GX60 Destroyer - installing two SSDs in a RAID array.

I am sorry if this is repeated in another thread, but I am struggling to find any information that could help with me installing Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on two SSDs in a RAID array in my MSI GX60 Destroyer. Windows keeps asking for drivers and cannot detect the SSDs during windows installation.
Has anyone done this before and if so, how did you do it?
Many thanks for reading!
Regards,
Iain

You would need RAID driver from AMD which MSI does not offer it for download.

Similar Messages

How to use the noop scheduler on two SSDs in software RAID mode?

Hi all,
I have two SSDs in RAID0 via motherboard ("fake") raid. They're mapped using dm-raid. The root device is /dev/dm-3
According to: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives, you can do `echo noop >/sys/block/sdX/queue/scheduler`, but that doesn't seem to work for me.
On my system:
% cat /sys/block/dm-3/queue/scheduler [1]
none
% cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler [1]
noop deadline [cfq]
How would I make this RAID0 partition use the noop scheduler?
Update, setting /dev/sda to use noop worked, but is there a way to apply it to the RAID0 partition only?
% cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler [1]
noop deadline [cfq]
% echo noop | sudo tee /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler [1]
noop
% cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler [0]
[noop] deadline cfq
Last edited by solarwind (2012-10-18 23:33:22)

Someone needs to come out with an interface to do SATA/SAS Thunderbolt.
One idea, no idea but Barefeats reviewed
http://www.barefeats.com/hard156.html
Elmar Weiss Photography's blog posted an excellent review comparing the Drobo 5D Thunderbolt with the Pegasus R6 Thunderbolt enclosure.
http://www.barefeats.com/imac12d.html
Look around, Google and always hit Barefeats for such questions in your research

Two ssd 64gb raid 0 and two sata 320 w d hd raid 0

Hello
I am having issues getting the WD 320Gig hard drive's to run in raid 0
System see the SSD in raid 0 .......but not the WD's in windows 7..... during boot up it see the WD's in the boot up and in the raid screen
Thermal Take Dokker Case
AMD x4 970 Black clocked to 3.9GHz with OC genie lite .... just enabled it in the bio's and let it do it on it's own.
Corsair H50 water cooled
MSI 890FXA-GD70 mother board
1.80 bio's updated already
Diamond HD6850 GDDR5 1024MB Vid card
Two 4 Gig Kit's Crucial DDR3 Ballistix 1280 CL8 1.65VW/XMP
Two Micro Center Re-Badged ADATA S599 2.5 SATA SSD 64GB Hard drives running RAID 0
flashing utility has been done to the drive’s already
http://www.adata.com.tw/upload/downloadfile/ADATA%20S599%20Firmware%20Upgrade%20Tool%20V1.0.rar
Two WD 320 Gig Hard Drives Sata2 16meg's cache
Sony lightscribe DVD.
ViewSonic 27inch HDMI 1080p 100,000 to 1 contrast and 1 ms
Thank's for any help with this system... boots up to log on screen in 30 sec's and then after entering pass word it is on desk top in 10 sec's

I am not having any luck at all with this.... when I do get it to see the SSD's and I load the RAID driver at win7 driver install screen it all loads up fine and when it get's ready to go into win7 after rebooting I get a blue screen and reboot's..... blue screen flashes by so fast i can not read it...... also i took back the the Micro Center Re-Badged ADATA S599 2.5 SATA SSD HDD's 64GB and exchanged them for two OCZ Vertex 80GB SSD and swapped out the two WD 320GB for one WD Caviar Black 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 64meg's.... I am looking to RAID 0 the two SSD's and I just can not get it using the RAID hardware on the MB .... I have been able to do it in windows manager but it will not let me load OS on to them... I do have Win7 loaded onto the WD 1TB SATA HDD at this point hoping I could get the two SSD's in RAID 0 and did.... but only as dynamic and it will not let me load OS on to them... I had hoped to do and then delete the OS on the WD 1TB SATA hard drive
Thank you in Adv. for any assistance

Clone hard drive then raid two SSD's

Asking advice on how to re-install my current hard drive info after I RAID my two SSD drives on my 2011 (Early) Macbook Pro. I know how to do the RAID but need to know how do I get all my current hard drive contents back on the RAID'd drive. Do not want to have to re-install all my Apps

It is simple to clone your hard drive to the SSD RAID:
Clone Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the SSD RAID drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Can I install two regular (non SSD) drives on an iMac?

I noticed that you can configure an iMac to come with one regular hard drive and one SSD drive. I was wondering if you could install two regular drives instead? I would like to use one hard drive as a back up drive but in order for that to work they both would need to be about the same capacity.

There simply isn't enough room for two regular sized (3.5 inches) harddisks.
The SSD has a size of 2.5 inches and for that there seems to be enough room for that size.
iFixit has done a teardown of the 27" iMac http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac-Intel-27-Inch-Teardown/1236/1
Stefan

Dual Boot Selection with two SSD Installed

I have two SAMSUNG SSD's installed in the W540.
SSD #1 -- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
SSD #2 -- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
The SSD's had a complete install of each Microsoft Windows operating system without using the dual boot manager. I select teh SSD to boot from by using teh F12 key at boot time.
On my previous computer (HP EliteBook Workstation 8560w), the BIOS had a option to display a boot selection menu for me to select from without having to manually select the option to display. The boot selection menu gave me 20-30 seconds to select a alternative boot option. If I did not respond it woudl boot to the primary drive.
Can the Lenovo W540 be setup the same way? I can find no options in the latest BIOS.

I am honestly dubious that your previous HP machine had anything in the BIOS to provide this "Boot Manager" functionality you've described. Your description is exactly what Boot Manager in Windows does, which probably what was in effect on your HP machine.
Now you say you installed two separate versions of Windows on two separate drives, and without involving Windows Boot Manager. That suggests to me that you unplugged the other SSD when you did each install, so that the Windows installer didn't even know about the other bootable OS when doing its current install. If it had seen the other pre-existing bootable Windows, then the second install would have triggered the creation of a 2-OS boot menu (identical to what you say you saw on your old HP machine). You could still have two bootable Windows, on two separate drives (or, you could also have installed to two separate partitions on one drive if you wanted to), and at boot time Boot Manager would present the menu to you and you'd select one or the other. The most recent Windows to get installed would probably have made itself the "default", so that after 10-30 seconds it would auto-boot to that Windows if you didn't arrow up/down and press ENTER to select the other Windows for this particular boot.
The BIOS of the machine has a "boot sequence" setup, and one of your two SSD drives MUST be first, in front of the other. So at boot time by default (in the absence of F12 to select a boot device) the BIOS would normally go to THAT "first" drive in the boot sequence list, locate the "active" partition on that drive (where Boot Manager is assumed to live), and start the boot process. If Boot Manager sees a 1-OS boot menu, it just goes to that partition (as C, where Windows lives on that drive) and starts Windows. If a 2-OS boot menu exists, Boot Manager presents it to you and you decide which Windows you want to boot to.
When you push F12 at boot time, you simply say to the BIOS "let me pick which of my drives I want you to go to, to then find the "active" partition on that drive to kick off the boot process". Since you did two completely independent Windows installs, I would say that you probably have a "system reserved" partition (which is marked "active") on each SSD, along with a C system partition (for Windows) on each SSD. So you can actually boot to either drive, via F12, or you can just let the machine boot to whichever one you know to be first in the boot sequence list.
But... if you'd simply installed your second Windows to the second SSD while the first Windows/SSD was still cabled and visible, the second Windows install would have done everything you're now asking to be done. The existing 1-OS boot menu (on the first SSD) would have been seen and updated by the Windows installer, to add the second Windows to the menu which would thus now be a 2-OS boot menu. The second Windows would get installed wherever you wanted it to get installed (i.e. to the second SSD), and all would be well with the world.
Note that had this taken place, no second "system reserved" partition (marked "active", and housing the second copy of Boot Manager) would have been created on the second SSD with the second installed Windows. The existing "system reserved" (marked "active", and living on the first drive in the BIOS boot sequence list) would simply have had its boot menu updated from 1-OS to 2-OS, and you'd be home free right now.
This is exactly how Boot Manager works. I'm sure your old HP machine had such a setup, with your two Windows installed sequentially over time, and with the second one recognizing the first one's existence and adding itself to the boot menu to produce a 2-OS boot menu which is what you saw. That wasn't from the BIOS. It was from Windows Boot Manager handling a 2-OS boot menu.
So, what can you do now? Well, technically, you only need one "active" partition (i.e. "system reserved", where Boot Manager lives) on the first SSD in your BIOS boot sequence list. You won't need the second "system reserved" which in my opinion was probably created (unnecessarily) when you did your second Windows install with the first SSD temporarily disconnected.
But the goal here is to get the 1-OS boot menu that's on the first SSD "system reserved" partition updated, to add the second Windows on the second SSD, producing a 2-OS boot menu. And to do that you can use a wonderful 3rd-party product named EasyBCD. It is a tool to maintain your boot menu, and you can manually do things after-the-fact (like now) which you should have done before, or simply to perform maintenance or changes.
So, with both SSD's cabled and operational (your current booted Windows will appear as C, and probably your other drive's Windows partition will thus appear as D to the current booted Windows), you run EasyBCD. It really doesn't matter which Windows is on the first SSD and that is first in the BIOS boot sequence, only that it will be the boot menu in the "system reserved" partition on that drive which will be manipulated by EasyBCD to become the 2-OS menu. You can make either Windows the default (which will auto-boot in 10 seconds if you don't select the other Windows), no matter which SSD it's on.
You can view the current boot menu (from the currently booted Windows) via EDIT. You pick which entry is to be the "default".
To add a new entry to the boot menu, push the ADD button and navigate to the drive (D) the Windows to be added lives on.
If you don't already have same, I would recommend you have a "system image" backup of both of your bootable Windows drives (to an external USB 3.0 drive, ideally), so that if you're skittish about doing this you'll at least be able to quickly and easily restore what you currently have from your backups.
But believe me, EasyBCD can be trusted to do exactly what you want to do... which is to create a 2-OS boot menu on your first drive's "system reserved" partition. This 2-OS boot menu will name BOTH of your two bootable Windows, from your two SSD drives. You won't need to push F12 to select the boot device, just let the machine go to the first drive in the boot sequence and kick off Boot Manager, and the rest will behave exactly as you are now seeking.
Let me know if you have questions. And for sure, let us know how it turns out.

Can I delete a two SSD Raid 0?

Attempted to setup a RAID 0 using two SSD drives, using Disk Utility.
Then tried to use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone an existing bootable internal drive to the new RAID.
CCC stated that it couldn't do that because one of the drives in RAID had no Recovery Partition.
Now I cannot delete the RAiD setup to go back and reformat the individual drives to include the Recovery partition.
Other than being out of my mind, what am I doing wwrong here?
All this is on a 2012 Mac Pro running Maverick OS.

I don't know if this will help or not, but I did have a problem in attempting to "De-Construct" a RAID array that got broken somehow and I wanted to change the striping from mirrored (RAID 1) to RAID 0. Since this was a LaCie External Little Bisk 250GB SSD, I wrote to them and received a reply (the Disk Utility application cannot "De-Construct" a RAID array once created by that application, but it can be easily accomplished via Terminal using the Command Line:
DE-Construct a LaCie Little Bog Disk RAID Array
From LaCie Technical Support on May 29, 2014
IMPORTANT NOTE: The procedure below involves the use of the Terminal program. This program, if used incorrectly, can cause data loss, or other problems. Ensure everything is typed precisely to avoid data loss.
Ensure an up to date backup exists prior to starting this process. It is important to ensure you do not have any other removable drives attached to the computer other than the one we are working with during this process.
1. Open the program "Terminal". This is within the Utilities folder (MacHD --> Applications --> Utilities)
In the terminal window, type:
diskutil list
then press enter. Ensure this is all lower-case, as everything is case-sensitive within Terminal.
This command will return a list of all the attached drives on the computer by a unique hardware identifier. (e.g. disk1, disk1s1). At this point, you will need to determine the correct identifier for the drive we are working with.
2. If you are having problems getting the volume to dismount in Disk Utility, you can use the following command:
diskutil unmount force (identifier)
This step is not necessary if the volume for the drive we're working with is already unmounted. In that case, proceed to the next step.
3. One of the disk identifier entries may show the overall RAID set that was configured on the drives. If that is present, use the following command to remove this item:
diskutil appleraid delete (identifier)
Again, if the RAID set is not visible in the listing shown in step 1, then proceed to the next step.
4. The following command will completely eradicate any remaining header information on the individual disks. This command would need to be done for each disk in the array:
diskutil zerodisk (identifier)
Please be very careful when running this command. This will fully wipe all data from the target drive(s). This should, however, clear off the inaccurate header indication on the drive that is incorrectly telling Disk Utility the drive is "broken".
This process will start a long zero-out procedure on the drive. If you wish to test the hardware integrity of the drive mechanism, you can let this process complete to 100%. If this completes without errors, then we know the hardware of the drive mechanism is completely healthy. This will take several hours to finish on most systems.
If you do not wish to wait, then you can usually interrupt this process (Control + C will abort this) after a minute or two. The important header information is one of the first things to be erased by this process, so even if interrupted, this command should still correct the problem.
5. After everything is finished, you should be able to exit Terminal, and go back into the Disk Utility Application to re-configure the RAID array on the device.
Hope this is helpful,
Barry

Help me for msi gx60 destroyer

I have the following problems. Please help!
1: my notebook is msi gx60 destroyer
but vga r9 m290x in gpu-z Is not (gpu clock: 900 - memory: 1250), bandwidth : 160. gb/s
my is in gpu-z --> gpu clock : 950 - memory : 900 !!!
what?!!!!
Please help me and let me take a picture of mine(gpu-z).
2:Contrast is the difference in battery mode when the power cable is connected.
Are you one of the numbers is the contrast of the display is higher battery is bad. What can I do?
I have this problem in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The driver is the latest version.
3 : How hard Ssd raid, is how to install Windows? I do whatever I want to install Windows from my driver! Where can I get the drivers?
Thank you

Ok, I got word back from my MSI rep. Apparently, it's a limitation on the RAM that is used for the video card. Other laptops that use the HD8970M or R9 M290X that are not MSI suffer from this as well. This is an AMD goof-up, not MSI's, so don't get mad at MSI. The rep said that they tried to overclock to 1200MHz, but got BSOD's all the time. The rep assures me that the gaming experience is minimally affected (so nothing you'd notice, like 1-2 FPS difference)

Installing three SSD drives on Mac Pro

Hello,
I followed the advice given here and bought 3 Samsung 840 SSD drives for my Mac Pro. Two of them are 120GB and one is 250GB.
I also purchased a Tempo SSD Pro 6GB/s SATA PCIe Drive. Only one of them (that holds two SSDs.)
I plan on using:
     • one SSD for the OS and APPS
     • one SSD for a PS scratch disc
     • one SSD for the photoshop, premiere pro, and after effects files I'm currently working on.
I figured I'd keep the 1TB HDD currently used in the computer to store all my other files.
I also have a 1TB seagate extrenal HDD that I would like to set up as a back up or time machine.
Does this sound good?
If so, which SSD do I install in my regular sliding drawer bay? I have 2.5" - 3.5" adapter.
Which two do I install on the PCIe card?
Which on do I use for what?
As you can see I'm clueless. Lol
Here are my specs before adding the SSDs.
Mac Pro
Mid 2012
Processor 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB
Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)
Storage 1TB Sata disc (423.26GB free),
               1TB External USB Disk freeAgent GoFlex Drive (988.58 free)
P.S. I'm unsure about being able to install my current O.S. on the new SSD. When I bought the Mac Pro it had an older version of OS on it with a free download of the new OS. So the disc will only have the older version. Will I have to pay for the newer one or can I somehow copy it from the current HDD drive it's installed on?
Thank you so much. You have already been a HUGE help in the past posts and look forward to your wisdom. 8 )
Matt

Clone the system to the SSD you plan to use for system.
How much disk space is your system using now? w/o incl. anything in /Users, so just system.
If your system uses 60GB you want to use the 240GB SSD.
I think 120GB is on small side for scratch alone.
move projects to scratch array when you want to work on them: "Work disk + scratch" is fast. Then move them off the array, erase the array, and start a new project.
I would try the 2 x 120 SSDs on PCIe 6G as scratch and see how it feels and works.Try and test. No harm. I think that is what most people do, they experiement and try out different setups to find the one that works best for them.
Important: Have a clone of the system and be ready to restore or move it around as needed.
Install TRIM Enabler of course.
SSD Maintenance
Samsung recommends setting aside 10% for over-provisioning.
Their Windows utility, shame there isn't a Mac version.
#2: Try system on 120GB in drive bay with an adapter
With that then use the other two on the Tempo.
Those could be one large 360GB volume JBOD.
You will have to see how much your scratch space gets used.
I would have argued for 3 x 240GB SSDs. More flexible. Better SSD design - slightly. Adds $140 to the price, even if you had to wait to get 3rd one;
#3 get 2 x 240GB for scratch and projects and 1 x 120GB for system (if your system is less than 50GB)
I doubt you will find the difference of the system on the Sonnet Tempo a deciding factor.
The Sonnet Tempo Pro is for higher I/O RAID, both Tempo cards support 2 x SSDs (I have the cheaper one)
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-120GB-internal-MZ-7TD120BW/dp/B009NHAF06/
PS: You have Mountain Lion. Buy Carbon Copy Cloner and it will clone the system and create the recovery volume also so you should not need to redownload 10.8.x - and you do not need the DVD with 10.6.4 again.

How do you install Snow Leopard on a Raid 0

Hey guys
I have a MBpro 13" 2011 with Lion currently installed (the MBpro was shipped with snow leopard)
I bought 2 SSD's and I'm trying to make a fresh install on the MBpro. No backup, time machine, images, or anything like that.
Questions:
can I install it from an external hard drive? or do I need an external DVD player?
how do I configure the empty drives in RAID 0 before starting the installation
thanks

how do I configure the empty drives in RAID 0 before starting the installation
The support for creating RAID 0 Striped or RAID 1 Mirrored is included in Disk Utility. Disk Utility is available on the Installer/Utilities DVD (or its equivalent if copied to and then booted from an external drive). normally, you would Boot from the Installer/Utilities DVD, but do not install. Answer only the "what Language" question, and wait for the MenuBar to be drawn. Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
After you have created a striped RAID from two SSDs, they will show up as one Volume, onto which the Installer can Install.

Can I install a SSD on an optical drive in a HP Envy Phoenix

I just purchased a customized HP ENVY Phoenix Desktop - 810-350se CTO with a Raid 5 configuration (3 x 2 TB), but I noticed and researched that it seems that is better to have a SSD installed to have your computer access data faster, of course, I want to use it for the OS installed on it. So I have two questions?
1.) Can I change the configuration so I can add an SSD on a optical drive? (This will be the 4th drive). Since I am already using 3 HDD on a Raid 5 configuration and there wouldn't be any more space left, I am assuming that I can only use an empty optical drive space and install an SSD?
2.) Is there a limitation of how many drives and capacity HDD can be installed on the motherboard?
My proposed solution is to keep the 3 HDD and install a 4th drive (SSD) on the optical drive and use it for the OS (Windows 8.1).
Any suggestions and/or recommendations is highly appreciated it.
Thank you.
3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4960X processor
•4TB 7200 RPM SATA 6G RAID Hard Drive
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
Your PC is already using a Windows 8 boot loader and if you load the SSD in UEFI mode then you will add another Windows 8 boot loader to the eligible boot device menu. This will lead to confusion. I would suggest that you avoid this situation by trying the following procedure:
Be sure to create the external HP recovery media
Install the SSD on port 1 or 2
Disable secure boot in the BIOS and switch to legacy mode
Boot into the Intel OPROM and rebuild the RAID 5 array
Boot back into the BIOS and enable UEFI mode
Boot the external HP recover media and load the SSD (SSD recommended size is 240 GB or larger)
Once you are up and running then go into Disk Management and format the RAID array as GPT
The above procedure may or may not work but it's what I would first try.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

Another strange RAID 0 SSD query with Asus P9X79 Pro - RAID array appearing in AHCI mode

Hi all, I found this thread:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4874435
very helpful, as it describes a similar situation to my case (same motherboard). Here is my situation:
historically, this was my setup (all on Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard):
2 x 120Gb Intel 320 SSDs. Operating system on one of them, Lightroom catalogue and photoshop scratch disk on the other.
1 x 2TB WD SATA 3 HDD. All images and other data etc
1 x blu-ray DVD burner
As I am now needing video editing, I have just bought Premiere Pro. My OS SSD was also getting quite full. So, I took the plunge and bought a Samsung 830series 256GB SSD.
My plan was this:
(a) make the Samsung the new OS drive, so lots of spare space for the SSD to play with (plugged into one of the 6 GB/s ports)
(b) make a RAID 0 of the two Intel SSDs (i.e. 240GB volume) to act as Lightroom catalogue, PS scratch disk and Premiere Pro media cache, previews etc etc. This would be on 2 of the 3GB/s ports
(c) keep the 2TB WD HDD for data. (plugged into the other 6 GB/s port)
(d) plug the Blu-Ray drive into another of the 3 GB/s ports
However, I was having a nightmare reinstalling the OS from scratch, so I ended up using Norton Ghost to port the OS across from the Intel SSD to the Samsung SSD. I didn't have a lot of faith that it would work, but it did.... eventually. I have checked SSD alignment and it is correct, and I benchmarked the Samsung and it is flying - it is running to reported values according to AS Benchmark. So, I think that one is working fine - great stuff.
However, this left me with the two Intel 120GB SSDs to try to make into a RAID 0. Apart from the fact that my OS was already installed (and so no F6 driver install), I followed the instructions/suggestions of frogo369 in the forum thread I linked to above. I changed the SATA mode to RAID in the UEFI and then defined the RAID in the CTRL+I Intel RST option ROM utility. I then rebooted the PC.... oh dear.....
The PC started and got as far as the swirling Welcome to Windows sign (i.e. before log on appears), but then came the Blue Screen Of Death - and it gets into a never-ending reboot cycle. :-(
So, I figured that this was because I had changed my SATA mode in the UEFI from AHCI to RAID, but the OS was obviously from a time when I was only on AHCI. Therefore, I changed the SATA mode back to AHCI in UEFI. thankfully, the computer now boots successfully once more into Windows.
BUT, HERE'S THE BIT I DON'T UNDERSTAND..........
Weirdly (for me at least!), when I look at the list of disks in Disk Management, I could see the RAID. It was "unallocated", so I formatted it. It formatted fine. I then opened the Intel SSD toolbox, and it can see the RAID 0 (it even defines it as such). The only thing it won't let me do is really "interact" with it as it says I need Intel RST drivers of 11.0 or newer. But I don't think they are available for the X79 chipset - so no TRIM I think?? I've just benchmarked the RAID and it is doing good numbers - >500Mb/s read and 400Mb/s write if I remember correctly.
But anyway, my question really is two-fold:
(a)Firstly - how can I see this RAID/how is it working, if my BIOS is set to AHCI mode not RAID??
(b)am I likely to see a rapid detioration in the speed of the RAID, given that presumably TRIM won't be working on it?
Sorry for such a long explanation - and no doubt I've missed out huge bits of info you need anyway! But, any help, advice or direction would be very, very, gratefully received!
Tim

OK, an update to my post - I have now found Intel RST drivers for the X79 chipset - they are here, for the benefit of anyone in the future coming across this page:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=21852&keyword=%22Intel+Rapi d+Storage+Technology%22&lang=eng
These have enabled me communicate with the RAID 0 array via the Intel SSD Toolbox. I have also confirmed that TRIM is activated on it.
However, this still hasn't answered my original question - i.e. how can I be using these two SSDs in RAID mode if RAID is not enabled in the UEFI? Don't get me wrong - I'm delighted(!!) - but any expertise as to how this is happening would be much appreciated!
Tim

I want to install an SSD as my OS drive. Can I do a copy of my existing drive straight the new drive?

I wish to install an SSD as my OS drive. I seem to recall in my travels that it is possible to copy my existing OSD, install the SSD, Copy old drive info' to new drive and then set that to be the boot drive.
Any directions to where I can find out how to do this would be greatly apprecciated. Providing this can be done.

TRIM Part 2
Trim on SSD Drives
When I first wrote this article/thread, which was for my own benefit and was eventually turned into this thread, as it is today, trim was not available on ssd drives, when it did arrive, there were mixed idea’s on how it worked, a lot that was incorrect at the time, a lot of new users do not understand the use of Trim even today, explanations tend to very technical as trim is a complicated issue at the best of times. I found a simple explanation for the implementation of trim in late 2009, I came across it again the other day, it still holds true today so here’s the link, ( I know you are going to point me to AnandTech explanations, there are links in this thread, if your a technically minded person, then AnandTech’s articles may be a better option ) this simpler explanation is still active in late 2011. As you can see if you carry on reading and don’t turn off, how complicated it can be for a non-technical user of ssd drives. So here’s my explanation of trim. Remember this a generalization of most ssd drives, it’s a lot easier when your dealing with your own ssd drive.
Trim and it’s association with GC ( garbage collection ) varies depending on how the controller’s "GC" handles the use of Trim ( Win7 ). Trim is activated, by deleting files in the OS ( Win7 ), it doesn’t actually trim the ssd drive, but marks the block/file header’s with a 1 making that block/file available for being re-written or written over. Trimming is actually done by the GC and will only work if the block doesn’t contain other files that haven’t been marked deleted, but this again depends on how GC is implemented, the GC can wait till the block is full, then move undeleted files to another block allowing for the block to be trimmed ( GC ), in doing this, the GC uses a lot more write amplification than it does if Trim in win7 has previously marked these blocks/files for deletion, flash memory can only be ‘written over’ if all the information in that block as been marked with 1, this allows the whole block to be re-written. GC can only erase/Trim a full block, not individual files or pages.
What trim does is mark these blocks/files etc and make it simpler for the inbuilt GC ( garbage collection ) to recognize the blocks that are available for further use, on some controller’s this will not necessarily happen immediately, it depends on whether the controller as been designed for “idle” use, “on the fly” use or “stand by use”, GC/Trim can be brought into use in many different ways, having the computer sitting with the bios open, having the computer idling at log in, placing the computer in stand by mode, deleting files or just simple idling the computer overnight. It’s a matter of finding out how the controller in your particular ssd handles the garbage collection. You will find the most efficient way is by experimentation or by other members passing on there particular way of doing it.
Low level formatting used on conventional HDD drives writes mainly 0’s to every cell on a SSD drive, it’s the opposite to how flash memory actually works, if you low level format with Win7 or any software that writes 0’s or 0’s and 1’s to the individual cells, you are not necessarily cleaning the ssd drive completely, ( hence the need for secure erase software ), you can actually make the performance worse.
If you use software designed for writing 1’s to each cell, like you would if it was designed for ssd drives, this will “clean” the drive and is a good thing to do if you are selling the drive, or as a last resort, if you are having problems with your ssd drive. The downside of using this type of erasure, is that it not only takes a long time it uses high write amplification and if used regularly can reduce the flash cells life expectancy considerably, these type’s of deletions bypass most controllers durawrite capabilities ( the way controllers extend the life expectancy of the ssd’s individual MLC cells ), Durawrite ( Sandforce ), other controllers have this technology in some form or other, it increases MLC life expectancy by between 5 and up to 30 times depending on the design of the controller.
Basically a command line program like dispart and dispar will secure erase a ssd drive either by writing to the individual ( “Cleanall“ command ) cells or simply marking the blocks to be deleted with a 1 ( “Clean” command ), you need to use the latter which takes only seconds and will return the majority of ssd's to a new state, without impacting too much on write amplification.
That’s how I see the use of GC and Trim in win7 today ( Nov 2011 ). Note! Most ssd software, tool boxes etc use the inbuilt win7 diskpart commands, to make it easier than using the command line. There is a explanation for the use of diskpart and can be found HERE, but NOTE! It’s written with conventional hard drives in mind, not ssd drives.
In the case of most Toolboxes provided by manufacturer’s, the OCZ Toolbox is a typical example, they are incompatible with Intel’s RST driver, you would need to use Diskpart from the command line. Also Toolboxes will in most cases, not secure erase a ssd with a OS on it or if the ssd drive is in use as the OS drive eg. ( “C:/” partition ). If you want to secure erase an OS drive you need to delete all the partitions on the drive including any hidden partitions, there’s an excellent tutorial on the Intel toolbox on LesT’s website, TheSSDReview here’s the Link.
You will have to use Diskpart or Diskpar from the Dos prompt, you can’t be in windows with the ssd drive you intend to erase. This is mainly if the toolboxes fail to work and deleting the partitions refuses to solve the problem.
I’m sure there are exceptions to what I have written and easier ways of explaining trim or secure erasing some types of ssd drives. All I ask is you don’t isolate passages out of context, please read the whole article, before you tell me I’m incorrect. There are a lot of more informative people out there than me on this subject, so I’m open to criticism on the subject. I want to impart only the correct facts on this thread.
Trim and the IDE issue The Intel IDE drivers after Vista sp2 are fully compatible with the trim command , but for trim to pass through this command, the ssd controller itself has also got to be compatible with IDE mode, eg. Intel drives with the Intel controllers are ( according to Intel ) fully compatible. The Crucial M4 appears not to be, other controllers optimized for AHCI may also not be compatible. I can’t comment on the Intel 510 as I’ve only ever used them in AHCI mode.
Wearlevelling Here’s an explanation that’s not too complicated, its from StorageSearch.com, here’s the LINK.
Overprovisioning Also from StorageSearch.com, a simple explanation for the need for overprovisioning, same link as above. This actual link covers a number of technologies used by the ssd controller in ssd drives. Overprovisioning improves write performance, if the ssd is used in a high write situation, increasing the overprovisioning will improve performance and write endurance, in a high read situation, too much can hinder performance, in a os situation the 7% supplied on client drives, in most cases is probably adequate depending on it’s use, if there’s a lot of writing done to the drive daily, reducing the partition size, which will increase overprovisioning, by a small amount may improve performance.
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=3643482&postcount=1
Trimming SSD Performance Degradation
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Todays solid state drives are worlds apart from those of just 3 years ago, however they are not yet perfect. Performance degradation can still be observed through ‘seasoning’ of the SSD as well as filling it to capacity. SSD manufacturers have been successful in combating the effects of seasoning but performance degradation when an SSD is filled to capacity seems to be just a bit more difficult.
Typical testing of most drives, through use of random data, will result in an observable performance drop which may start as soon as the SSD is filled past the 70% mark. This article will describe the common characteristics of SSDs followed by a simple method to ensure that maximum performance is sustained with the drive.
SEASONING
Much has been said with respect to performance degradation as a result of the ssd becoming ‘seasoned’ over time. By ‘seasoned’, we mean that the drive will eventually use up all of its empty blocks of NAND, or memory and, without TRIM, the process of writing to a drive actually becomes that of reading the block of data, understanding that it is invalid, erasing and then writing rather than simply writing to a clean block. Performance is greater when writing to ‘clean’ memory vice memory which has previously been used and contains invalid data that has not been cleared. The root cause of degradation is that when a non-TRIM ssd is told to delete data, it actually only marks the area as clear which leaves the invalid data intact and tricks the ssd into believing that the NAND flash is available.
Data on a SSD cannot simply be over-written as it is done on a hard drive and this gets a bit more complicated when we erase information and the block that it is located on also contains valid information that we don’t want deleted. The process then becomes read data, recognize the valid information, move it to another clean block, erase the present block and write. Manufacturers have tried to combat this issue of performance degradation by creating 3 solutions to the problem which are wear leveling, TRIM and ITGC (or Garbage Collection).
Wear leveling
Wear leveling is the process of the ssd understanding how many times each cell of memory has been written to and then ensuring that all are all written to evenly. After all, the life span of the ssd is dependent on the total number of writes that are written to and this has been coined as ‘write endurance’. Unlike the hard drive which stores information in a static location, the SSD will move information around on a continuous basis without your knowledge to ensure that all cells wear evenly, thus affording a longer lifespan for the ssd. By also doing this, the drive can ensure that only the valid information is used, leaving blocks to be cleaned up by TRIM or ITGC, again without the knowledge of the user.
ITGC/GC (Idle Time Garbage Collection)
Garbage Collection (GC) is the process by which the SSD recognizes, in idle time, which cells are valid and which are not valid (or deleted) on the drive. It then clears the blocks of the invalid data to maintain the speed of writing to ‘clean’ pages or blocks during normal operation. GC was initially shown to be a last resort if TRIM was not available, however, recent releases are showing new methods to be very aggressive and results equal to that of TRIM are being observed. This is a huge benefit to those using RAID systems where Garbage Collection is accomplished as TRIM is not an option.
The SSD Review was able to discuss GC and TRIM with Crucial as it pertains to their SATA3 releases as it has been observed that their RealSSD C300 SATA3 drives do not appear to show any performance degradation over extended use. Crucial confirmed that they had to consider that TRIM would not pass through the present release of SATA3 drivers which helped recognize that very aggressive GC would be necessary for the C300 SATA 3 SSDs success. The subsequent result was that many forum threads were created by avid users who were questioning whether TRIM was, in fact, working in their SSDs as no performance degradation was seen even in the toughest of test beds. To dispel a common belief, it is not the Marvell processor of the Crucial RealSSD that prevents TRIM from being passed, but rather, that of the hardware and drivers of SATA3 capable motherboards. All Crucial SSDs are fully capable of passing TRIM direction to the OS.
TRIM
TRIM occurs when the ssd clears blocks of invalid data. When you delete a file, the operating system will only mark the area of the file as free in order to trick the system into believing the space is available. Invalid data is still present in that location. Its like ripping out a Table of Contents from a book. Without this, one would not know what, if anything, is contained on the following pages. TRIM follows the process of marking the area as free by clearing the invalid data from the drive. Without this, the process of reading, identifying invalid data, deleting or moving and clearing the block before writing can actually result in performance 4 times slower than it would have normally been as a new drive.
In recently speaking with Kent Smith, Sr. Director of Product Marketing for SandForce, he identified that there are many variables outside of the hardware that are responsible for users not seeing the benefits of TRIM, the first of which are drivers at the OS level which have to be working optimally in order for TRIM to function correctly. Another example occurred with early Windows 7 users testing their newly installed drives and not seeing the benefits of TRIM. Examination of these complaints revealed that users would have originally made the Windows 7 installation on hardware that did not support TRIM and then cloned to the SSD to which TRIM was supported but would not work because of the original configuration settings. The same could be said of cloning an OS that originally had AHCI turned off followed by a clone to the SSD where TRIM was not being passed, simply because AHCI has to activated for TRIM to function.
ENHANCE SSD OVER PROVISIONING MANUALLY
In our conversation, we breached the topic of SSD capacity to Mr Smith to which he replied, “Are you trying to optimize performance or maximize capacity?” which reminded us that the main purpose of the consumers transition to SSD was to maximize their system performance. Filling a drive to capacity will hinder TRIM and GC ability which will result in performance degradation. Many drives will start to display performance changes once filled to 70% capacity. Testing has shown that the user can very simply add to the drive, especially if it is a 7% over provisioned drive, by reducing the size of the partition, the new unallocated space of which will automatically be picked up as over provisioning and benefit the SSD in many ways. This idea has been tackled by Fusion IO who includes a utility within their products that allows the user complete control of the size of their over provisioning.
OWC 120Gb SSD With 16x8Gb NAND Flash = 128Gb Total (7% OP)
Over provisioning allows more data to be moved at one time which, not only enhances GC, but also reduces write amplification to the drive. Write amplification is a bit tricky of an explanation but it is the measure of how many bytes are actually written when requiring storage of a certain number of bytes. A ratio of 1:1 would be ideal but not a reality and a typical result would be an actual size of 40kb written for a typical 4kb file. In short, maximizing over provisioning and reducing write amplification increases the performance and lifespan of the drive. Over provisioning also provides for remapping of blocks should the bad blocks be discovered during wear leveling, which unlike a hard drive, does not reduce the end user capacity of the drive. The replaced blocks simply come from the over provisioning.
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/ssd-performance-loss-and- its-solution/
Reducing the time GC takes
Increasing the amount of freespace available after a GC (which increases the time it takes for performance to degrade after a GC)
It lets the FTL have a wider selection of pages to choose from when it when it need a new page to write to, which means it has a better chance of finding low write count pages, increasing the lifespan of the drive
Now, I want to be clear, a sufficiently clever GC on a drive that has enough reserved space might be able to do very well on its own, but ultimately what TRIM does is give a drive GC algorithm better information to work with, which of course makes the GC more effective. What I showed above was a super simple GC, real drive GCes take a lot more information into account. First off they have to deal with more than two blocks, and their data takes up more than a single page. They track data locality, they only run against blocks have hit certain threshold of invalid pages or have really bad data locality. There are a ton of research papers and patents on the various techniques they use. But they all have to follow certain rules based on on the environment they work in, hopefully this post makes some of those clear.
http://www.devwhy.com/blog/2009/8/4/from-write-down-to-the-flash-chips.html

Big Bang Xpower, standalone SSD & 2 disk RAID

Has anyone attempted to install windows 7 on an SSD attached to the Marvell SATA 3 controller, while also trying to create a RAID array with disks attached to the Intel SATA ports? Problem I am having is that it seems one cannot use RAID and a standalone disk simultaneously between the two controllers. If I enable RAID mode in the BIOS, and AHCI mode on the Marvell controller, Marvell setup wants me to create an array of at least 2 disks. I cannot figure out a way to configure the drive as a standalone disk.
I could also try selecting IDE mode in the Marvell BIOS, but from what I understand IDE mode doesn't support TRIM, can anyone verify this? Any thoughts on the matter?

I've successfully (well.. mostly) run the 2 RAIDS on the Big Bang at the same time. RAID0 with SSD's on the 6GB SATA's and RAID0 with Raptors on the 3GB SATA's. All of these in AHCI mode.
There's a certain order that you need to do things in to get AHCI to work successfully. Disconnect all other drives except for the SSD's. This is assuming that you're planning to use the SSD's for your boot drive(s) and that this is a fresh Windows7 install. If it's not a fresh Windows install, it wont really work. At least it hasn't for me.
Go into the Marvell controller and set up your RAID as needed. Then go into BIOS and set everthing including RAID to AHCI.
Install Windows. Get most of the necessary/required updates out of the way.
Power down and hook up the other drives. Boot back to Windows and go into My Computer/Manage/Drive Manager. Take the other drives you want to run RAID0 on and set them as New Spanned Drives.
Let Disk Manager do it's thing. You should now have a RAID0 array on your 6GB ports using the Marvell controller and a RAID0 array on the Intel controller.
A word of warning though. I have just run into an issue with the Marvell drivers and running AHCI. I started getting BSOD's using AHCI on the Marvell controller. This happened with both the SSD's and the Raptors. I'm currently waiting to hear back from MSI on a possible solution. I know that there are new RAID drivers out there, but MSI doesn't have them available.
As for the bootable issue, I never had a problem with that. I have been able to select Marvell as my boot decvice and off I went.

How Do I Install an SSD Into My 15" Macbook Pro?

I have recently purchased a Crucial m4 2.5" SSD for my 15", mid-2010 Macbook Pro. However, I rarely do any major hardware upgrades to any electronics of mine, so I'm really out of my element here. From what I've heard and researched through online forums, physically installing the SSD shouldn't be that bad (just look out for the static electricity, apparently). The rough bit looks to be transferring my operating system, OS X Lion, along with my various documents and files. Now, my purchase came with a data transfer kit, but I don't know how to use it; like I said, really out of my element. How do I move my operating system and files into the SSD properly, without accidentally losing everything? I know Time-Machine is involved somehow, but what exactly do I do? Any answer would be very appreciated, the more detailed and step-by-step oriented the better.
P.S.: I don't intend to keep my original HDD at all, so I'm not going to be doing any tinkering with the optical-drive/super-drive (I don't really know what such things do, so I want to keep screwing around with my Mac's innards to a minimum).

If you got the data transfer cable with your SSD, the procedure should be pretty simple - and there should be step-by-step instructions in the box. You're simply going to remove the bottom case of your computer (using a Phillips #00 screwdriver), take out the two screws in the bracket holding the hard drive into place (using same screwdriver), remove the drive and (use a Torx 6 screwdriver) remove the four screws that hold the hard drive in place. Then put in the SSD and reassemble the machine.
Then you'll plug up the old hard drive by using the SATA to USB cable and use the option key to boot from the old drive. I don't know what data transfer software Crucial provides, but I would recommend formatting the SSD using Disk Utility from your old drive ("Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a single GUID partition) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your old drive to your new SSD (see this user tip for cloning - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4122). You needn't worry about getting an enclosure since you have the data transfer cable and you don't want to use your old hard drive.
There are a number of videos on YouTube that take you step-by-step through this procedure - many specific to Crucial SSDs and their data transfer kit - do a little searching there if you're unsure of how to procede.
Clinton

GX60 Destroyer - installing two SSDs in a RAID array.

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