Dual-booting a RAID system?

[RICHINMINN]

I'm building a new system for a coworker, using:
Athlon 64 3000+
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum motherboard w/ nVidia nForce4 chipset and on-board SATA RAID
1 GB PC3200 DDR RAM
2 120-GB Seagate SATA drives in RAID 1 (mirrored) configuration
ATI X300 PCIE video card
other bits and pieces (modem, card reader, etc.)
64-bit Windows XP Professional

He also needs to have Windows 2000 Pro installed on the system. But I'm having problems getting the two operating systems working with the RAID setup. I can install both OSes in a dual-boot non-RAID configuration (2 partitions), but when I try to install both of them in a 2-partition RAID configuration, I can't get the Win2K to recognize the RAID. I've got the latest RAID drivers from MSI, as well as from nVidia. I need to use 32-bit drivers with Win2K, and 64-bit drivers with WinXP Pro X64.

Has anyone had any experience in a setup like this?

Any ideas?

Rich (in Minn.)

 

[rvnguy]

RICHINMINN,

You did not specify if you can install either/each OS on the RAID Array singly. I would attempt this first. Setup one OS on the ARRAY and then "zero" out the drive and install the other OS. Point being if you cannot run each, singly, on the array you will not find success in attempting to dual boot them. I have not used separate partitions for this type of install(do not see a specific reason that it will not work) but have followed the MS convention for "Dual Booting". While this does/is not specific to RAID it is a step procedure for setting up a dual boot system. The order for installation is important as you will see for the MBR entries.

How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306559

Just make sure that you have the necessary drivers for each system to utilize the RAID Array. Not knowing the exact files required/supplied by MSI, if these are not the same files for implementing the ARRAY there might be a conflict in using the Array. The NForce 4 is a combo Hardware/Software driven Array vs a full hardware implementation. As such each OS must use the identical access scheme for the array to be useable/seen by both. Thinking back, this should be successful as the Array is setup using the "NVidia RAID BIOS" prior to the OS loading. You need to load the driver ("F6" for XP) to allow the OS to see the Array during the OS install.

Please post back with what you find/determine as this can/will be of interest to others. The NForce4 chipset is used by many mobo mfg's.

Hope this assist you

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all