Comments on: How to add Software RAID 5 Support for Windows XP

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:01:55 +0000

I had the problem with the raid5 array being offline every time I booted as well.. I replaced those three files with the one in the article, and everything was fine again.. I’m guessing it was a windows update that stomped one of the files, but it’s hard to say.. I wasn’t using those three files, I was using three that I had made up using an older toms hardware article.. They’re instructions didn’t quite match, but I just winged it, and it seemed to work… but I don’t know if I had the problem from the start, or if it was after an update.. In either case, replacing the three files again seemed to fix it.

By: sayg

sayg — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:30:54 +0000

Raysmith,
I don’t think your solution works. I have an OS on my RAID0 @ MB and reboot is no problem. I also have RAID5 @ WinXP RAID5 and everytime I reboot it’s offline. I have to manuall make it online. Same problem as strangedays, Tom_Shaftoe & Peter.

Jon,
I checked your website but it does not seem to refer to the offline after reboot problem.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:11:39 +0000

Hey, if anybody is interested I've just finished a tutorial on how to create a software RAID 5 array in Windows XP SP3. I've also shown how to make it network accessible on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. I've also provided links to download the modified files so there is no need to use a hex editor.

By: Raysmith

Raysmith — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:41:00 +0000

These problems occurs since WinXP doesn’t load RAID-drivers during boot-up. The solution is to have the OS on a separate disk, and use RAID for 2 other disks (which you keep your precious data on).

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:26:56 +0000

I have the same problem as strangedays & Tom_Shaftoe, is there any solution?

By: Tom_Shaftoe

Tom_Shaftoe — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:02:16 +0000

I have the same issue as strangedays, disk are offline when I restart, have to reactivate them every time. Any idea what this relates to?

By: strangedays

strangedays — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:31:26 +0000

Heres the deal I succesfully set this up…the only problem I have is everytime I reboot, I have to reintialize the disks. The array comes up no problem after that… Any ideas??

By: vistafix

vistafix — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:42:04 +0000

@matt
You shouldn’t.Your RAID1 should work without any problem

By: Lum

Lum — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:57:35 +0000

Has anyone tried this with SP3 yet? I can’t find the SERVERNT and WINNT strings in dmadmin.exe (though dmboot.sys is ok, and dmconfig.dll hasn’t changed)

Will I lose access to my existing RAID1 if I apply SP3?

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:39:54 +0000

This worked just fine for me on a clean copy of Win XP Pro sp2. I am using an 80 GB boot drive, and was able to setup 4 ~500 GB disks in a ~1.5TB RAID-5 configuration.

Thanks – pretty neat.

By: Rama

Rama — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:32:49 +0000

This doesn’t work for Windows XP. After replacing the files as above, there is no “create new volume” choice upon right clicking a dynamic disk under disk management.