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crisshartzell
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May 18th, 2011 05:00
RAID1 Configuration Question - Please Help
I have an Alienware Aurora ALX.
The computer has an ICH10R SATA RAID controller. The configuration that I ordered was supposed to have the boot drive as a stand-alone drive and the 2 data drives as a mirrored RAID1 array.
In Device Manager, Disk Drives, I see ARRAY0 (data drive) and ST32000641AS (boot drive.)
But, I am afraid that the RAID array is not working because in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology window, 3 HDs are listed, but there is no indication that any of these are part of an array. Under "Manage", I can see the properties of each of the 3 HDs, but nothing about an array. Under "Usage" for each HD, it says "unklnown". Further, under "advanced" there are no options that can be changed. There is nothing to say that this is RAID1 or RAID0.
In BIOS, Integrated Devices, the ICH SATA configuration was set by Dell to "configure SATA 1-6 as AHCI". But, the other choice available here is RAID. Shouldn't this be set to RAID? But, on the Intel website it says that this setting should not be changed after the operating system has been installed or a bluescreen crash will happen.
Is the RAID1 setup working? How can I tell? And if it isn't working, how do I fix it?
How can I manage RAID settings? For example, if I decided I wanted to change the RAID1 setup to a RAID0, how would I do this? [At this moment, I do not want to do this, but the question is where is the dialog for managing arrays].
crisshartzell
3 Posts
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Posted May 19th, 2011 05:00
Thanks. With your current confguration, does the Windows Device Manager show you have an array? That is what I don't get - the Device Manager says I have an array and I see only 2 disks where there are actually 3. The only place I see that I have 3 disks is in the Intel Rapid Storage, but it doesn't show them as an array.
Yes, if the bios there is set to ACHI, in device manager you will still see as an array but in intel there as 3 disks. If the bios is set to raid then only i saw intel as a raid array. If you are going to set the bios to raid make sure you are prepared for the worst ( reinstallation of windows) but sometimes it just boots normally and tada all is well.
ameetw
23 Posts
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Posted May 18th, 2011 17:00
In my case, I had a raid system that i wanted to remove. To activate the raid system, "configure SATA 1-6 as RAID" should be set. Most likely yours should be set RAID also. If I set mine to AHCI, i too see the RAID volumes as 2 Disks. When Bios is set to RAID, I see it as 1 disk with 2 partitions.
I migrated the OS into a non-RAID single SSD. Switched from RAID option to AHCI option, no blue screen, vice versa also no blue screen. Now my current setting is "configure SATA 1-6 as RAID", OS into a non-RAID single SSD, 1TB movies_1, TB movies_2, 1TB Media, 500Gb Data. I kept the BIOS in raid because who knows in the future if i want to raid a disk.
To configure RAID, use the Intel Rapid Storage Technology when the BIOS is set to RAID. Then you have control over the RAID type.
For the time being, I don't really care for RAID because
1. I use SSD as the OS drive. RAID don't support TRIM function
2. For Movies not so important that i need backup. but important enough if using RAID0 and 1 drive fails to lose all movies.
3. Data is important, use a DVD or a pen drive as a continuous backup solution
Hope this helps