Installing winXPproSP2 ?

I'm not familiar with winXPproSP2 and I installed it for the very first time on my new computer.

This is what I have and got :

My motherboard is :
MSI (939/PCI-E) K8N SLI Platinum nForce4UltraSLI 4DCDDR4 Sata 7.1ch FW GLan
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=641

My two harddisks are
WD Raptor WD740GD HDD 74gb 10000rpm SATA 8mb Cache 4.5ms
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=65&Language=en

Along with CD "Windows XP Professional SP2", I also received a floppy disk labeled :

"G72-MNPR001
nVidia nForce4 SATA
RAID and PATA RAID
merge Driver
For WinXP"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is how I installed winXPproSP2 :

Right after inserting the CD "winXPproSP2" for installing I pressed the key F6
to install what's on the floppy disk.

After awhile, I have to press the key "S" and insert the floppy disk, which
offers me 4 options :

NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (for PATA-RAID required 1)
NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER (for PATA-RAID required 2)
NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (for SATA-RAID required 1)
NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER (for SATA-RAID required 2)

Not being 100% sure, I did the next steps :
I choosed and pressed Enter
NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (for SATA-RAID required 1)
Than I pressed the key "S" again and choosed
NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER (for SATA-RAID required 2)
Than I continued with installing winXPproSP2

Everything seems to be normal, but did I do this RIGHT ?
Is it absolutely necessary to install this floppy disk ?

 

Hi Erik,

You got your new system, congratulations.

I haven't been keeping up on the hardware side of computing since I built my system ~4 years ago, but I'll give it a shot.

WinXP has drivers/controllers built into the OS for hard-drives. I believe what you installed from the floppy are RAID drivers. If you're going to use your H-D in a RAID array then you need these drivers. If you want to use the H_D as individual drives, then there's no need to install the drivers for RAID, but I could be wrong, so wait for the hardware experts.

I'm surprised all your drivers (audio/network) didn't come on a CD or perhaps they did and the floppy has updated drivers for RAID.

Regards

 

Jaws,

If I installed win2000pro on my old computer, I had to install a floppy disk, because I had a SCSI-system.
If I didn't install that floppy disk, the installation of win2000pro itself even blocked and I had to start all over again.

So I thought that this would be the same with winXPproSP2 and I have indeed SATA-harddisks.

On the other hand, my floppy drive didn't work in the beginning.
So I did install winXPproSP2 without this floppy disk, because my floppy drive couldn't read it.
But the installation of winXPproSP2 didn't block like on my SCSI-system,
So I thought maybe I don't really need that floppy disk.
Meanwhile the floppy drive has been fixed by the technician.

The partitioning on both harddisk (4 partitions on both) was easier than I thought and also worked with or without installing this floppy disk.

Frankly I don't understand the RAID issue.
Is there a difference between individual harddisks and harddisks in RAID ?

EDIT :

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html

Maybe I don't need this floppy disk after all.

 

Erik,

SCSI drives are a different animal altogether and windows doesn't natively support them. So yes, you would first have to install drivers for SCSI.

Though I've never worked with SATA drives, I do believe they are supported in windows, similar to PATA/IDE drives. That would explain why you didn't need RAID drivers from the floppy.

From my understanding a RAID array has multiple reads and writes across both drives for extra security and faster performance. On a home PC, I would question the advantage you would gain with RAID. There are also different ways to setup RAID (0 - 1 - 2) that varies with desired usage (security of data - performance).

Yes there is and not using RAID would be the way to go with your desire to use (shadowuser?). But don't hold my feet to the fire to absolutely back up this part of what I said. If nobody else gets back to you on this subject, there are a lot of resources out there for you to make your own determination.

Regards

 

OK Jaws and thanks.
I will read more about this subject and of course comments of other members are very welcome.

 

Hello,
You don't need the floppy, unless you want to install RAID.
RAID is good for gamers or heavy-duty work, but for normal users, there's no significant benefit running RAID. You will wear the two HDD heads rather than one.
I have a similar pc to yours, AN8 mobo and 2 SATA 2 HDD.
I'm a gamer and I did not install RAID. Although I can / could do that AFTER install, using mobo drivers.
If you want to utilize your HDDs to max. in normal configuration - you could use page file on the non-system HDD, create a number of partitions (separate OS from data etc.). Of course, RAM is the best benefactor you can have.
If you could more questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Mrk

 

Thanks alot and your answer is good enough.

I was comparing the installation of winXP with win2000pro, where the floppy disk was mandatory on my old SCSI-system.
So I thought that the RAID floppy disk was also mandatory for SATA harddisks, while I was installing winXP.

Obvious NOT and I don't need RAID, because I will never be a gamer and I don't have any heavy-duty work either, not even graphics.
So installing winXP will be easier for me than win2000pro on a SCSI-system, because I don't need to press that F6-key anymore to install a floppy disk.

My first time partitioning on my old computer was a flop, but on my new computer it was alot easier.
Two things were strange :
1. the real size of each partition is a bit different from the size, I instructed.
2. after the last partition, I had 8 MB left unpartitioned on both harddisks.
Even when I added these 8 MB to the size of the last partition, nothing changed and the 8 MB was still there.
I assume that these 2 points are normal for partitioning.

I have now 2 x 1024 MB = 2048 MB or 2GB RAM and I was planning to move the pagefile to the first partition of my second harddisk (non-system). The rest will be used for something else.
So my first harddisk will be used for winXPpro32 and programs only.
I also ordered an external harddisk of 160GB for image backup of both internal harddisks, which is safer.
So I will have more than enough space for my experiments LOL.

I still have a few problems :
1. Internet connection doesn't work. I think my motherboard is responsible for this and might not be compatible
with the hardware recommendations of my ISP.
2. My VERY old printer gave up on me, so I ordered a new all-in-one printer
3. My VERY old SCSI-scanner can't be connected, but will be replaced with my new printer.
All these problems will be solved by the technician.
So I have to wait until that is fixed.

 

That's always going to be the case. For example: 20,000 MB = 19.53125 GB
Here's a neat conversion calculator: http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/

Also normal, windows needs a small amount of space when creating partitions.

 

1. What I mean is when I give the size 10240 MB, winXP changes it into 10238MB or something else.
WinXP changed all these numbers, but I can live with that
Nevertheless thanks for the calculator. I know how the conversion works but I'm too lazy to do it myself.

2. That was something I didn't know yet. Stealing 8MB from 74GB, well I can live with that too.

 

Hello,
Those 8Mb are crucial!
Don't play with those 8Mb. That's for MBR.
If you ruin those 8Mb, you'll need to format and install all over...
Leave the system partition as it IS.
Mrk

 

OK. I will.

I still have one question about my original post.
As you can read I installed winXPproSP2 together with the RAID floppy disk.
Did I do it right or wrong according you ?

 

Hello,
Well, there's no right or wrong.
The thing is - HDD has a life - let's say 100,000,000,000 cycles. Every time the lamp flashes, your HDD does work, spinning, spinning, spinning. System disk spins pretty much constantly. Secondary HDD does not. So, theoretically, it will last longer.
If you use RAID, you utilize both HDD to complete a process. This means both your HDDs work constantly. If one gets messed up, you might have troubles that are beyond normal screwup.
If you use single HDD, the other is static. If you put pagefile on it, you reduce the burden on the system HDD, but increase the burden on the secondary. However, if you have lots of RAM, which in your case you do, you will not need to use virtual memory too much (beyond the limits of software that is). Therefore, your system disk will benefit from speed increase and lesser defragmentation, while the secondary disk will loose cycles for the benefit of the system - with overall benefit to all. The tradeoff should be positive.
For instance, my 'strong' PC has uptime of weeks, with pagefile barely at 200-250Mb, and that's with all the gaming and stuff.
All this is a bit of bullshiat, I must admit. I have HDD that are 7 years old and work perfectly. I don't know of an instance of HDD going dead.
One last thing, about partitioning - partition on a same disk help reduce clutter, but they do not improve performance. Only physical separation - different disks - does that. So, partitions for good order, and HDDs for real utilization. Use that other disk smartly!

But I did not answer your question!

So here it is. Mistake, no. Will you benefit from RAID? No. You might as well keep things simple...

One more thing, don't make too small partitions.

Mrk

 

Mrkvonic,

Thanks for all the usefull info. I just asked in case I would install RAID.
But I will follow your advice and keep it simple. I like simplicity