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D9100 RAID Question
Hi Anyone:
I went through 12 pages of posts in this board and I gave up. I coudn't find what I needed. I have a number of questions: Where can I find specific documentation for the following:
1. The detailed meaning of the SATA OPERATION settings in the Setup menu (F2). How do I know if drives are signed? What are the defintions of AHCI and ATA as they relate to a RAID configuration?
2. How to cjheck to see what kind of RAID configuration I currently have.
3. Specific instructions on how setup a RAID 1 configuration for after adding a mirror drive (160gb) .
I work with poweredge servers all day and setting up a PERC3/4 is a piece of cake compared to the figuring out how RAID works on this product.
Thanks.
mcolman
- OK. My problem now is I can't set up the RAID congif...no setup screen. I try Control+i at startup and it either ignores or skips and goes into the nornal WinxpPro startup screen. Three or four times doing this on a restart tells me something is wrong.If I go to Programs>Intel Matrix Storage, all I get is documentation...no setup stuff. I even downloaded the latest version of the Matrix manager thinking I had an old version, but still no access to the setup screen.Any help would be appreciated.MCOLMAN
Do you have 2 HD installed ?
At least on my XPS Gen2, the CTL I function did not work until I had 2 drives intalled in the system.
The best way is to migrate to RAID 1 using the Intel Storage Managert (Used to be Intel Application Accelerator) located in the control panel. Use the Migration feature to setup RAID 1 and migrate your current drive to the new driver you added.
Hello Tom:
Yes I have 2 drives. I just installed the second drive and connected to SATA 1. The Matrix info confirms I have Sata 0 and Sata 1 occupied. However, I don't thnk you read my post correctly. You say "Use the Migration feature to setup RAID 1 and migrate your current drive to the new driver you added." There are no migration features available to me. That's my problem. I CAN"T DO ANYTHING in the Matrix menus. I can't get to the migration part of the Matrix software!!!!
Regards,
Phil Wyatt
- Assuming you have the system like it was shipped you should be RAID Ready. The Factory Setting should of had the RAID Driver loaded, and the BIOS set for a mode that would allow you to setup the RAID. In the control panel you should have a Intel Application. On my XPS Gen 2 (one of the first Dell computers with the Intel RAID) it was called Intel application Accelerator, which had an option to setup an RAID and migrate my disk to RAID 1 0r 0. On your 9100 I beleive it's called Intel Storage Manager. Anway it should be located in the control panel.Hopefully someone with a 9100 will respond. I am sure you 9100 has the same option. Biggest problem I see following this forum is people changing setting or re-loading the System and not have the BIOS or the RAID Driver installed. Which means you need to re-load.I check out your system guide and seen no reference to how to set it up, but I know some have noted documentation on it. On my XPS gen 2 there was very little documentation on setting it up, but I figured it out. I did not have to re-load, i just migrated to RAID 1. Took about 60-90 minutes for the process to complete.Might want to seach the Intel web site that's where I got most of my information. Dell really does not do a very good job in this area.!Good luck.
Message Edited by TomXPS on 08-15-2005 09:45 PM
- Thanks Tom:I went to the Intel site and downloaded the manual...all 108 pages of it and printed it out.My problem is still the same:1. CRTL + i does note invoke the Intel Matrix Setup program on startup. It just skips to a normal post of the OS.2. Once XPPro is executed and running, I can go into Control Panel>Intel Matrix Storage Manager. But there are no options for viewing or changing RAID setup. (No right click functions...NADA).3. In Device manager, my system shows the proper SATA driver per the readme.txt instructions in the Intel Storage Manager documentation.My problem is the same...I can't get into the setup functions. It's almost like I don't have the ROM installed. Is this possible?Thanks.Phil Wyatt
- Sounds like your drive is not being found by the BIOS. Check in the Disk Manager application to make sure the DISK show up there. Right Click Manage, choose Disk Manager from there. Should have a DISK on SATA port 0, and the other one you used. May want to try another port.
Thanks Tom:
I have got to the point where I can see the drives. I thought no one was going to respond to this thread so I started a new one at Dell 9100 Raid 1 Config Setup Problem. You can pick up my efforts there.
Thanks for the response.
MCOLMAN
ejn63
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Posted August 13th, 2005 21:00
If you want to know what RAID you've got, check the purchase details. support.dell.com, enter service tag, choose Original Configuration. Or, either open the RAID utility under Windows, or go in with CTRL-I at bootup. Either will tell you. So will simple math - check the individual drive capacities, and compare them to the size of the C drive - if you have 2X160 and a 160G C drive, you've RAID1. If you've a 320G C drive, it's RAID 0.
If you have RAID0 and want 1, make sure that:
You have made an XP boot CD from the startup utility.
You have an INTERNAL (not USB) floppy diskette drive.
You download the SATA controller utility to a floppy.
Boot the system, press CTRL-I and set up the RAID array.
Boot the XP CD, press F6, and insert the floppy. The install will continue normally.