Want to know how to implement RAID-1 Mirrored

Computer 2006 XP HP a1630n, 2GB Ram, 250GB SATA HD.
PNY geForce GT 7300 Video CARD. DVD-D cable to 19 inch HPw19b LCD Monitor.
Vista Upgrade in, now using Vista. IP is cable (road runner).
No known problems with computer ... works great.

Want to put in RAID-1 (mirrored) myself ..... don't know how yet.

Step1. Find out if MB supports Raid-1.

first hiccup: MB is HP propietary, HP # is NodusM3-GL8E but Manufaturer & # is Asustek A8M2N-LA.
2nd hiccup: The Hp Tech support live chat says it will support RAID but HP doesn't support it and It is "not enabled". That all they will say about. They said go to my local computer store.
3rd hiccup: AsusTek has a great Website but doesn't list A8M2N-LA because it is HP propietary. So I can't get their official specs & info for my MB.

Visual inspection shows MB has 4 SATA output Connectors, one is for The HD, and 3 spares so I would use the next spare for the 2nd HD for RAID-1.

Step 2. Buy 2nd HD. No problem here, I can get identical unit from Western Digital except, They have changed one spec value....The 8Mbyte cache has been increased to 16 Mbytes. I don't that is a problem with RAID (according to WD tech support).

Step3. Install 2nd drive. No problem here.

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Assuming My MB will support Raid-1, is there someone out there that can email me the rest of the Steps? I would appreciate it a lot.

Questions: How do you enable Raid-1? .... A setting in the BIOS? Which "Fnn" key is used to flash the BIOS?
Do I need to Download some RAID-1 Software to make it all work?

I feel Raid-1 would be better than an External Hardrive for backup?
There is a spare rack on the tower so why not use it for backup?

Thanks,
humfer

Hi humfer, welcome to Virtual Dr :)

I think the first thing to do is to go into the BIOS Setup and see if there are any RAID options in there. If there are, and it's simply a matter that HP tech support won't support RAID, then this should be a simple enough thing to do :)

hi
I looked at a few hits about this mobo, and think your manual will confirm that this one uses Nforce for 430/410 chipsets.

if your BIOS can be set to use RAID mode and you can set up the array, then you will (probably*) need a floppy to make the txtmode setup see the RAID array you created (I have no idea how you access the BIOS/Raid-setup-tool. CTRL+N is just a guess. The key sequence you need should show if you disable the HP OEM screens that could be hiding it. (which you can normally do in BIOS.).

the driver should be this one.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_...a32_15.00.html

(probably*) It would not surprise me that Vista does not need floppy to see array during txtmode. I have read the RAID floppy disk install PDF and did not see mention on how to do it in Vista.
I hope this is the case, for you might very well have no floppy drive.

If you use XP, then you WILL need this driver, and you could integrate it into your windows source to avoid needing a floppy drive.

About those differences in Cache.
I prefer to use identical models. Timing issues could corrupt data writes.
I think Vista is a lot more forgiving in this, (cache bursts would differ in size, but Vista ought to have better memory management?)
Still, I do not advise to use drives that have different speeds.
It would cost money, but I would get a twin for that 16Mb cached drive, and then test the array without your old drive hooked up (to protect its data, etc).
The older drive would be perfect for data storage, after you transferred settings, data, etc.
One good reason for this advice is that when you set up an array while using the older along with the newer, all of the data on that older drive will be LOST.

Few people can guide you to recovery of the data once that happened, for such procedures are tuff while eyeballing the machine, and I would not know how to help you either..

No references found in the HP BIOS setup utility for any RAID support, period.

For a few bucks you can buy an add-in RAID controller such as the Promise FastTrak TX2300.