Does the 9262 come with RAID?

When I purchased my notebook I only ordered it with 1 drive. I just now installed 2 identical 160 7200 hdd's, and I can't seem to get RAID to set up. I turned it on in the BIOS and my system wouldn't even boot. Help please?

Thx

Pimpaholic

 

you have to go into the raid controller by pressing CTRL-I during your bootup.

it is the screen after the first BIOS screen.

You were correct to set your SATA mode to RAID.

you just have to create the array now. Once you do the CTRL-I and get into the RAID CONFIGURATION screen it is pretty self explanatory.

 

K thx I'll do that

 

The raid in 9262 is software raid.

 

^Unfortunately that is incorrect. It has a Hardware Intel Raid Controller built into the chipset.

 

Alright I configured the raid, but in windows it only recognizes 1 drive. And It's only 160, not 320 like it should be.

RAID 0 allows you to keep all your disc space correct?

 

Raid 0 "Sripes" the drives together and you get all the storage space. Raid 1 "Mirror's" your data from the 1st drive to the 2nd drive.

Does bios recognize both of your drives?

 

Yes. And so did windows. Before I striped. When I did, disk manager showed that one of the discs were uninitialized and one was active.

 

In the BIOS do I keep it as RAID or do I set it back to NORMAL?

 

It has real hardware RAID that doesn't increase CPU overhead?That's good.

It was according to this post that I had the impression that RAID in 9262 was software based.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3426120&postcount=21

 

I looked inside. I didn't find a RAID controller anywhere. Is it labeled?

 

It is built into the chipset. Did you initialize the 2nd disk?

 

I initialized both, and then I restarted and did the raid config, then I booted up and one appeared in explorer and the other didn't. I checked disk manager and the other stated it was uninitialized. Do I have to delete the partitions on both drives and leave them unallocated? Then raid it up?

 

Um, I don't mean to be impatient, but with all due respect I can't really do much with these 2 bad boys until i get some more input. Not that you all haven't helped in the first place, i thank you guys for that.

 

When you enable RAID in an Intel chipset, you have to hit Ctrl+I at bootup to go into the RAID BIOS. From there...you configure the drives and your OS will only see one drive (actually a combination of your two drives).

 

Yes but with striping I should also have all my available disc space from the drive, instead of just 1 disc's worth, correct? I should have both discs' worth of disc space into 1 virtual drive with RAID 0. But I don't.

How come I seem to always have probs with my new toys, lol?

 

Yes you should see the space equal to both drives in a Raid Stripe. If you have both disks initialized your Raid Manager should see the drives. If it doesn't I would recommend contacting your laptop providers support.

 

are you sure you didnt do a raid 1 instead by accident. with a raid 1 you will only see the space of one drive since they are both copies of each other. it will also show as only one drive on your system. even with raid 0 you will only see 1 drive. its just that drive should be twice what the normal space is.

what did you set the stripe array to? what settings did you use? default?

also did you format the new drive and set the file type to ntfs if it was not already? sometimes that makes a difference with new drives. i have seen some come and even though they were new they still were set to fat 32 for whatever dumb reason. it may seem like it could be a dumb suggestion. but try un-doing the raid. boot to windows to see if you can see the drive as simply a second drive. set the type to ntfs and re-format it. now go back and re-set the raid array. you may need to "rebuild" the array unless it will do it automatically for you which it is supposed to do but i have seen many cases where it didnt do it and i had to manually do it.

justin...would he not need the intel matrix controller to be installed as well? i know this is built into the ich8r chipset but would he still not need the matrix installed??

 

http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=30

a western digital tool that may help

 

Yo Pimp, I'm back.
1st question - Did you backup your hard drive?

When you go from 1hd to 2hd's and combine them into raid0 you will lose all your data on that drive.

 

^^^^ i would recc this as well. i like acronis for this.

 

Psycho, no I didn't back up the data because both HDD's are new. I have 1 primary 100 gb 7200 and I just got 2 new seagate's (both 160gb 7200). My goal is to put these 2 new seagates into striped (Raid 0).

Zfactor, I am positive it was in raid 0. And yes I set the array to default. When creating the partition, yes, they were both in ntfs (there were no other options), then I did a full format (not quick) of both hdd's.

I will try this.

And I might as well ask, but why does windows only recognize 149.1 of my hdd instead of 160? And is it possible to remedy this?

Thx

Pimpaholic

 

Because the hard drive is in fact 160 billion bytes = 149.0116119384765625 GB

They have been lying like this for years. They advertise a drive in standard gigabytes (billion bytes - 1000^3) and windows sees it in computer gigabytes (1024^3)

 

Ah. I have been duped. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Sorry psyko, but no dice. Still only see's one hdd. Should I change the allocation size? And what is the intel matrix controller?

 

Did you try to plug them in one at a time?

 

Plug what in? the HDD's? I installed both at the same time. Does it matter what ports they are in?

 

it should not.. hey do either have the jumpers on them? see if they do and if they are set for master or slave or cable select options. they would be on the drives themselves

 

The Intel Matrix Controller is software that verifies the integrity of your RAID. It pretty much runs in the background and will activate if you have an improper shutdown.

You can also use it to view information on your array. Make sure you have the drivers and the software installed for the IMC.

If your RAID is not reporting all of its space, most likely this is a problem with windows and the drives are not active/initialized/formatted etc.

When you create a RAID using the on-board controller, windows has nothing to do with it. Windows will see multiple drives in a RAID-0 and treat it as one drive. IE, 3 hard drives at 100 gb each will be reported in windows as a single 300 GB drive, all the time, even during windows set up through the CD.

How or when they are plugged in should not matter.

I would try deleting the array, keeping the drives separate and booting into windows. see if windows detects both as usable space. format them as ntfs. see if they are normal.

Then, go back into your raid manager, create a new array, make sure everything is cool there. the step by step thing seems easy enough to use.

boot into windows again. at this point, in disk manager you should be forced to format again before you can use this space.

 

most current intel raid driver: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16012/eng/iata82_enu.exe

 

lol I'm sorry but what are the jumpers? And I don't think there are settings on my HDD's for master or slave. And what is the master drive? The one with your OS? And what is the slave?

And I tried installing the driver in the link you supplied me with zfactor, but it said that my "pc does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. Setup will no exit."

????

I'm now downloading the driver from the clevo site (intel matrix driver, correct?), and I'll see what happens there. My, downloads from Clevo never seem to be very fast, as if they throttle the speeds lol It seems this driver is a lot bigger than the one you supplied me with. It's already at 15 megs, and yours was like 6 or something.

 

UGH!!! Same thing. I can't install the huge driver from clevo's site either. Wtf?

 

Did you see if both HDD are fine?Intel matrix storage driver doesn't work?Try a different version.

 

I've tried 2 different versions, where would I find a different one?

 

BTW what do I keep the SATA mode to? Normal, RAID or AHCI? I can't boot my OS when it's set to RAID, and idk what AHCI does.

 

It has to be set to RAID.

Did you try keeping everything normal and seeing if the drives show up individually in windows?

 

Yes they show up without raid for both.

You have to keep the SATA setting at RAID? I was keeping at Normal. I thought you set it to RAID just for getting to the RAID config utility for creating an array, and then you reboot, set it back to Normal and then boot to your OS. I guess this should be the solution.

BUT.......Problem is, when I set it to RAID, and then I try booting to my OS I get a boot error:

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

It's not a BSOD, the letters are white, and the bg is black.

And then I would press F2, it would reboot, go through POST, start up the RAID config utility, then exit out of it (cuz I don't press ctrl+I), and then I keep pressing F2 before I get the error to get to my BIOS, and then I set the SATA mode back to normal and then I get my normal boot.

 

You have to have your mode set to RAID if you want to use RAID...


Setting it back to normal is doing exactly that.

You are going back to your non-raid configuration and just resuming as before. Except, its all messed up, because you created a RAID array and didn't delete it before going back to NORMAL. hence the "only one drive shows up" thing.


Your error message shows that once you have created your RAID array, Windows is trying to boot from the wrong drive, one that does not have an OS on it.

see if there is a bios setting for which drive to boot to first. ( i don't have the laptop in front of me right now )

 

I know there is a boot priority list, but I wouldn't know which to make first priority. Right now the dvd-rw drive is first. I tried setting the hitachi first (the drive that came with my laptop, also the one with the OS on it and isn't part of Raid), and I got the same message.

 

you have to

Backup your DATA under normal mode

set your BIOS setting to RAID

Ctrl+I to config the RAID0 Array

reinstall windows OS, on the new RAID Array

if you are doing RAID0 striping there is noway for windows to boot up since now the raid controller is trying to read data from both drives at the same time. and one of the drive is blank it wouldn't know where the DATA is.

your only option is to reinstall.

only software non HW assisted RAID will allow you to reconfig and rebuild a single drive into a RAID0 within windows.

with the HW assisted RAID, you have to reinstall. as windows treats it as a single drive, and to windows at this point half of your data is corrupted or missing when you have your HDD controller setup as RAID in the BIOS.

another opition would be as Intel did allow this back with ICH5R and ICH6R i'm not too sure about itnow.

was that first backup your important data.

keep the BIOS setting as normal.

boot into windows and install the Intel matrix storage software.

set it to advance mode

tell it to configure / merge drives into a RAID array

and after it has done that

you then reboot into a end less loop of BSOD, until you set your BIOS to RAID.

but back in ICH5R and ICH6R days it had alot of issue setting up the RAID Array this was as it usually just totally corrupt the data so make sure you back everything up that is important to you. and is ready to do a full reinstall if it fails.

 

His old drive with the OS on it is not part of the RAID ARRAY, supposedly.

So in theory it should be ok...

Are you sure you created the array correctly in the CTRL-I raid menu?

 

This is correct. I have 2 brand new drives, and then I have my HDD that came with my laptop. So I have total.

I'll go step by step with what I did.

-I set SATA mode to RAID.
-I saved and exited my bios.
-The raid configuration utility shoed up, and I pressed ctrl+I.
-I went to the first option (create Raid array).
-I named the raid volume "volume0" (default name)
-I set it to "RAID0(Stripe)"
-I selected my 2 drives.
-I set stripe allocation to "default" (AKA 128)
-I said yes to the warning ("Creating a raid array will erase all data on both drives")
-I created the array.
-I exited out of the utility and got the error.
-After a couple looped boots I gave up and then I set the SATA mode back to Normal.
-It then booted normally only recognizing 1 drive.

Idk what I did to deserve this lol. I may have to live without raid... Not good for a performance junkie like me, lol

 

it does matter, because his system is no longer running the standard HDD controller.

it is now running under RAID mode, which means his original OS install can no longer access the the HDD. as it is looking for it under the Normal mode driver.

as the BIOS is now reporting that HDD on the normal HDD controller no longer exist, and the OS doesn't know that the new RAID controller exist since it wasn't originally installed.


when you change the HDD controller mode it's HW ID changes therefore it needs different drivers.

so let's say

Normal = HW ID (0)
AHCI = HW ID (1)
RAID = HW ID (2)

these are like your phy house numbers.

his setup was

1 HDD under normal mode, and his OS was installed under this mode so now the OS will reference everything rearding this hdd to HW ID = 0

now his setup is this

change HW from normal to raid, therefore the HW ID now changed from 0 to 2

so his hdd setup is now as followed

original HDD, solo RAID0 under HDD controller (2)

new 2x hdd rAID0 under HDD controller (2)

his phy original HDD has been moved from HDD controller (0) to (2) as well when the mode is changed in the BIOS.

BUT windows can no longer boot from it since it no longer exist, as to the OS all the driver related to the HDD is still trying to locate HDD controller (0) which makes it that a reinstall is a must.

 

Understood, that makes sense.

Since Windows needs to know if it is being installed on a raid or a non-raid disk, I suppose that is why it asks when you are installing.

Guess you gotta reinstall windows, Pimpaholic.

You should be able to boot to the CD, but make sure you have your SATA drivers available during your install if you are using Windows XP.

 

That sucks.

Is this an alternative? Is it possible I dual-boot with vista and have raid recognized with vista and NOT xp?

 

I doubt it, unless you want to switch to normal mode, to access XP.

then switch to RAID mode, and access Vista.

And while in XP mode, not access your raid array.
And while in Vista mode, not access your non-raid drive.

 

I wouldn't mind that. How would I go about doing it? I keep RAID set up, and I boot with the vista disc, then install onto the Raid drives?

 

Yeah, just install vista on the raid discs...

No guarantees that your data would be stable though. that sounds like a really weird set up.

Like running with a flat tire, it works, but eventually something else is going to be busted.

 

I'm BFed at every corner. I really don't want to reinstall everything.... ugh. Well I guess if I do that then I'll see if my sound problem will be fixed also. I really don't want to reinstall everything lol.

Wait how would I back up all my data? If I put all my media on one of my new HDD's then it'll be erased in the RAID creation. Is there a way to make a partion for backing up certain data? Then format the OS partition? All on the same hdd?

 

I don't believe so, not if you are moving to a RAID vs NON-RAID situation.

Or rather, that is how it seems at the moment.

Time to burn some DVDs with backup data. Or find another computer on your same network where you can just copy stuff over ( preferred )