Raid 0

B

benskorner

Geek Trainee
ok basically i screwed up my directx files while i was trying to update, and now windoze restarts after the loading screen. im prompted to enter safemode, but my keyboard wont work during this screen (usb fail) and when i use my usb-ps/2 adapter it doesnt work at all (probably broken).

In any case, I had another idea. If I bought a second hdd, which I could use anyway, and set it up in RAID 0 with my other hdd, I would be set right? I could take out the one with data on it, put in the other, install windoze, and then put in the second with the first as the primary boot drive (not sure how sata handles this). that way i would boot off of the new one with access to all of my crap on the original.

hopefully then I could fix my dx problem on the original, wipe the new one, and switch them in the boot order.

will this work?
 
if you like headaches, maybe. but tbh you'd be better of replacing your existing HDD with the new HDD, install OS & reconnect your existing HDD copy the data to the new HDD & leave it at that
 
ok, cool. i guess i just basically didnt want my second hdd messed up after reconnecting....

also, if i reinstall windows and activate i should be fine right? i mean i havent changed my hardware besides the added hdd...
 
actually, after giving you prob some thought you'd actually be better booting off your Win CD with only your original HDD connected and when prompted press <r> to enter the recovery console & do this

[ot]thank god for the web, cos i haven't used Win for years, i use Linux[/ot]

Edit:
Benskorner said:
if i reinstall windows and activate i should be fine right?
Click to expand...
yes, if you want but you only need to "repair" it
 
well the only issue there is that my keyboard is usb so it doesnt work then...and so i cant "press any key to boot from cd." i might just buy a ps/2 keyboard, use if for a day restoring windoze, and then return it...

oh and trust me, i much prefer linux to windoze. actually orginally i was trying to partition my drive and install ubuntu so i could boot in that and replace the directx dll's, but i didnt have a large enough space to install it :/

oh and im glad you told me that about repairing it, because at first i didnt think there was a difference between repairing and restoring...i thought they both wiped your drive and reinstalled...

once i did get that far though, where would i find the directx dlls to put them in my sys32 folder?
 
Benskorner said:
well the only issue there is that my keyboard is usb so it doesnt work then...and so i cant "press any key to boot from cd." i might just buy a ps/2 keyboard, use if for a day restoring windoze, and then return it...
Click to expand...
maybe you don't need another K/B, try enabling legacy support in the BIOS (possibly under integrated peripherals, i think)
Benskorner said:
oh and im glad you told me that about repairing it, because at first i didnt think there was a difference between repairing and restoring...i thought they both wiped your drive and reinstalled...
Click to expand...
restoring & repairing the OS is actually a fancy way of saying the same thing

your data only gets wiped if you format the partition, if you reinstalled without formating the partition all your data should be still there, installing the OS and formatting the partition is called a "clean" reinstall, a reinstall without formatting actually overwrites the existing files so you need to re-apply any hotfixes & updates you have previously added
=Benskorner said:
ok i think im just gonna buy a cheap 40gb hdd, does it matter if its 1.5 or 3.0 gb/s?
Click to expand...
well SATA2 is fully backward completable SATA1, so looking forward, SATA2 would be a logical choice, but, can your motherboard handle the far superior & faster SATA2

basically in your case i would just get the cheapest, unless SATA1 & SATA2 are the same price, then get a SATA2
 
Forget about RAID 0. That is not what you want.

I think Donkey has pretty much explained what you need to do. Buy a new hard drive, install it, set it as the primary boot device in the computer's BIOS, install Windows on it, then connect the old hard drive.

You can probably get your USB keyboard to work by enabling USB legacy support in the computer's BIOS.
 
It sounds like you've got an incorrect view of RAID 0. This method is striping, which runs both drives together as one giant drive. There's no redundancy, and if one drive fails or is otherwise moved from the array, you'll only have half the parts of your data.

RAID 1 would mirror the drives, and is probably what you were thinking of, but even so, it's making what you want to do a lot more complicated than need be.
 
Big B said:
RAID 1 would mirror the drives, and is probably what you were thinking of, but even so, it's making what you want to do a lot more complicated than need be.
Click to expand...
Exactly right. A RAID-1 isn't a bad investment to be sure -- I use one in my own workstation. But I don't think it's really the right solution either. Especially where Windows is concerned; typically the OS dies long before the HDD.
 
donkey42 said:
:beer: thanks Mega, i knew it was something like that :big_thankies:
Click to expand...

i tried that earlier and it didnt work. my uncle sent me a ps/2 keyboard, so thats taken care of. basically i went into the recovery console, and i didnt like the idea of fixboot of fixmbr. my roomate snagged a 160gb hdd so im just gonna "repair" windows on it, boot from it, and have the 2 hdds (yea i misunderstood about raid). basically i want to have the 2 drives hooked up simultaneously, boot from the 160 gig, copy all the essential files to it from my current hdd, and then fix my current hdd (reinstall if it comes down to it...)

do i just hook them both up and change the boot order if i want it set up like that? (a c drive and a d drive for example)
 
benskorner said:
i tried that earlier and it didnt work. my uncle sent me a ps/2 keyboard, so thats taken care of. basically i went into the recovery console, and i didnt like the idea of fixboot of fixmbr. my roomate snagged a 160gb hdd so im just gonna "repair" windows on it, boot from it, and have the 2 hdds (yea i misunderstood about raid). basically i want to have the 2 drives hooked up simultaneously, boot from the 160 gig, copy all the essential files to it from my current hdd, and then fix my current hdd (reinstall if it comes down to it...)
Click to expand...
you have an incorrect view of "repair" repair means to fix something that is broke, like an instalation of Windows, "restore" generally means to fix Windows with "System Restore"

possibly i described it wrong earlier, if so, i'm sorry

benskorner said:
do i just hook them both up and change the boot order if i want it set up like that?
Click to expand...
yep, but it's easier to change the primary boot device to C or D depending on your BIOS
 
ok windows is installed and running on the other drive, and ive hooked them both up. the only problem is i cant acces my documents and settings folder...is there any way i can put in my log in info and access it?
 
benskorner said:
ok windows is installed and running on the other drive, and ive hooked them both up. the only problem is i cant acces my documents and settings folder...is there any way i can put in my log in info and access it?
Click to expand...
:good: MS quote
1.Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.2.Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.3.In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you want to use.NOTE: Microsoft recommends that you create a full back up of your disk contents before you make any changes to your disks or volumes.
Click to expand...

sorry, donkey
 
sorry i meant i cant access the documents and settings folder on my original drive (the one that won't boot up)

d:\Documents and Settings\Ben Stevenson is not accessible

Access denied


never mind i got it...im transferring all my essential data now, then ill try and use the fix tools in the restore console or w/e its called
 
benskorner said:
sorry i meant i cant access the documents and settings folder on my original drive (the one that won't boot up)

d:\Documents and Settings\Ben Stevenson is not accessible

Access denied
Click to expand...

You need to edit the NTFS security properties to give your user account full control. In Advanced options choose to take ownership of all files and subfolders.
 
Mega said:
You need to edit the NTFS security properties to give your user account full control. In Advanced options choose to take ownership of all files and subfolders.
Click to expand...
thanks Mega :beer:

in my defense, i've only ever run any OS in non networked a single user environment, but, yeah, i was wrong & Mega was right as usual
 
ok so ive backed up all my necessary documents, and all the work in recovery console did nothing, so im gonna wipe my original hdd and reinstall. now ive tried to "restore" and "repair" and neither works. if i just reinstall it fresh and activate will that work?
 
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