Looking to setup a RAID 0 using Emachines Recovery Software

[MrSpartan1717]

I'm looking to setup a RAID 0 using E machines E recovery software. It has the feature in the BIO's. But how would i set it up just using the recovery software is it possible?

I have the original shipped hard drive along with a 500 GB SATA HDD they our currently in the E machines H5270 running windows vista home basic. I also have upgraded the power supply to 500 watt Antec Earthwatts 80 plus.

If i can not set it up with the recovery software can i use a regular Windows Vista Home basic DVD and just use the CD Key on the side of the case for activation. Does Microsoft allow this.

I have not tried to make an attempt yet with recovery software. Because i want a bit more info before I go threw the installation of windows again.

System Specs

Model: E machines H5270
S/N: GC586 700 01688
SN/D 82400387090

Motherboard: Elite group MCP61SM-GM
Chipset: nVidia 6100V
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 LE 1640 @ 2700MHZ
RAM: 2GB (1 GB sticks each) DDR2 800MHZ
Video: nVidia Geforce 6100 nforce 405
HDD 1: Hitachi 160GB (not to sure of the model)
HDD 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB 16MB Cache (ST3500830AS)
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 80Plus 500 Watt
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Home Edition 6.00.6002 Service Pack 2

BIO's: Phoenix Technologies LTD

(Version: 6.00PG Date: 01/31/08 Address 512KB Copyright: 2006 Phoenix Technologies LTD Motherboard ID 01/31/2008-MCP61SM-GM-6A61KE11C-00 OEM Signature: MCP61SM-GM V 1.04
01/31/2008 DMI Version 2.4)

[stroyal]

Do you mean BIOS (Basic Input Output System.

Any of the methods you mentioned should work, Changing to a RAID 0 is no different that replacing a hard drive. (see next post)
What is the original drive?
Matching drives work better. mismatched drives may not work.
If they are not the same size, you will loose the extra space on the larger drive.

Most if not all XP OEM discs will work with any OEM product key.
I think Vista is the same, but never tried Vista.

If you had 2 new drives , cloning software would copy the old drive to the new
RAID 0

[stroyal]

After more thought, anything but cloning with 2 new drives, will wipe the recovery program, so if you want it you would need software from E-machine, and a recovery partition on the RAID 0.

Personally, I like a clean install, to avoid all the crapware.

If the recovery software is on a CD or DVD then it should work on the RAID, because the BIOS won't change.

[MrSpartan1717]

Not To sure about the Hard drive Stroyal I know it is an Hitachi and has a 8MB Cache and is SATA 2. I open the PC here later on and get some more info for you and the rest of the TechIMO users

Pretty much what I'm asking is that can I setup a Raid 0 using E machines recovery software? Does it go threw the install of Windows like a normal procedure? Or do they have some kind of proprietary installer that does it for you. I have never used recovery software before always have had a Windows Cd's and Keys. How would I go about loading the RAID driver?

Because I know with my ASUS computer. I had to get the driver off a working PC using the ASUS CD that they shipped. And then put on a floppy. Then during the installation of Windows I had load the driver to let Windows know its a RAID configuration.

Has for Cloning is there any free software out there that does so? I do not have the money right now for payed software.

And has for an OEM DVD I would have to get a copy of it since all I have is the recovery software that I had burned to CD-R's and the recovery partition that they give you. I do not mind losing all the junk ware they give since I mostly use open source and free ware and the software that I do pay for I have on CD's and DVD's

[stroyal]

The only RAID 0 I have is on an XP computer, and basically after you setup/build the RAID with the BIOS, you start the installation.
At the beginning of the installation, windows asks if you have third party drivers Press F8(I think it is F8). It's quick. so be ready for it.

Later in the installation it will ask for the floppy.

Recovery programs, are not installs, they are a type of clone.
This is free for basic cloning.
Miray Software - HDClone - Hard disk copy, hard disk backup, hard disk rescue!
The free ones are not full versions, for instance you can't clone to a smaller drive.
If one of the drives involved, is western digital, they have a free version of Acronis for download.
In fact all hard drive manufacturers have free cloning software on their sight.

Can you borrow a OEM CD?

I'm nor familiar with E-machines, so I don't know how your recovery program works.

If it can run from the CD, build the RAID, then partition it with the same size recovery partition, then run it.
Just speculating though.

If you are going to do a clean install with a OEM disk, make sure you can get all the drivers, from E machine, not all the drives will be on the windows disc. You might luck out, but i doubt chip set, and sound will be on it.

Before you go through all this, you do know, that all the RAID0 will do is speed boot up a little, and make programs load a little quicker.
It will have no effect on running programs unless you don't have enough RAM.
RAID is in no way a substitute for RAM.

On the other side, it will double you chances of hard drive failure, because if one fails, it is the same as if both fail. complete data loss.
I run a dedicated backup to a third drive on mine, to eliminate the chance.

I run a RAID0, but would not waste money on it again, the benefits are so small.
I don't think I have ever herd any one here recommend it.

[Steve R Jones]

How certain are you that the machine will do Raid 0??

If you mix a 160 and a 500 gig hard drive you'll end og with 320 gigs of space and have NO access to the other 340 gigs.

Do you have a floppy with the raid drivers AND a floopy drive?

[MrSpartan1717]

stroyal

Yes I understand that you have to load the third party driver by pressing one of the function keys and load the floppy to get the driver off of it.

As for the cloning software I will look into it later on today. See what the manufacturers offer.

As for an OEM DVD I have a friend who is going to lend me his. Would I be able to burn a copy for my self as long as I have my own activation key or is this against copyright law and EULA.

Ya If I obtain OEM DVD I'm not going to bother with recovery partition. Just get rid of it with all the software that they give you too. The only reason why I still have it is because that is the only way I can get Windows back if anything were to fail with operating system.

As for there Recovery software I'm not to sure either. Have not tried out yet either I'm going to try it out later on. I let you know some more info on it if you would like.

As for drivers I have them on a spare CD just in case.

Also I do know there will not be a vast difference using the RAID 0. I just want it for the fact I can have one big drive instead of two different size drives. I understand the loss behind a RAID 0. I have used it in the past with other machines. I have a spare USB hard drive that I use to back up important data just in case the RAID 0 fails on me.

The other reason I'm doing it is because I was given a spare SATA drive that has no use right now so I thought why not put it in the E machines for a RAID setup. I'm not spending money at all towards this PC whats the point.

Also you do not find a difference in it. I did on some of my other PC's especially when I play PC games. Maybe its just me thinking that but I swear I can tell the difference.

Anyways thanks for the info stroyal.

Steve R Jones

Because in the BIOS it has the ability the setup the RAID. Not only that the chip set supports it and E machines even has the driver to offer for download. So I'm pretty sure it supports RAID 0.

As for mixing the drives in a RAID 1. I know it will only be as big as your smallest drive. But I know on my other PC that uses RAID 0. It combined the Size and Cache of all the drives. So my two 500GB drives with 32MB Cache became 9 hundred and something GB with a 64MB Cache. I know Windows took some space but no where near 340 GB. So I do no understand what your saying about the 340 GB going missing. I could see that in a RAID 1. But not in a RAID 0.

Could you explain this to me better for I'm not to sure what you our getting at by the 340 GB going missing.

As for a floppy and drive. Yes I actually have a few. I keep them around just in case heck I even still have a 5 and quarter drives with floppy still. But that is a whole another topic.

Anyways thanks for the Advice again and hope it works. I will keep you all posted here on how it is going.

MrSpartan1717

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Ok, haven't read all of that last post (too long for me to be @r$£d to read on the BlackBerry, and I read all of the other posts anyway)... Yes, as long as the MoBo will support RAID then you can do an install to the array that you would configure (in the BIOS first), although how well that would work with an OEM recovery disk... With a normal/clean install, you would need to press [F6 to install third party RAID drivers as it starts to go into the setup process - with a recovery disk you might find that it is just trying to blow an image (most likely a SysPrep'd one at that) that would then ask you to let it walk you through the bog-standard basic setup stage... Personally, and this is something I have implemented where I've been working (as a temp) for the last six months, is to use MS's WinPE disk and then use ImageX to take an exact image of your existing install, put it on a separate disk, and then you can go back into the BIOS and set up the RAID array you're after, before going back into the WinPE and blowing the ImageX (WIM) file back onto your new drive... There are a few commands that you would need to enter, partly as you would need to use DISKPART (also on the WinPE disk) to wipe the drive, create a new partition, assign a letter and then format it...

[stroyal]

I don't think making copies is legal, even under those circumstances, but maybe someone else knows.

If you just want to combined 2 drives as one you may want to look into Dynamic Disc, another kind of formatting, as opposed to NT file system.
I can't advise you on it though, I've only dabbled with it, and it may be more complicated than I think.
I don't know if vista home premium can run it, with XP, only Pro can run it.

As for speed in games, once you load your game,assuming you have enough RAM, the hard drive is rarely to never accessed during the game.

You would probably be able to tell the difference if you don't have enough memory.

If you didn't have enough memory on your old compute, the game will have to ofter access the swap files on the hard drive. A RAID0 will do this quicker, but not even close to the speed of memory. The fastest hard drive, is dead slow, compared to the slowest memory.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

An OEM install is specific to that MoBo/CPU combo, although AFAIK it can be used on a replacement HDD (in some cases at least - one of my old copper friend had a Dell that had a failed/failing HDD and they sent him out a new HDD to put in it, using the same key) but cannot be transferred...

However, if you have a recovery disk from one OEM, and you know someone else with the same brand computer that is having issues, then AFAIK you can lend them your OEM recovery disk to sort their machine out....but they would need to use the key that is on the sticker on their computer.