Raid Array HDD (SP2)

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Hello Guru’s,
I need help, I tried a clean install of windows xp media center 2005 sp2, just because I thought my machine was a little gummed up. I will try to explain what I went thru but I am not an expert by any means and I should have left things alone.
Dell Dimension E510, (3.2GHZ). 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 533MHZ, Datasafe 160GB hard drive, with a hidden 40GB back up hard drive, Intel Pentium D Presler, 940, 3.2G, 2x2M,C1Processer.
On start up bios it says array, Raid Mirror ?? I don’t know what this means, the machine came with Norton Ghost installed and I understand it is for back up, but it was a pain in the neck, and I don’t like Norton Products, so I uninstalled it and was just using the extra hard drive to store pictures and files that I wanted to save.
When I did the “clean install of xp” I ended up with three Windows system files 2, windowsd, and windows, on C drive, and windows, on D drive. I then proceded to move everything I wanted to save to D drive including the Windows system file, reinstalled Windows xp and updated all the drivers and installed all the programs I wanted.
It was working fine!
I then went into the back up D drive and erased the Windows system files and tried to restart and was told on black and white screen NTLDR was missing. Went on son’s computer and searched for NTLDR, and tried a few differantt fixes but none worked, even thru repair console and copying NTLDR and NTdetect.com. I couldn’t do anything on the machine. So in desperation I put the CD back in and installed Windows again on the back up D drive thinking I could repair by copy and paste the missing files on C drive. Everything is still there on the two drives but now the smaller hard drive is the start up drive. And none of my programs work anti-virus, firewall etc.
Bottom line my question is: 1. Can I use the two like I want to, the 160 GB for system and programs etc. 40 GB drive for moving files to keep as back-up
2. What is ARRAY and Raid mirror
3. Will the Bios let me do this, or should I just leave well enough alone.
4. Back-up everything I want to CD or DVD and completly format both hard drives and reinstall windows.
Thank You for any help you can do,

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First, can you explain what you mean by “Datasafe 160GB hard drive, with a hidden 40GB back up hard drive” ?? Do you actually have 2 seperate hard drives in the case, or do you have a 160GB drive with a hidden 40 GB partition ??

You seem to have installed several instances of Windows on this system and that might explain the Raid Mirror message you are getting on startup. We will need to know if you have two seperate drives or a single drive with 2 partitions before we can tell you if you can use the system the way you have described. Array and Raid Mirror are system configurations using two identical hard drives in the same box. Unless you ordered the system with Raid technology (a more expensive option) I would doubt that your system is configured this way. I would urge you to backup any and all personal data that you care about and any configuration data (Favorites, email address book, etc) to an external medium like CDs or DVDs or an external hard drive before going any further with this.

Sounds like you went after a bug with a hammer instead of a fly swatter.

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Thank You Doc for responing so fast, Data safe is what Dell called it on my order sheet I think it is a Seagate? But yes I have 2 separate hard drives. According to a system info sheet I printed awhile ago under disk drives it say ARRAY 149.0GB

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Helo again, boy am I in deep now!!
I just took my machine apart and there are two separate hard drives both Seagate Barracuda’s 160GB each ATA (SATA). I guess the hidden drive was a partition on one or both of the drives.
What can I do Now?

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Jim,

I had a suspicion that you did, in fact, have a RAID setup on your system, but have to admit I am surprised that you didn’t know it. I’m not personally familiar with RAID, but perhaps one of the other Loungers is and can help you get things back in order. While you are waiting you might want to do a little reading about RAID and how it works. From Wikpedia you’ll get the basics. If you want more details, take a look here. HTH

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Jim,
A RAID mirror array (known as RAID level 1) effectively mirrors all your information across 2 drives, so that if one goes wrong, you can replace it and the information will be mirrored form the working drive and you are back in business very quickly. When installing Windows on RAID systems, I have always had to press f6 at the prompt during the installation process to load the RAID controller drivers for the installation to work properly, but I am not familiar with your particular system. I would think that you have a recovery disk with your system or an option in the boot menu to restore from the data on the hidden partition?

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Hello All, sorry I did not get back sooner. With the help of Dell! believe it or not, I have reformatted and running. I would like to thank everyone for their help with problem! I have just gotten all my programs installed and it seems to be running fine, thanks again!!

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