Member Avatar for Jeff51

Help! I have been trying to set up a Raid on my system. I am using Nvidia software.
When I set the array up the system shows it as healthy but I am not given the option to
make the Raid bootable. In the boot status column it shows N/A. The Raid works however it will not boot from it even with a fresh OS install. Any thoughts?

I haveWindows XP pro. Asus *N32 SLI Deluxe Motherboard, Opteron 170 cpu. 1.5gbs of Ram. 2 500gb WD drives for the Raid.

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Practical follow-up for and others hitting a “array healthy but not booting” symptom: the problem usually comes down to when and how the mirror is created (firmware vs OS), whether the OS installer had the RAID driver available, and where the boot code landed. was right to point toward preparing the array—here is a concise, practical sequence and troubleshooting checklist that resolves this class of issue in most cases.

Recommended install sequence

  • In the motherboard firmware, enable SATA/RAID and create the RAID1 mirror from the RAID setup utility (the controller’s pre-OS/firmware utility) so the array exists before Windows runs.
  • During Windows XP setup load the chipset/RAID driver in text-mode (F6) or slipstream the driver into the install media; without that the installer will place boot files on an individual disk instead of the RAID device.
  • Partition and let the installer format the RAID volume so the boot sector and active partition are written to the array.
  • After install, confirm BIOS boot priority points to the RAID virtual disk.

If it still won’t boot

  • Verify the array appears as a single virtual disk in the RAID firmware (not only inside Windows). If the RAID utility in Windows shows the boot option greyed, re-create the array from the firmware utility and initialize it (back up first).
  • Ensure the OS partition is marked Active. Boot to the Recovery Console if necessary and run fixmbr and fixboot to repair the boot sector/MBR.
  • Update the motherboard BIOS and the RAID driver/utility to matching, current versions.
  • Confirm which SATA ports belong to the chipset RAID controller vs any secondary controller on the board—using the wrong ports can leave a “boot” array invisible at boot.

Cautions

  • Back up all data before recreating arrays or changing metadata. Decide up front whether to use firmware/fakeRAID or Windows dynamic-disk mirroring and stick to one approach—mixing them leads to boot failures.

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Member Avatar for hughv

What kind of RAID?
Does your manual say to FDISK and Format the array? Have you done so?
These RAID controllers tend to suck, by the way, and you will be better off without a RAID setup, IMHO.

Member Avatar for Jeff51

What kind of RAID?
Does your manual say to FDISK and Format the array? Have you done so?
These RAID controllers tend to suck, by the way, and you will be better off without a RAID setup, IMHO.

No it doesn't say anything about formating. I am trying to mirror for backup needs. It is a Nvidia controller. The bios sees the array and gives me an option for it to be a boot disk but
when you pull up the array in the utility the boot shows N/A with the boot set option grayed
out.

thanks

Member Avatar for hughv

I think you need to format it (You do with mine). See page 11 here, then 33.

Member Avatar for Jeff51

Thanks I will give it a try.

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