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17317
August 8th, 2010 13:00
How do I convert from RAID 1 to RAID 0?
I have an intel ICH8R/ICH9R SATA RAID controller. My PC came from Dell with 2 250GB hard drives configured for RAID 1(Mirroring). I have since bought an external harddrive for backup and now would rather have my drives configured for RAID 0(striping) for the extra hard drive space and performance. Unfortunately I have had the computer for several years so I can't get support from Dell or Intel now without paying.
I first backed up my data and tried using the matrix storage tool to "Modify Volume" to convert from RAID 1 to RAID 0. The program said it converted and the volume shows in the intel software now as RAID 0 instead of raid 1 however the size of the volume is unchanged. I then tried to delete the volume so I could just create a fresh RAID 0 volume but I got a message that I could not delete the volume because it is a system volume. Anyone know how to fix this?
jackshack
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August 8th, 2010 14:00
When you directly converted to RAID 0 from RAID 1 you got an array that was exactly the same size as the array from which you started. This is normal. To fix your problem now you will need to start from scratch, but use the Intel option ROM to create the array. This is restart the computer, F2 to go to the SATA controller and make sure it is set to RAID On, allow it to begin booting and hit CTRL_i during the RAID status screen. Make certain that your drives are both selected for RAID 0 and that the RAID volume is set to occupy the full capacity of both disks. Place your operating system CD in the CD/DVD ROM drive, boot from it, and install the OS.
shesagordie
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August 8th, 2010 15:00
Atroxus
First break the RAID 1 array by hitting CTRL+I [ i ] just after boot up. Then you should have 2 drives that are exactly the same.
Figure out which drive to boot from, it should be the SATA port 0.
Open the control panel
Select the Intel Application Accelerator
Select the option to migrate existing data to a RAID array
Select RAID 0, specify source SATA port [assuming it will be 0]
Select Disk to add to the ARRAY [assuming this will be 1 or 2]
Migration starts and should take about one hour [maybe more].
Bev.
Christina.Donov
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December 14th, 2010 14:00
Many thanks to your description! It is just the solution for my problem, I got more deep understanding about this part.
TomXPS
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December 14th, 2010 17:00
Depending on the OS you may be able to extend the RAID 0 Partition after you do the conversion. I know with Win 7 I was able to shrink the C: Partition so I could create another partition.
jackshack
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December 14th, 2010 17:00
TomXPS;
If you begin by making a RAID volume that occupies the full capacity of the hard drive, I agree with you. The OP, however, converted his RAID 1 to a RAID 0. Doesn't that define the maximum number of sectors, clusters, or whatever you wish to call the storage elements of the drive? You might be able to shrink from the defined size of the drive, but what happened in this case is that the RAID volume was defined as something smaller than the actual capacity of the drive. What is needed is something that will see the space beyond the existing upper bound of the RAID volume, so not only would the partition info need to be adjusted, but the metadata that defines the RAID would need to be adjusted as well.
Am I seeing this correctly, or have I missed something?
TomXPS
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December 15th, 2010 09:00
Yes to be honest I not sure, you may be right. I only worked with RAID 1 only. Started using RAID 1 on XPS gen2 and used it on XPS 410 and Studio XPS 9100. The last two I had to create the RAID from the RAID BIOS and then re-install the system. For some reason I could not get the system to BOOT when I turned SATA RAID uption to RAID.