i want to post this on the off chance i've got anyone else here who may have encountered this problem. i was helping my brother with his computer. he has three hard drives. one is a 300 G the others are 100 (basically). Two are set as master and one is set as slave. If I'm thinking correctly only one can be set as master. (can anyone confirm that?) I have windows XP (legit copy) installed on the 300 gb and linux installed on the 100 gb. He has a raid setup. I can't quite remember exactly what they say but there is a 1 (300gb) and 2 (100) gb. I can only imagine these are the HDs. I switch the boot process by doing (ctrl+f) so it goes from one to the other but I always get a "grub error 2". okay so I look this up and people say that it might be this or that and you can edit it "here". well I know how to do that the only problem is I can't access the file to edit it. the other errors that pop up are 21 and 22. I know the 22 is an "unsuspecting" (for lack of a better term) NTFS filesystem after a EXT 3. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling all these from scratch.. windows first then linux, linux first then windows.. the only thing that is comforting me right now is that when the RAID screen comes up they say "functional". I got that after tinkering with the IDE cables and jumpers.. anyone have any idea? I'm going to go searching for more answers... BTW, I know for a fact I can install windows and linux and have them dual boot to perfection. I'm quad booting right now... I've never worked with a RAID before and it's really frusterating
Just saying it's a RAID set-up is an incomplete description (see link): RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia From a basic computer setup persepctive, it depends on which controllers the drives are hooked up to. Most computers have 2 primary IDE controllers that can support 2 drives. So, since he has 3 drives, 2 would be masters (one for each controller) and one would have to be a slave to one of the masters. If you're using some version of SCSI adapters for the RAID then it's an entirely different set up.
I will have to check the IDE cables the next time I am over. It will be about a week. I don't believe there are any SCSI adapters but I will double check. Also, is there a way I can find out what kind of RAID setup it is or would that link tell me that? Thanks tokyo!
May I ask why you are running a RAID setup? Are you worried about a disk failing and losing information? Are you using RAID 0, 1, 2......etc.
I only mess with RAID on servers and I don't do a whole lot about it except for RAID-5 is a great thing for failed drives. I do know that on my servers, it shows up during the system POST so you should see it flash by on the screen. RAID-0 gives you faster performance, but you risk losing everything if one of the drives fails or you want to replace it. If you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't really be messing with RAID setups unless you don't mind spending a lot of time with your computer working out bugs and such and knowing the hardware inside and out. I believe that's what he was trying to figure out in the previous post.
It's not my computer. I tried turning the RAID off but then it said "please select the proper boot device and reboot" or something to that effect. I went back in the BIOS and turned it on. I have no idea why the computer is set up that way. If I could take that away and have it be able to dual boot properly my issues would be solved. If I could get it to dual boot with the RAID on my issues would be solved as well. I don't know why it's on there just that it is.
Well, yes. With RAID turned on, the system is striping data across all the disks based on how the RAID array is set up. When you turn RAID off, it needs to know which disk to boot from. If your installation is already across multiple disks, then most likley you're going to have to reinstall the operating systems. You need to read the docs on your particular RAID set up (i.e. software/hardware RAID, etc).
Assume you are getting the grub error when trying to boot Linux. This may (or not) help: GRUB Error 2 on booting 1st time - Ubuntu Forums
that could work! thanks tokyo! I had seen that link before (the ubuntuforums one) but hadn't checked the whole thread because when I saw them start to get into editing the grub menu (which I know how to do and can't gain access to; I alluded to that in the first post) i figured the thread was similar all the way through. I'll print this and bring it with me next time I go up
