Setting up Raid 0 - How? :)

Hey all,
I've researched a little onlline, but most of the guides I'm seeing assume a higher level of savvy than I am.
I just bought an MSI GT683 DXR. One of the things advertised is that it has/uses Raid 0. I assumed it was pre-setup for me. However, I noticed that there are two 500GB (approx) HDDs listed. From what I understood, if Raid 0 was working there would only be 1.

Could anyone explain how to verify that it is in Raid 0 setup? Or how to do it if it isnt?

 

If it shows up in Windows explorer as one disk with 1000GB capacity, it's RAID 0. Only if it has only one partition. If not, add all partitions.

 

If you can see 2 HDD's listed in Disk Management and assuming that there is no other HDD connected to your system when you are viewing that panel, you are not in RAID0.

You will need to:

MOVE all your DATA to another drive/system/usb key.

Set your BIOS to RAID.

Set your RAID BIOS to RAID0.

Finally, you will need to re-install your system (clean install).

Good luck.

 

You can also use tools like AIDA64, HWiNFO, SIW to check.

 

The Bios is already set to Raid, but I do see 2 HDDs, so I guess it isn't working yet.
How do I set the Raid Bios to Raid0? I assume that's the next step?

Frustrating that I'll have to reinstall Windows all over. But I assume it'll be worth it.

 

No idea how to get into MSI's RAID controller, but I'd assume once you CTRL+ (something) into it, then you should be able to tool around to get RAID 0 configured. Saw this MSI PDF on how to install Windows 7 after you successfully configure RAID accordingly: http://www.msi.com/pic/faq/10012015@2011-0426-1111-218572@faq_0000000000302_02_en.pdf

 

It comes enabled from the factory with RAID 0. After POST, when the Intel Chipset Utility thing comes up (Green and white letters), hold CRTL and press I. This will display what the controller sees.

 

Windows 7 has already an Intel Raid driver. You don't have to install it via the "Load Driver" method.

 

Sounds like OP's trying to use hardware RAID though, which is better the software RAID anyway.

 

I don't know what you're talking about. The OP has a notebook and there's surely no room for a hardware RAID controller/chip.
In the meantime there are opinions that because of the much more capable CPUs software RAID is on par or even better than hardware RAID.

 

This is wrong. The notebook comes STOCK with RAID0 there is no mystery about it. Hardware raid is supported through the Intel controller in the southbridge/PCH. Just make sure SATA mode is set the RAID in the BIOS or else the Intel RAID utility don't show up.

 

Well, I hit Ctrl-I to see if anything needed to be done, and found this:

The section called "Raid Volumes" had in it the following.
ID = 0, Name = Volume0, Level = Raid0(Stripe), Strip = 128kb, Size = 931.5 Gb, Status = Normal, Bootable = Yes.

So does that mean it's already operating in Raid0? I tried to "Create Raid Volume" and it said there was no space, or HDD, or something remaining to do that with.

 

Yes it is setup. 931.5GB = 2 x 500GB HDD's - roundoff. Stripe is RAID 0; Mirror is RAID 1. For the third time now, it comes preinstalled in your notebook. You are seeings two HDD's because the BIOS physically detects two hard drives connected to the SATA ports. However, with RAID, Windows will only see it as 1 HDD ~1TB capacity.

 

I appreciate your assistance Xonar, I didn't mean to burden you.
My confusion this whole time has been with exactly what you're stating in your most recent reply: "You are seeings two HDD's because the BIOS physically detects two hard drives connected to the SATA ports. However, with RAID, Windows will only see it as 1 HDD".
In fact, Windows is showing me 2 HDDs, of approx 500Gb each. I have C and D drives. So I thought my RAID wasn't working.
That said, evidently it is still working, as you confirmed from what I posted (after hitting Ctrl-I).

 

Sorry, I disagree. As the CPU is always invoked in the RAID operations(calculating checksums, etc) and the ICH10R has no processor for servicing this things, this is Software RAID.
For further information take a look at
Southbridge Battle: 780a, ICH10 and SB750, Compared : AMD, Intel, And Nvidia Southbridge Performance Analyzed

 

No burden, this is interesting. Download HDTune, and run a Read Test on it. If you get ~160-220mb/s, you are running RAID 0. If its 80-120mb/s, you are not in RAID. Also, HDTune will let you choose which drive you want to benchmark, there should only be one option labeled as Volume 0 Intel RAID, or something like that if it's hardware enabled. My old laptop which had RAID died, so I'm going off of memory.

ICH10R is the controller. The chip logic needs to exist for RAID to even be possible, or else, you'll have to use a card like LSi's for RAID capabilities.

Have you ever used software RAID, does it leave the drives separate like OP's? Hardware RAID will create a logical drive with the combined capacities. I have only used 'hardware' RAID. I guess if I can ever unscrew a stripped screw in my old caddy, I could test it out.

The CPU used was the same for every controller. As you can see, the controller makes a massive difference in performance, Intel's is clearly the dominant controller in the market.

Also, I have made a mistake. Intel moved SB functions to the PCH in SB, it stills runs off the PCH with the necessary chipset drivers installed, just as ICH worked.

 

In Windows Explorer if you are seeing two drives all that means is that your RAID0 is partitioned.

If you had checked the Disk Management console as I have previously posted, you should see just Disk 0 - ~931GB and you'll also see the partitions for C: and D: (and possibly another 100MB partition with no drive letter and maybe a hidden partition for re-installing the O/S).

To see the Disk Management console: right click on Computer, select Manage and select Disk Management on the lefthand side.

Hope this helps too.

 

You shouldn't post only the passage that suits you well, therefore I post the complete conclusion so everybody can make up his own mind.

Conclusion

The only conclusion that can be easily drawn is that you need to have a professional storage controller such as the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i, which we used for performance comparison, if you want to get the most from your complex storage arrays. The SAS/SATA controller was the only one to deliver high (or at least balanced) performance in all benchmark disciplines with some exceptions for Intel's ICH10R. The LSI still was the only controller able to deliver up to 1 GB/s throughput using the six Intel X25-E SSDs we had for testing, deliver high performance at writes and even when an array is degraded, and support a battery backup unit and professional RAID management features. Hence this card or similar professional products can be the only choice for truly mission-critical applications. The fact that the integrated storage controllers typically beat it in the I/O performance benchmarks may be due to the SSDs, which we found can be CPU-bound (see article Does Power-Saving Technology Kill SSD Performance?).


I/O Performance


All integrated solutions deliver amazingly high I/O performance, but results differ depending on the I/O benchmark pattern, which varies in access type and block sizes. Intel is superior in most of our I/O tests. Running high I/O loads on a degraded RAID 5 array results in a performance drop of around 30% to 60%, which seems acceptable.


Throughput


If you need a RAID array to deliver maximum read throughput, then you might want to go for a fast system using the ICH10R, since Intel’s controller delivers more than 650 MB/s in RAID 5 and 600+ MB/s in RAID 0. LSI stays tightly in the 460 to 480 MB/s range, while AMD and Nvidia limp along, struggling to catch even 200 MB/s.


Keep in mind that this is valid only for reads. If you switch to writes, AMD and Nvidia look even worse, yielding performance numbers not worth mentioning. Intel’s ICH10R still does well in write throughput and can be considered a competitor to LSI’s professional card—until you look at performance in degraded RAID 5. The only solution capable of maintaining at least 390 MB/s and still reaching 680 MB/s is LSI’s MegaRAID 9260-8i with its RAID-on-chip architecture.


Integrated RAID Good for Temporary High Performance Storage


The southbridges we looked at were designed to power desktop PCs, a purpose in line with our results. These chips aren’t built to be server/workstation solutions, so we don’t recommend creating complex RAID arrays on desktop systems. RAID 0 and RAID 5 performance work well for reads, but results are less than acceptable for writes with the exception of Intel’s ICH10. The AMD and Nvidia RAID offerings only are satisfactory, provided you don’t need high write performance…at all. We recommend using integrated RAID 0 or 1 options for temporary high performance storage, but RAID 5 should be left to professional products.

 

I ran the HDTune, and yes, the only option to test was the Raid0 HDD. It ran at an average of 134 mb/s, so, slower than you expected for Raid0, but, it does look like it's working.

Thanks for the help!

 

if it only showed the one drive then you are running RAID 0, also based on the 134mb/s that sounds like RAID.

 

Do you know what model drives they are? That's awfully low.

 

The driver are apparently pretty old! They say they're from 2006. The driver number is 6.1.7600.16385.

Any idea how I would go about updating them? Or is there something else I should do to improve them?

 

This is the disk driver, there are no newer.
Did you install the Intel Rapid Storage software(newest is 10.6.0.1022) and activate the Write Back cache? Activating it will improve your writes.

 

In regards to SW vs. HW RAID debate. Software RAID would be RAID supported strictly by the OS. The controller just has two distinct IO devices, and the OS controls how this operates. OTOH, Hardware RAID would be RAID where no extra driver is required the RAID controller provides the drive info directly to the OS, and the OS has no special knowledge of the volume.

The setup described in these posts sits in the middle. Some support by the controller, but special driver software also required for IO. I've always classified these hardware controllers as "Fake RAID" - FakeRaidHowto

 

There is always a driver needed to support the "Hardware Raid" device.

 

Sorry, of course all RAID controllers will require a driver.

What I meant was a special driver that allows the OS even have the controller show any kind of RAID controller or recognize the RAID volume. W/ out that driver, a fake RAID BIOS will show X number of drives attached to the controller - at least it used to before Win 7.

It's been a while, but on the H/W RAID controllers I've worked with (Promise and LSI), either the volume was not visible or it was there, but disabled - can't remember which. In any case, the RAID controller did show up in device manager (but needed the driver). Although the individual drives were not visible/usable for this configuration.

 

Last checkup here. I just wanted to see if there was an obvious way I should improve performance.
I'm more interested in Read performance, so not sure if I would want to update (or even install) Rapid Storage.

Thanks again for everyone's help in this thread.

 

Intel RST drivers offer a noticeable performance upgrade in real world use.

Not benchmark scores (always).

My suggestion? Use your system as-is for a week and then use it in the same scenarios with IRST installed next week.

If you're like most of my clients - you'll leave IRST running.

Good luck.

 

It depends what you're doing with this notebook. I would just try out what better suites for your daily work.

 

Largely my laptop is for entertainment (games, photoshop, movies).
I'll try the RST and see how it goes. Thanks again.