board even supports it. Asus boards are usually Ctrl and the I key but first you have to enable raid in the bios to even allow the utility to even appear on boot. You have to connect both drives at the same time to configure raid. And most likely you will have to press F6 at the beginning of XP install to allow xp to see the drives in raid configuration.
 
Update: I contacted Visionman, the builder of my system, and found everything out. It's a good thing I did, because I needed drivers from sites I've never been to and whatnot. They also informed me that I needed to purchase a new PCI card if I wanted to take advantage of the 3GB/s speed, so I did that. $76 for double the hard drive speed should be a good deal. So I'll just set up my system when the new card arrives. I'll let you know if I run into any problems then, but hopefully the manual that comes with it should be sufficient.
Thank you:)
 
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