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lancorp

2 Intern

 • 

343 Posts

1106

January 7th, 2006 14:00

Explanation of SATA drive modes in BIOS

I've looked around, but cannot find a good, technical resource for explaining the differences between the four choices of SATA modes on a Dimension 9100 (and other models, I assume). 
 
I've discovered some cause-and-effect differences between the modes (SATA port 1 and 3 become unusable in COMBINATION mode, and DVD read speeds on the IDE port are DRAMATICALLY locked at 2x when RAID AUTODETECT/AHCI or /ATA are selected).
 
I'm looking for some techincal reference to explain the relationship of the SATA ports (why do 1 and 3 disappear in COMBINATION mode), etc.
 
Anyone have any links to information for this chipset or BIOS that will help explain this?
 
(Also, any help links on converting a non-RAID setup to a RAID setup without reformatting and reloading XP would be nice!)
 
Thanks!

puggyman

12 Posts

January 7th, 2006 15:00

I am not sure about the descriptions of the modes, but I set raid 1 up yesterday on my 8400 and it was very easy. Just set the controller to Raid ON in the bios setup and then run the "Intel(R) Application Accelerator" and follow the instructions. Raid 1 about 2.5 hrs later with no data loss.

 

lancorp

2 Intern

 • 

343 Posts

January 7th, 2006 17:00

Unfortunately, if your system wasn't installed with the RAID enabled, then there doesn't seem
to be a way to make an existing XP system into a RAID configuration.
 
When I set the BIOS to RAID ON, my XP won't boot anymore...it just blue screens because
it cannot find a disk driver. 
 
I've looked at Dell systems that RAID is enabled on and compared it to mine...appears to be using
the same driver and all, but SOMETHING is keeping my from wanting to do RAID.
 
That's why I was looking for some technical info.
 
Also, I discovered when my Dell is set to RAID autodetect modes, my IDE DVD burners slows
to a crawl (2x read). 
 
All these little peculiarites add up to something, so I was hoping there was some concise explanation out there!

puggyman

12 Posts

January 7th, 2006 20:00

My system wasn't installed with RAID setup. I have just put 2 new drives in my 8400 after the original single drive went bang. I installed xp on a single drive and ran that for 2 weeks, I then put in a second drive and enabled RAID ON in the bios and then just ran the "Intel(R) Application Accelerator" application. Sound like you have some other problem with the hardware. Better get on to Dell I guess

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