GA-880GA-UD3H RAID Options

[absic]

To be honest,

I gave up on RAID and just keep a back-up image of my main HDD in case of failures. Windows 7 Back-up is actually pretty good at this and I have used it without a problem.

[KEP]

it's just asking for trouble...

Thanks again, little voice...   

[KEP]

That's why I just want a simple mirror..

My servers all have RAID 5..  but on my workstation.. I just want the mirror incase of Drive failure..

and the ability to move to another machine.. 

Sure I could get more speed going another route.. but I'll survive for now..

Maybe if I get a Solid State I'll do things differently..

Yeah, I hear ya.  I am thinking that I'll probably add an SSD as boot drive when they get a little more reasonable in price.  Although, I have also been eyeing those Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drives for that, as well.  But for data, it's just darn hard to beat the comfort of a mirror.

[KEP]

To be honest,

I gave up on RAID and just keep a back-up image of my main HDD in case of failures. Windows 7 Back-up is actually pretty good at this and I have used it without a problem.

I'm still using Robocopy, but I probably ought to take a closer look at what they've done with that.  I never did get along with the XP/2k/NT/9x versions all that well.

I think the part of me that's arguing against relying solely on backups (aside from the part of me that just doesn't do it as religiously as called for!), is that it seems the user reviews on today's bigger hard drives are showing a far higher failure rate than they used to.  I don't know if that's just my imagination, or if folks are writing more (negative) reviews now than they did before, or if I'm just paying more attention lately, or __________?

[Dark Mantis]

I think that recently you might have a point. The quality of manufacture doesn't seem to be as good. I suppose as the price has been driven down something has had to give.

[collidingstar]

I think that recently you might have a point. The quality of manufacture doesn't seem to be as good. I suppose as the price has been driven down something has had to give.

There has always been manufacturers that made quality..
and ones that made sub par..

Sometimes it was across the board..
Sometimes is was specific models.

I still will not buy a western digital to this day because of the junk they made in the early and mid 90's which never lasted..

Like anything else it's always good to read reviews... and never buy anything as soon as it comes out..

[KEP]

It's a roller-coaster.  I used to be that way with WD, but now they seem to be on a comeback and the company that bought them (Seagate) is on the downward trend.  It's puzzling.  So I'm buying Samsung, because the benchmarks scream.  Heh, who knows?  With RAID1, it's hopefully only an inconvenience, huh? 

[Dark Mantis]

Yes it does seem to go in cycles or trends doesn't it. For a while it will be one manufacturer leading the pack then they will fall from favour and it will be a different one.

[KEP]

The latest BIOS for your board is actually F6 and you can safely update to this version as it should include the RAID ROM Update.

Well, that was far less painful than I might've been led to imagine.   

For folks searching on flashing their BIOS, one piece of information I hadn't found in other threads is that the QFlash utility will allow you to navigate the folder structure on a USB thumb drive.  Being superstitious, I had the necessary file in the root, but it could've been anywhere.  Also, when asked, I had to pick "Floppy" drive for some reason.  This machine doesn't even have one, but that's how QFlash recognized the USB device.

One thing I haven't seen yet is a way to confirm the BIOS rev from within the BIOS?  The only apparent indication is during that POST screen, which is fairly well hidden by the advertising logo and/or whizzes by so fast as to actually never really appear.  I have found that a hard reset, without the logo, allows me to hit Pause at just the right moment to see the revision.  Bit of a hassle, though.

Anyway, I'm at F6, and ready to tackle getting Windows on!  Thanks again...

[absic]

Hi there,

To see what revision your BIOS version is try pressing the F9 key when you are on the BIOS home screen. This will also show you what version the Back-up BIOS is.

It is a good idea if the two versions of BIOS are the same to get your main BIOS copied to the Back-up chip you need to press ALT+F12 whilst Booting the PC. If you are using a USB keyboard you might have trouble doing this and it is more successful if you use a PS2 keyboard for this procedure.

Funny that your USB stick is seen as a Floppy Drive, mine is always seen as an HDD. But you are right about being able to navigate through the folders on the USB stick to find the update file.

[Dark Mantis]

Funny that your USB stick is seen as a Floppy Drive, mine is always seen as an HDD.

I think absic that is because you have disabled your floppy drive in the BIOS so it has no option but to display it as a HDD. Of course also it can make a difference as to what you tell it to boot from in the BIOS boot preferences.

[KEP]

To see what revision your BIOS version is try pressing the F9 key when you are on the BIOS home screen. This will also show you what version the Back-up BIOS is.

Nice.  I hadn't noticed that in the manual.  And, it confirms my main BIOS is F6 while the backup is F4.

It is a good idea if the two versions of BIOS are the same to get your main BIOS copied to the Back-up chip you need to press ALT+F12 whilst Booting the PC. If you are using a USB keyboard you might have trouble doing this and it is more successful if you use a PS2 keyboard for this procedure.

I'd like to do this, but am not sure that's the ticket on this system?  I did a search for F12 in the manual, and there's absolutely no mention of this method.  Or, it seems, of any method to backup to the DualBIOS.  And, when I do press Alt-F12 following the post, it takes me to the boot menu just as it would if I hadn't had the Alt key pressed.  So it's definitely seeing the F12, but isn't seeming to pay any attention to the Alt.  Does that make any sense?

Thanks...

[Dark Mantis]

The two options are not printed in  the manual mainly because Gigabyte doesn't want people in general using them. The ALT + F12 is correct but it sometimes can take a couple of tries before getting it right. It's also possible that there's a problem with your keyboard.

[KEP]

The two options are not printed in  the manual mainly because Gigabyte doesn't want people in general using them. The ALT + F12 is correct but it sometimes can take a couple of tries before getting it right. It's also possible that there's a problem with your keyboard.

Damn!  I simply didn't take his admonition to try a PS/2 keyboard strongly enough, I guess.

Apologies, absic!  I pulled out an old keyboard, and sure enough, that got me right into that option.

Thanks again, guys!

[absic]

See, just because your old, it doesn't mean your useless. (That will make DM very happy because he is old..... very old!)

I bet your old PS2 Keyboard loved being given the chance to play and it's a useful thing to keep in mind when playing with BIOS settings.