Ok here goes. First off here is a link for my motherboard.
ww.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149&l3=591&l4=0&model=1930&modelmenu=2

Ok with that out of the way....Do i have a hardware raid or software raid. I think its software but not totally sure. Next how to i modify the bootable image that is already on the disk to be able to run a dmraid cmmand or any other RAID option listed here. wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/SataRaid

As Far as the rest of my configuration i have 4 250 gig SATA'S that are stripped and partitioned with 750 gigs for windows and 250 gigs dedicated for linux. So there is a few ways to reach me one of my emails is on my profile and the other is vampyre30@hotmail.com anyone who can help will be much appreciated. The problem im having is that the boot loader is only seeing 4 drives and not the existing partition. It sees hda-d and no partition so if i do it wrong there goes windows....grrr I really wanna learn the in's and outs of linux but need a little help gettin started... Hope i have provided enough info to provide someone with the necessary factors. Thanx for the help in advance

Hi, do you have any operative system installed? If you do, first save all your data and then perform the RAID on bios if your marvel SATA controller is a RAID controller. In this case you would have Hardware RAID.

Otherwise you should go for software raid, doing one for Linux and one for windows.

Regards,

Carlos.

Yes I do have windows xp 64 bit installed and my bios is already set to RAID its just getting that particular distro to recognize the existing raid controller and partition. What i cant figure is I burned the iso onto DVD and the given installer only sees hda-d it doesnt see my partition. So if i do have a true hardware RAID which i like i need to figure out how to modify the installer to run dmraid or something to get it to recognize my RAID. Will the installer let me input commands that are not prompted.

Well, if your linux is not recognizing your raid you have get the drivers for that raid controller. Then before booting in the grub menu, add this kernel option to the boot line: "linux dd". You have to store this drivers in a floppy disk or a usb stick and then before the linux installer begins it will ask you for the location of the driver disk.

I will check out that option. i was un-aware you could modify the installer.

Im having a hard time finding my drivers for the marvell raid controller in linux please refer to the link above for my motherboard. if anyone knowswhere i can find the linux drivers for my raid controler would be appreciated

I also had the same problem with a couple of motherboards some time ago. In the end I choosed the easy solution which was to use software raid ´cause I couldnt delay much more with my office tasks. Check out other raid controllers like adaptec or 3ware which are really well supported...

I am going to end up reconfiguring my RAID. And doing a complete reinstall of both xp 64 and debian amd 64 bit

Did you look in /dev/mapper

That's where they usually show up for RAID or LVM...

FYI, unless you purchased a motherboard that has an actual RAID controller with it's own processor and RAM ($500 at least), it's a pseudo-software RAID. All it really does is hook into the disk BIOS and map disk sectors alternately on one drive or the other. In linux you can get better performance using a Logical Volume with striping because LVM can manage the disk. With a motherboard hardware switch it can't anticipate disk needs.

Bottom line on RAID, if you expect better performance from an onboard RAID controller, don't. They aren't any faster. If you want security, it's a dubious proposition for the reasons you've already run into.

An actual RAID controller is a complete disk subsystem with an embedded processor, it's own RAM (16mg to gigabytes) and firmware. As a result it can cache local disk writes very quickly to it's ram, then prioritize disk writes to they are efficient and help prevent fragmentation, plus it can keep more data in memory, thus allowing it to manage the overall disk writes so they are far more efficient. A motherboard chip is not an raid controller, it's a RAID partitioner (for lack of a better word).

A real RAID controller is actually a completely separate computer mounted on a card that simulates an actual hard drive. It's faster because it has a separate interface for each device, IDE does not (single cable, shared bus). SATA has the potential to be fast if it's not bottlenecked by a stupid on-board $Vehicle$ $for$ $Profit$ to dupe you into buying the board.
See: here for an example of an actual RAID controller.
-tom

FWIW, Wikipedia a) has an excellent RAID article, b) uses the term "fake RAID" to distinguish Firmware/driver based RAID from Hardware-based ("true") RAID. See 6.3 Firmware/driver based RAID ("fake RAID")