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run optiplex 990 single drive without RAID
I have an optiplex 990 that I want to use with a single WD blue drive. In other words, I don't want raid enabled. In the bios should I set SATA to ATA or AHCI. I dont want to take any performance hit on the drive. This will be a clean install of windows 7.
theflash1932
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January 30th, 2014 14:00
If you have the following options:
Then you want to choose AHCI, which will ignore any RAID signatures. (Leaving RAID on would probably work, but you would have to boot to CTRL-I to convert the disk to non-RAID before installing.) If you ever plan on moving a RAID drive to this machine, then consider leaving RAID on and changing your existing drive to non-RAID, as the disk/data won't be recognized in AHCI mode (it ignores RAID headers).
theflash1932
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January 30th, 2014 13:00
Keep it in AHCI mode, even if "RAID AutoDetect/AHCI" is your only option. If the disk has never been made part of a RAID array, then it will not have a RAID signature, which is what the "AutoDetect" portion of that mode is looking for, and will leave it as non-RAID. There WIILL be a performance hit if you set the SATA Operation to ATA.
bryguy21
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January 30th, 2014 14:00
Thanks theflash1932.
The drive I'm using was at one time part of a raid array (two mirrored drives), but I'll be formatting and installing windows clean on that drive. I'm assuming once I do that any raid signature would be lost, or is there something else I need to do before installing windows in AHCI mode. In the bios the option is just raid on or off, ACHI, ATA and disabled.
bryguy21
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January 30th, 2014 14:00
Excellent thanks for the info.