2 Questions about SATA & Basic v Dynamic Disc

[mac1]

hi
I am just about to format and reinstall everything because i have changed things around in my computer so i need some help with 2 things i am not sure about.

I now have 3 H/D's partitioned into 2 drives, as below. these H/D's are all Online/BASIC/ NTFS.

Q:1 Would i be better to convert them to Dynamic Disc's or not. also if so would i lose all my data on my store drives. what are the benefits if any.

My H/D Setup.

Disc-0 Master = HD-1 = 120Gb Samsung SP120 3N, partition-1 = (CWinXP Pro, partition-2 = (DDrive-1 Store-1

Disc-1 Slave = HD-2 = 120Gb WD1200BB-00DWA0, partition-1 = (EDrive-2 Store-1, partition-2 = (FDrive-2 Store-2

Disc-2 Slave = HD-3 = 200Gb MAXTOR-6B200P0, partition-1 = (GDrive-3 Store-1, partition-2 = (HDrive-3 Store-2

Drive= (I= CD-Rom = NEC-DVD-RW-DL

Next part
When my computer boots there is a message on the screen which says, "see below". When i pres TAB and go into the User Window nothing seems to happen and WinXP just boots as normal.
My motherboard is Jetway V600DAP with SATA/RAID ect,

message on boot screen
Scan Devices
Press <TAB> Key into User Window.
Serial-CH0 Master: No Device
Serial-CH1 Master: No Device

Q-2 I am not sure whats this for, am i missing something or is my motherboard just looking for SCSI H/Drives. There is a VIA RAID tool loaded when i install my motherboard drivers, but when i use it it says, (No stand-alone disk and No usable disk array attached, please check if any disk array is broken.)

My drives are SATA Serial ATA Drives, if i am correct? hope so.

hope someone can help.

 

[ming]

For Basic/Dynamic disk, check this thread: http://forum.osnn.net/showthread.php?t=55683

I've asked the same question before and you might find some useful information already answered by the forum members here.

 

[Zedric]

Dynamic is only useful if you are using software RAID. So if you're not, use Basic.

 

[American Zombie]

message on boot screen
Scan Devices
Press <TAB> Key into User Window.
Serial-CH0 Master: No Device
Serial-CH1 Master: No Device

My drives are SATA Serial ATA Drives, if i am correct? hope so.

That is the ViaRaid bios screen that you push TAB to enter and needs to be enabled even for single SATA drives attached to the controller. I hate to tell you this but if you are seeing no device on those two channels then your drives are not SATA.

 

[Steevo]

Dunno if it is the same but on some PC's with SATA I have noticed it takes longer fopr th drives to initilise.