HOW TO: Windows Installation Thread (includes SATA III, SSD Upgrade, RAID0 Discussion)

Never have seen that before. You did completely power off and cold boot after it was finished, correct?

Please provide a screen shot so I can see what you are referring to.

You would need to use GPT instead of MBR to access more than 2TB.

 

I ended up rebooting, and once Windows loaded, it found new hardware and asked to reboot again. I clicked reboot and after the reboot the unallocated space of the RAID 0 array was view-able. I was then able to extend volume. I don't recall setting up or enabling GPT instead of MBR prior to creating the RAID. Should I have somehow converted over to GPT? It simply stated that nothing over 2TB would be accessible and said 98% of my RAID would be created. Is this acceptable or am I losing a lot of space not setting up or converting over to GPT?

 

Also, as you suggested earlier, I did end up creating a image and a reboot disc after the fresh install, including all Windows updates PRE-RAID creation in IRST; so if need be, I can start from scratch (sort of) and simple rebuild the array using GPT??? Do you recommend this or am I OK as it currently stands?

 

Nah, you should be fine. You're right on the ragged edge and just touching 2TB with those three drives. With 3 x 750GB HDD you will have lost only 90GB (only 698GB is usable) and you'll have an extra 128GB partition with GPT so no biggie. If you ever move up to 3 x 1TB or larger you will want to change to GPT. I think there is an aftermarket utility to convert MBR to GPT, but I would not worry about it in your scenario. Good that you have the image, as that gives you a lot flexibility to do it if you want to, not to mention disaster recovery. Good job!

TRIM should be working for you automatically, bro. There are lots of detailed technical explanations on TRIM posted all over the web. Wikipedia has some nice details on it [ LINK]. As oversimplified explanation is that is makes free blocks of flash memory space available as data is deleted and helps keep SSDs running at the best speeds possible. Before TRIM there was Garbage Collection (GC), which served essentially the same purpose, but worked in a different manner. GC required idle time to work, whereas TRIM does not.

Many SSD makers do not guarantee TRIM support under Windows 8 for some reason. But, a nice feature of Windows 8 is the ability to run TRIM on a schedule or manually. Right-click on your SSD in "My Computer/This PC" Select "Properties" and go to the "Tools" tab. Click on Optimize. This will show all of your disks. Under Media Type you with see Solid state and/or Hard disk drive(s) depending on how your machine is built. If you click select an SSD in this list and click "Optimize" you will see it run TRIM.

 

Windows 8 is nothing but trouble. I'm come to realise that since talking to you mate. Completely off subject here, but have you seen my update in the 880m test thread? I'm yet again at a brick wall. I don't know whether or not this's actually something to do with the modified vbios now. It's acting almost like how my stock vbios acts. Nvidia Inspector, MSI and EVGA, all allow me to change all settings every now and again. I would say that all settings are enabled maybe 3/10 attempts of closing and then reopening any of the above said programs. I'm unsure whether this latest driver set a flag in the vbios to stop OC.

 

Yes, I did see that a few minutes ago. I don't know what is happening or why. All I know is that it sucks. Hopefully, NVIDIA is going to do something about this. Probably should be a bunch of Alienware and Clevo owners posting in the Geforce Forums about how things are malfunctioning with 880M. https://forums.geforce.com/default/...here-new-drivers-look-for-a-nvidia-response-/

 

Just wanted to update the staotus of my RAID 0 Win7 install and say THANK YOU to Mr. Fox for guiding me through. His advice and knowlwdge are why I frequently visit this forum. Again, Thank you Sir!

The clean install of Win7, one of the reasons Mr. Fox began this thread, went rather smoothly. At any given time, if I was stumbled, Mr Fox lent a helping hand with his quick replies here. I am now up and running a 2TB RAID 0 array with an enabled 64Gb mSata caching the entire RAID array. I honestly couldn't be more pleased. Now, I'm hoping to throw a few games at this beast and see how it handles.

Once again, I could not thank Mr. Fox enough. A true blessing when it comes to helping others when it comes to technical assistance. A BIG +1 Rep!!!! :thumbsup::hi2:

 

Wow, I don't know what to say other than you are welcome and thank you. Glad to help. Kind words like that are really appreciated. Have a great weekend.

 

I've just installed Aero Glass for 8.1, now I have a watermark bottom right corner. How do I get rid of this guys?

 

Donate and get a key from BigMuscle and it should go away after rebooting your sysem. You simply place the downloaded key file in the folder where you have AeroGlass.

 

That explains it then. I did look for a donation link, but couldn't find one. I've just read that a pop-up appears after a while. I'll wait for that.

 

Go to this web and use the link at the bottom of the page...

Aero Glass for Windows 8

This thread for discussion or asking questions regarding AeroGlass...

Aero Glass for Win8.1 1.2.5

 

I've added the key, but I don't have any options for Aero Glass? I glow text is there, so is the transparency. Is that what we get?

 

There are no configuration options except by changing registry values. There is a page that explains what values you can use. The main purpose is to bring Aero transparency back to Windows 8 so it doesn't look like a pastel barf bucket. Look at the table in this guide: Aero Glass for Windows 8

You can tweak transparency, blur and other things. I like mine set clear with no blurring at all.

Also grab Tiny Window Borders and use that little app to fix Windows 8's stupidly fat and ugly window borders. I set them as low as the sliders go and it makes everything look at least 20x better LOL.

 

Here are some SSD RAID 0 benchmarks without caching (no PrimoCache or "RAPID" results, just pure 100% read/write performance without any help from system memory)

 

Totally irrelevant to the topic of conversation lol. How the heck do you manage to organise that many programs on your AW 18 screen? Am I being a fool here and not realising that you're using 2 external monitors?

 

No, that's my native display panel using a 2560x1440 @ 70Hz custom resolution applied through NVIDIA Control Panel. This works really well for gaming, and looks fantastic. Text rendered on the desktop does not look good with this configuration, but screen shots look normal because they are not limited to what the display can handle.

Here are a few random in-game screen shots at 1440p. As you can see, frame rate is still playable with 780M SLI even with cranked up graphics settings.

<iframe class='imgur-album' width='100%' height="850" frameborder='0' src="http://imgur.com/a/KUaMm/embed"></iframe>

 

Hey Mr fox, what util or gadget are you using for the monitoring in port #965

 

That is HWiNFO64 Desktop Gadget in the image attached to your post. In post #965 you are seeing AIDA64 Sensor Panel (not a Desktop Gadget, but looks just like one).

 

Sweet thanks.,

 

well I just blew big bucks into dual 1tb Samsung ssd's in raid 1 but the drive in port 0 is slowed down to 3gb/s!

before I installed the second disk port 0 showed the proper 6gb/s sata 3 speeds. the second port (port 1) shows the proper 6gb/s, though.

so one ssd is in sata 2 and the other one in sata 3....

 

This is not uncommon, but we haven't seen it for a while. It has been mentioned in multiple threads.

It can be caused by several things. I am merging your thread with another one. Look at the information in the opening post under " Update 06/05/2012" and try the tweaks that worked for me to fix this problem when I ran into them a couple of years ago. I would try the LPM fix first.

If the tips provided do not correct the situation, you may have a bad SATA interposer cable.

 

I did not use the LPM fix yet.

this is what my findings are regarding this;

I installed one ssd and the OS and all data on it. I then installed the second one and configured them in raid 1 through the intel RST in windows. when I did this the speed on port 0 dropped. port 1 did not drop. I tried loading the optimized defaults on the system bios and it did not bring the speed back up. I then whipped the drives and set them in raid 1 through the bios before OS and data install. the speeds now WERE at the proper sata 3! BUT, during a few reboots the speed in port 0 dropped again! so I went into system bios and loaded optimized defaults again and the speed came back up!

at the same time port 0 would randomly drop during a reboot so it degrades the raid and it has to rebuild again. the speed on port 0 may drop during this rebuild. loading optimized defaults brought the speed back up. I might need to reboot several times in order to bring up the port as well.

I think there are 2 issues here. the sata ribbon is faulty and also there must be some problem with the bios that has never been fixed by dell.

I am having tech support ship me a new ribbon cable and hope it fixes the issues.

when sata speed drops on port 0 there is a huge downgrade in performance. of course performance is still way better than mechanical drives but still.

also, Samsung magician does not work In raid mode because it will not detect the drives. no big deal I guess.

 

If you haven't power-drained, cleared the CMOS and done the LPM fix you may be replacing a perfectly good SATA interposer cable. I had to do these things with Crucial and OCZ drives to avoid it. Both brands flat-out refused to run at SATA 3 speeds unless LPM was disabled. Once corrected, the problem never returned. I think it is a bug in Intel LPM, but not the BIOS. The SATA cable did not need replacement in my case, but that is sometimes a cause of the speed drop.

I agree... programs like Magician, OCZ Toolbox, Corsair Toolbox, etc. are nice, but not important enough to forego having RAID in order to use them. It's a shame they don't invest any effort to make them RAID compatible... apparently, they don't really give a rat's butt about customers that use RAID.

 

i question the LPM fix because that appears to be a software solution. the fact that port 0 drops during the boot process (before it even reaches the bios screen) indicates a hardware problem so that i is why i am looking at the ribbon cable as the culprit. i will look into the battery and LPM if the new ribbon does not fix the issue.

 

If you have an unlocked BIOS look for the option to disable Intel Link Power Management (LPM). It's labeled something along the lines of "Aggressive LPM" or something similar based on memory.

 

I have the bios but not installed it.

I thought I read that the LPM is in windows registry only. I will look at the unlocked bios for sure if the new cable does not work. thanks!

 

is the unlocked version A03?

i currently have the new dell bios A05. i assume i can just switch back and forth between them in windows?

 

another update. during heavy usage, like when running a hard disk benchmark, or even installing world of warcraft, port 0 will drop to sata 2 speeds. i entered sleep mode (standby) and came out of it and the speed was back up. but it quickly dropped again during hdtune benchmark. now i know how to duplicate the issue.

edit; checking with intel RST for the info. you have to refresh RST or X it out and re-open it to see the sata speed change.

i can easily tell when it drops because hdtune will go from 700MS/s to 460MB/s during the read speeds.

 

The unlocked BIOS is available in multiple versions, including A03. I am using A10 unlocked.

There is a slight chance your mobo will need to be replaced. A few guys here in the forum needed a replacement, but it is usually the things already mentioned or the SATA interposer cable. The fact that yours is changing is a positive sign that it is less likely to be the mobo. The fact that it fluctuates causes me to think it is a LPM issue (firmware/software), but we will find out as you go through the motions to see what fixes it.

 

ok I have an A03 unlocked bios that I downloaded from here years ago, but can't remember where. is there an A05 bios here as well? I am too scared to edit my existing bios and would just prefer to a safe template.

I am itching to try the bios flash now instead of waiting for the cable tomorrow.

 

I just took this snapshot. It right after windows loaded. the speed dropped really fast. basically, the speed is pretty much sata 2 at all times.

 

Mr. Fox, if you have raid enabled I am wondering if you can run this same test and see if speeds remain stable.

 

I know I am being a pest with all these replies, haha.

I flashed to the A03 unlocked bios and disabled the aggressive LPM. i did not reset the cmos battery, though. upon exiting the bios after the change port 0 dropped out. I rebooted right away and it came back online. of course the raid is degraded so it is rebuilding now. I am monitoring the speeds. so far port 0 is holding up. I even ran hdtune while the rebuilding is taking place and it is hovering around 400MB/s.

what I would love is a proven A05 unlocked bios from someone if this LPM proved to be the culprit.

 

Here you go... totally stable.

Nah, you're not being a pest at all... glad to help. Good to hear it is not dropping. Flashing the BIOS and disabling the LPM may have "unstuck" something the same as clearing the CMOS. I would still recommend using the REG files to disable LPM in Windows. LPM is a power-saving (i.e. performance robbing) feature, so it has no valid place on a beast like these machines.

You have M18xR1 or R2? If you have the M18xR2 go with the A09 or A10 and you will get the newer Intel RST Option ROM with RAID0 TRIM support.

 

I have the R1.

if it is the same as clearing the cmos I would rather be on the official A05 bios as before. I guess I wont know until I try. I am going just trial and error this thing until I find the culprit. on my mechanical drives in raid 1 (and I tried all the major 750gb 7200rpm brands out there over the years) when port 0 dropped I could hear the drive power down abruptly. I then had to wait hours for the raid to rebuild.

if there is no real solution and the port keeps dropping I would have to sell these ssd's because it wont make sense to write 50TB of data every year or so due to rebuilds. what I know is that if I had raid 0 it would be impossible to keep the system running.

 

speed just dropped again.

while still rebuilding array I decided to let world of warcraft update and compress about 4 hours of video. so the cpu and drives were working at max capacity. decided to check RST before I went to sleep and port 0 dropped its speed.

possible solutions remaining;

-motherboard replacement
-ribbon cable replace
-cmos battery reset

 

I just got new sata ribbon cable from dell. I also went back to the official dell bios A05.

IT WORKED! it was a bad ribbon cable all along.

I ran 2 hdtune sessions back to back and it never dropped speeds. I could not run a full hdtune session before.

I consider the matter solved. if it messes up again I will post back but I have a good feeling about this. finally no more dropping out of port and speed degradation!

 

spoke too soon. speed just dropped. LOL!!

all I can do is just laugh this off right now.

 

interesting find;

the intel chipset is to blame for the port and speed issues. on desktop platforms they issued motherboard replacements. not sure what they did on mobile platforms.

Intel Sandy Bridge chipset flaw identified as a rogue transistor affecting SATA ports

 

There was a recall and a revision was released. It was too long ago for me to remember clearly now, but this was when Sandy Bridge was brand new and I believe Alienware exchanged (or offered to) the first batch of M17xR3. This was corrected by Intel before the M18xR1 was released if memory serves me correctly.

Edit: found this old thread... Intel Press Release - Sandy Bridge Issue - What does this mean for the M17xR3?

...and this... Latest on the Intel Chipset Issue | Dell Community Blog

The M18xR1 came later, after this was corrected.

 

I received a motherboard replacement and again a ribbon cable replacement at the same time and the problem still persists. this has to be some kind of system design / manufacturing issue. what I do not understand is that alienware offered these systems in raid configurations and probably used the same Samsung manufacture for their drives so there has to be a known workaround for this instead of just sending out motherboards needlessly.

 

this problem looks like it is coming to an end. that is what alienware is now telling me for the R1.

does anyone remember the hard drive configuration options for the R1 and what the advertised sata speeds were before the R2 was released?

 

What they are telling you is not accurate. The M18xR1 Sandy Bridge motherboard had the exactly the same number of SATA-3 6.0GB/s ports as the Ivy Bridge M18xR2 motherboard. Both had two SATA-3 ports in the interposer for the HDD caddy. The ODD port is SATA-2 on both machines. The mSATA port on the M18xR2 is only SATA-2, and the third HDD bay is on a SATA-2 port. If your M18xR1 is not functioning at SATA-3 speeds on both of the HDD SATA ports with SATA-3 drives attached, then either the motherboard or the SATA interposer cable needs to be replaced. Or, you may need to disable LPM. (See the opening post for possible solutions if the problem is not due to a hardware defect. It can be either one.)

Alienware have already replaced a ton of both parts (motherboard and SATA interposer cable) on machines where those ports refused to operate at the expected SATA-3 speeds. There are numerous posts about it in the Alienware 18/M18xR1/R2 sub-forum.

Most 7200 RPM HDDs are only SATA-2 and the system will default to the rated speed of the drive(s). So don't get concerned about this unless you are only seeing SATA-2 speeds achieved with SATA-3 SSDs or HDDs installed.

 

the bigger issue right now is that the largest ssd supported is 256gb on the R1.

I posted a video below showing the main issue, that the 1TB ssd may be dropped from port 0 upon a cold boot. then I can warm-boot to get it back online. so when this happens the raid will have to rebuild itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB2jqDLIt0k&list=UUAHfxQrktt65BwmkTjDkjUQ

 

Hi

I recently bought samsung 1TB evo ssd.
I cloned all data from old HDD(which is RAID grouped) into new SSD.

Now my ssd is OS disk and hdd will be used as data only disk.

Here is my question.

I still want my 2 old HDD is grouped as RAID so I didn't change Raid option to Ahci in BIOS sata controller setting. It's still on RAID mode.
but I want my new SSD works in AHCI mode.

Somebody saying new single SSD(non raid memebered) will be automatically set as AHCI and somebody saying it won't be (IDE as default)
Anyone know who is right? and Is there any correct way to check which mode is on with my SSD?

ps. IRST is installed as newest and as ssd benchmark saying 'iaStorA - OK'
and CrystaldiskInfo saying S.M.A.R.T, NCQ, TRIM is on. - is this meaning my ssd is on ahci?

Thanks!

 

if your BIOS is set to RAID mode then you are NOT in AHCI mode, your are in RAID mode

Launch Samsung Magician, and you will notice that it shows you a warning saying for optimal performance you need to be in AHCI mode

Furthermore, cloning an OS to a new SSD will never give you the same performance as a celan install on the SSD. That's just for lazy people (no offense)

 

yes, I aleady heard a lot about cloning will not give same performance.
But clean install was too big deal for me for now so cloning was best solution.
I used symmantech GHOST instead of samsung immigration app (which has horrible stability) to cloning and and I'm still satisfying with performance which is aleady decreased.

But now I'm just feeling curiosity which mode is on with my SSD. what I heard is even under RAID controller in Bios settings, Non-Raid member Disk will be automatically set into one of IDE/AHCI. and there is many topic in google about this but there is no clear answer.

That's why I've posted here(no offense, someone should experienced similar situation here)

 

Open Samsung Magician's Main page and tell me what do you see where I pointed:

 

Yeah, That's on deactivated but As I know (what people said in similar unsolved topic), samsung magician will say just same(deactivated) on both case that SSD is on AHCI or IDE If my SATA controller setting(BIOS) is on RAID.