I'm at my wits end here. I wanted to add a 320 GB HDD to my 40GB and 160GB setup but apparently I need RAID to do it. So I was going to setup an array, however, I need a floppy drive to install the drivers. Wouldn't you know it I'm in Beaufort, SC and not one store carries internal floppy drives, so I got an external. Shows up as a 3.5" floppy. But when I go to install from the floppy when the windows disk prompts me to it says I have no floppy drives installed. Could this be because it is USB? Or could this be my fault? I put the correct files on the floppy, I enabled the correct drives to setup RAID in my BIOS, I got my Windows disk but it doesn't recognize my floppy and that's where the trouble starts. I deploy in a week or two so ordering online is out of the question. Any workarounds or some detailed instructions for setting up an IDE RAID Array would be much appreciated. I anxiously await a response. Regards. cpu P.S. Fatal1ty AN8 SLI Geforce 7800gt 1GB PC3200 RAM 40GBHDD Primary Slave 160GBHDD Secondary Master 320GBHDD Secondary Slave (Not recognized) 650W PSU AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Abit AV8 uGuru 3rd EYE AMD Athlon64 32002.5Ghz Gigaram 2x512 PC3200 XFX Geforce6800unlocked 160GB WD HDD 40GB WD HDD 550W PSU Water cooled Custom kit

i may be wrong but i dont think you need a raid setup, check the jumpers on the 3rd hdd.

You don't need to use raid. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

why would u need a floppyt in the first place? create a bootable cd rom and put those raid drivers on it as well ... or make a usb stick bootable, copy the raid drivers to the stick and set your bios to boot from usb Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

not all mb can boot usb you can't get xp install to look at a cd when its asking for drivers since it only looks at a floppy. CPU its not clear what your thinking here is concerning raid. You really can't use those drives for hardware raid. IDE raid usually only does levels 0, 1 and 5. Drives would be the same size not differing like your setup. If your OS is installed on the 40gig you could create a software volume set out of the 160 and 320 giving you a single disk size of 500 gig. This is OK as long as you backup regularly. What is it you are trying to accomplish? Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

You can slipstream in new drivers or make a barts/ubcd4win that includes drivers then setup xp. The Raid array must be made or setup first before you start to install software. It will in many cases destroy your existing data unless you read the documentation that came with the raid card. You system is new enough to support almost anything. I'd consider either finding out why the disk isn't seen by the bios when used as an IDE drive slave (jumpers? see mfg's site?) Or setup the raid. All my systems use a raid of some sort.