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Article Number: 000137946

RAID Configuration for Dell Precision Mobile Workstations

Summary: This article provides information about RAID configurations for Dell Precision Mobile Workstations.

This article may have been automatically translated. If you have any feedback regarding its quality, please let us know using the form at the bottom of this page.

Article Content

Symptoms

Table of contents

  1. Different types of RAID
    1. RAID 0 - Striped Disk Array with no Fault Tolerance
    2. RAID 1 - Mirrored Disk Array
  2. Steps to Install the Operating System With RAID
  3. Configuring RAID for Existing Operating Systems

Cause

Cause information is not available.

Resolution

CAUTION: It is recommended that Data is backed up before following the below steps, as any error could cause a permanent data loss.

1. RAID 0 - Striped Disk Array with no Fault Tolerance.

NOTE: Requires 2 HDD's of equal size, capacity and type.
  • Provides data striping (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disks) but no redundancy.
  • This improves performance but puts all data at risk in the event of a disk failure.
  • The drawback to this method is if one drive fails, then all data in the array (both disks) is lost.
  • The only benefit to this method is it speeds up write times to the drive which makes the system quicker and it keeps the full size of the disks.

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2. RAID 1 - Mirrored Disk Array

  • Provides redundancy in case one of the two drives fails.
  • This allows for all data to be duplicated on the fly but is not as fast as a RAID 0.
  • If a disk fails, the data can be recovered from the second disk.
  • The drawback is that there is half the size of your total capacity and it's slower to write and it does it to both drives.

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3. Steps to install the Operating system with RAID

  1. Enter System Setup or BIOS by tapping the <F2> key at the Dell splash screen.
  2. Navigate to the category that contains the SATA Operation mode.
  3. Select the SATA Operation Mode.
  4. Change the mode to RAID On and apply or click yes.
  5. Press <Esc>to bring up the exit from BIOS screen.
  6. Select Save and Exit, to exit System Setup and resume the boot process.
  7. When the SATA Operation field in System Setup has been set to RAID On the system will then display a RAID BIOS message after the Dell splash screen shows during POST.
  8. However if there is no RAID configured then the screen will display a No RAID volume message.
  9. On Start-up user must press the F12 key then arrow keys to select Device Configuration on the Boot Options menu.
  10. This opens the Intel RAID Option ROM utility in the BIOS for creating a RAID 0 or a RAID 1 Configuration.
  11. Select Create RAID Volume and press <Enter>.
  12. Enter a RAID volume name or accept the default and press <Enter>.
  13. For RAID 0 select RAID 0 (Stripe) and press <Enter> or for RAID 1 select RAID 1 (Mirror) and press <Enter>.
  14. Select the two drives that will constitute the RAID configuration and press <Enter>.
    1. For RAID 0 change the stripe size and press <Enter>
    2. For RAID 1 skip this step.
    NOTE: For RAID 0 select the stripe size closest to the size of the average file to be stored on the RAID volume. By default choose it 128 KB as the default stripe size.
  15. Select the desired capacity for the volume and press <Enter> (Go with the default size as it is the maximum available size).
  16. Press <Enter> to create the volume.
  17. Press <Y> to confirm creating the RAID volume.
  18. Check that the correct volume configuration is displayed on the main Intel RAID Option ROM utility screen.
  19. Select Exit and press <Enter>.
  20. The system should now be ready to Install the Operating System.

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4. Configuring RAID for Existing operating system

NOTE: If the computer has already got one hard drive that has the operating system installed on it and customer wants to add a second drive which the customer wants to configure as RAID without losing the existing data, then use the migrating option in the Intel Matrix Storage Manager in Operating system.
  1. Click the Start button and go to All Programs > Intel Matrix Storage Manager > Intel Matrix Storage Console to launch the Intel Storage Console.
  2. On the Actions menu select Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive to launch the Migration Wizard.
    NOTE: If an Actions menu option is not displayed, the computer is not set to RAID-enabled mode.
  3. Click Next on the Migration Wizard screen.
  4. Enter a RAID volume name or accept the default.
  5. Choose from the following options:
    1. For RAID 0, select RAID 0 as the RAID level from the drop-down box, select the appropriate stripe size from the drop-down box and click <Next>
    2. For RAID 1, select RAID1 as the RAID level from the drop-down box, go on to the next step.
  6. On the Select Source Hard Drive screen double-click the hard drive from which to migrate data and click <Next>.
    NOTE: Select the hard drive that is to be used as the source drive. (it should be the hard drive containing the data or operating system files that are to be migrated to the RAID volume).
  7. On the Select Member Hard Drive screen double-click the hard drive to select the member drive on which to span the array and click <Next>.
    1. For RAID 0, on the Specify Volume Size screen, select the desired volume size and click <Next>
    2. For RAID 1, go on to the next step.
    NOTE: In the following step, all data contained on the member drive is lost.
  8. Click on Finish to start migrating or click Back to make changes. The computer can be used normally during the migration process.

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Additional Information

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Article Properties

Affected Product

Mobile Workstations

Last Published Date

24 Jul 2023

Version

5

Article Type

Solution

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