hello everyone,
I am trying to install Windows XP in a computer that has 4 SATA disks. I formatted C: and D: which were previously in RAID-0 forming three partitions. I un-RAID them to restore them to being old fashioned disks, C: for the system and D: for storing ghost images to regenerate the system in case of crashes or virus damage. That was the easy part.
The first problem came up when I booted the Windows installation CD. It gave me that "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer." and "press F3 to quit". Which I figured could be solved by going into the BIOS and turning the SATA mode from RAID to IDE.
The thing is, there are 2 other disks 500 GB each, which are set in RAID-0 to form a 1TB 'disk' named "VIDEO". It contains 700 GB worth of user files, professional foto archives, post-production video cuts, and a load of critical data. I can't touch any of that or even make the slightest move that would put it in danger. we can't back it up at this point (not enough DVD's and no other disk drives available).
So the first two drives are non-RAID, and the other two are RAID-0. if I go into the BIOS and change the SATA mode from RAID to IDE, just so I can install Windows XP in the C: drive, will that damage in any way the set-up of the disks in RAID?
Should I unplug the two RAID disks, change the SATA mode and install XP; then change the SATA mode to RAID again and put the 500 GB drives back in to play things safe? is this even possible?
hope you have any suggestions. I really appreciate your help, thanks a lot.
