Marvell Raid Setup Problem

I have managed to install an onboard raid 0 using two 300Gb V'Raptors connected to an X70-UD5 board, and they are up and running.
I am trying to add second raid 0 using two WD 1Tb Blacks connected to the next pair of Marvell sockets on the MB. I have set that sata connection to raid, but after restarting and using Ctrl m to enter Marvell configuration, I can't see those WD blacks - only the 300Gb Raptors already set up and working.
If I go into Win7 Disk Management I can see the two WD Blacks as unallocated volumes.
Any ideas where I might be going wrong?

That's a good suggestion, and similar to what I was considering as a next step. The system hangs every time writing large data blocks to either raid0 array, and from different source drives. My next step was to start from the beginning keeping things as simple as possible to try and isolate the problem. I'll delete one of the hardware raid0 for instance, and if that works OK, keep adding drives until it fails.
As it happens, my second 300Gb v'raptor was obtained second hand from somebody who had upgraded to an SSD, so that's something to think about. But the v'raptor raid0 is only 600Gb so I was going to use it for captured video. It has a single 80Gb project on it at the moment, and it took two attempts to transfer that data to it.
The other raid0 is a pair of 1Tb WD Blacks, and I am trying to transfer My Documents to it, which is close to 600Gb. It hangs every time from anything from 200 to 500Gb moved.
I have a similar thread on an Oz gamers/overclockers forum. They sure seem to know their system tweaking stuff, but have not given me anything more helpful than that Marvell SATA sucks, and Marvell SATA 6G sucks big time. But I have eight drives (including the DVD burner – 10 with the USB3 externals), so have to use both Intel and Marvell ports.
I am just a hobbyist with video, and having spent close to NZ$5000 on the box so far, I would prefer not to invest upwards of another NZ$2000 for a raid controller. I mean I don’t know for sure that it’s the on-board raid controller that is causing the problem.
The place that built the box opens after the Christmas break this coming Monday, so I’ll get them involved, but I don’t think their experience and knowledge extends to this area. They are a Gigabyte main dealer though, and have good communications with the NZ Gigabyte technical people.
Just one thought, when I initially tried to set up using the Intel ports, it lost my boot drive and I reset the BIOS defaults while trying to fix it. Since then I have a display glitch when resizing some windows. Disk Management window is the worst affected. It looks for all the world like a GPU driver issue, but I have checked that. When I drag the corner to resize the window, it leaves these trails:

Similar Messages

X58A-GD65 - Marvell Raid SataIII - Problem

Hello,
I've got a serious problem with the Marvell Sata3 Controller on my X58A-GD65 MO/BO.
At the boot, when the Controller is getting initialize the Computer just stay there for ever and I must take off all the devices (HDD & Dvd-rom) from it to start my computer,
some times it might get pass the initialization but the Windows can't see the Devices on the Controller, or some times it Stack on boot shows only the Windows boot screen (I've got Win7 64bit)
I've got Intel i7 950 @ 3.07mhz
with 6X 500GB sata2 at iche10 @ RAID5
12GB ram 1333mhz
2X Nvidia 9600GT (not sli)
1X Nvidia 9800GT
Thank you

Thank you for your answers,
I've got 2X PSU, one for MO/BO 850w, and one 750W for the HDD and GPU.
I didn't tried to remove any Ram or any Gpu cause is the Computer from my work and it want lot of time to make all this tests... but if I disable the Marvell-sata3 Controller from the Bios all works perfect!! Also if I put the Hdd and Dvd-rom from Marvel to Intel Controller it works great.
Also if I disable Intel sata controller and remove all the Hdd from it and Boot my system from Marvell sata3 controler after a while the Marvell controller it will freez at Initialization at the boot.
It's Marvell sata controller problem but I don't know how to fix it, also I search the web and there are lot of people having problems with this controller (not only Msi Mo/bo)

Disk Utility RAID setup problem

I just formatted two 5TB drives in order to setup an internal RAID for an Intel Mac Pro (early 2009 OSX 10.10.1). I had no problem installing a RAID on 2TB drives a couple years back using Disk Utility. Now, the RAID option does not even appear for the new disks. I can see the RAID option when choosing the OS disk. The only other hint is Disk Utility says "this type of disk cannot be used as part of a RAID set". I have never seen this error. A disk is a disk (and a horse is a horse of coarse of coarse).
What do I do to make these drives eligible to be part of a RAID?
The disks are Seagate ST5000DM000. See image below for lack of RAID option.
Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated!!

Thses are normal but innocuous messages resulting from installing ARD and Java updates. If you now have Lion installed then these are left overs from the Snow Leopard system you upgraded. Don't worry about them. They will recur when you run repair permissions.

MSI 875P NEO-FIS2R RAID SETUP PROBLEM

hie everyone
with my hard disk now , how can i setup raid ?
detail plsee

Your signature shows 3 drives, all different sizes. If you are going to raid a pair, they should preferrably be the same size and preferrably the same type. If you raid a mismatched pair then your new raid "drive" will the the size of the smallest, losing the remaining space on the largest.

SATA RAID setup problem - 845PE Max2 FISR

Hi,
I have tried to switch from XP made RAID 1 (striping) to BIOS (SATA) supported one.
1. Detached 2xIBM 80G disks from IDE1
2. Attached a ViPower VP-9041 SATA to Ultra ATA (33/66/100/133) converter to each.
3. Changed the jumper on the slave disk to master.
4. Attached the disks to the SATA ports.
5. At boot checked if SATA is enabled in the BIOS - OK. (Not too many or sophisticated options can be found in my bios, see below.)
Originally the a 40GB Maxtor on IDE3 (supported by the Promise 376 SATA chipset as well) used for XP SP2 boot - it remained this way.
At first boot FastTrak BIOS detected IDE3 (as before) and scanned for other IDE drives, but detected only one of the two 80 GB SATA converted disks.
At later boots, neither SATA disks detected, but I got the folowing message from FastTrak BIOS:
Warning- FastTrak does not detect proper interrupts. Please check your PCI IRQ settings, and make sure the PCI slot supports Bus Master operations.
IDE3 disk detected correctly and the system can boot from it.
If I remove ony one of the SATA disks, no warning from BIOS, but the other SATA disk is not detected either.
Any hint? (Changing PCI Bus Master state in the BIOS to either enable or disable does not matter.)
My BIOS is AMI 3.31a.

Now I got another 845PE-MAX2-FISR from the dealer, and this one works!!
So the conclusion is, the other 845PE-MAX2-FISR coursed the ram error...
>> Assaf
Ofcourse its a legal one!

Intel Raid Vs Marvel Raid on Big Bang B3 Marshall (Non OS Drives) via win7 setup

I apologise in advance if this seems lazy but has anybody tried setting up RAID 1 mirroring of two non-essential data hard drives within Windows 7 64-bit as opposed to a bios setup?
I only need to mirror a games hard drive so as not to have to do manually backup the hard drive with Acronis software backup every other day or so.
I have a Acronis backup of the game hard drive as I am aware that creating a raid array on both drives will delete all data on both drives but I can restore my games software later.
As it was a non-essential raid array (non-OS drives) on my previous hardware setup for these two identical games drives before upgrading to the MSI big-band Marshall B3 I totally forgot to set up the raid whilst doing a fresh install of Windows 7 on a dual boot with a previously restored/Acronis universal restore of windows 7 which also had this raid array.
If that all makes sense I'm hoping you guys can put me in the right direction as to Intel on Marvel (I seem to remember reading in the past that Marvel Raid drivers had issues) preferences for a setup within Windows 7 64-bit rather than the bios setup which would mean starting from scratch which I'm not prepared to do on a non-essential, non-OS Raid array.
If however I was doing an essential OS drives Raid array then it's a no-brainer to do a BIOS setup with a fresh install.
Any thoughts much appreciated, cheers

I don't think you are looking at the right areas.
Quote:
Sonnet Tempo cards are compatible with most external SATA storage. However, external hard drives with USB 2.0/eSATA dual interface based on the Oxford Semiconductor OXU931DS storage controller chip may not be compatible with Mac OS X when connected via SATA. Known issues are kernel panics occurring when the drive is connected, or the drive not being recognized by the operating system.
Western Digital manufactures Desktop edition (WD Caviar, Caviar SE, Caviar SE16, and Raptor X) hard drives and Enterprise (RAID) Edition (WD RE, RE2, and Raptor) hard drives. Each type of hard drive is designed to work specifically in either a desktop computer environment, or connected to a RAID controller (hardware or software-based). If you intend to configure Western Digital drives in a RAID set, Sonnet and WD recommend using only their Enterprise edition hard drives. For more information, see this Western Digital FAQ.
EndQuote
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/temposatae4p.html
Not everyone follows guidelines like they use to. Enterprise and RAID Edition drives - even Green RE4 series - not noise. You want a good drive enclosure with adequate cooling from air flow and fans. These are not silent and any drive noise is just background hum and noise that they are working.
http://macperformanceguide.com/RecommendedESATAEnclosures.html
There are dozens of reviews on drive storage. If noise is over riding then you aren't a candidate for RAID, but you are for SSD and Green, and would find SilentPCReview up your alley.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Questions on Marvell vs. intel Raid setup for new build

I’m getting ready to do my first build this weekend, and had some questions on the Asus p9x79pro motherboard’s raid controllers. They are:
What is the difference between the Marvell controller and the intel software controller?
Why would I use one over the other?
Do the Marvell raid controllers need to be pre-installed using the F6 method, same as the intel raid controllers?
Here is my planned drive arrangement, feedback appreciated.
(1) Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - OS (win7 64 bit), pagefile, & programs, 6gb sata on SSD caching port
(2) Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - RAID 0 Media and projects, 6b sata port
(1) Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - media cache & renders
(1) WB Black 32mb cache 3.0 Sata - Exports and non video file storage
Asus BD burner on 3gb port
Thanks

What is the difference between the Marvell controller and the intel software controller?
I haven't tested it, but rumors are that Intel is marginally faster than Marvell.
Why would I use one over the other?
It depends on the number of ports in your system. That can be motherboard dependent.
Do the Marvell raid controllers need to be pre-installed using the F6 method, same as the intel raid controllers?
No. You can define a raid after you installed your OS by simply going into the BIOS.
On my motherboard, I have 2 Intel SATA 6 G ports and 2 Marvell SATA 6 G ports. The rest are SATA 3 G.
If that is the same in your case, I would do the following:
Crucial M4 on Intel SATA 6G
WD Black on Intel SATA 6G
2 x WD Black/64 on Marvell SATA 6G in raid0
WD Black/32 on Intel SATA 3G
DVD/BDR on Intel SATA 3G
one SATA 3G for eSATA connection.

Raid Setup Guide 865/875 LSR/FIS2R Rev 1.04

On-Board Raid Setup MSI 865PE/875P
Revision History
Revision 1.0 (January 2004)
- Original Raid Article
Revision 1.01 (February 2004)
- Reformatted text and fixed spelling/grammar
Revision 1.02 (October 2004)
- Added warnings to temporarily disconnect ALL drives including Zip drives during formatting Raid drives for WinXP.
Revision 1.03 (October 2005)
- Reformatted text and added links to download Promise/Intel Raid floppies if user is missing them.
Revision1.04 (February 2006)
- Minor BB reformatting
Intro
Equipment List For Tests
Description of Tests
Pre-Raid Setup Bios Tweaks
Raid Setup On Promise Controller
Raid Setup On Intel Controller
--->Intel- Migrating from single SATA to Full Raid Array
Intro
This guide is intended to help people configure their Bios and setup Windows for Raid using the Intel ICH5R controller and the Promise FastTrak 378 controller. Although all the tests were done using Raid-0 the methods described should be virtually identical to setting up Raid-1 provided the user is aware of the fundamental differences between the two. It should be useful for anyone with an MSI 865PE/875P chipset on motherboards with LSR and FIS2R suffixes. Before continuing, please read the FAQ thread posted by Maesus and the Raid manual(s) that came with your motherboard. There's also some good info regarding Raid Here and Here and Here
Keep in mind this guide is intended as a reference to help you. It is not a manual. I do not work for MSI and my equipment and time are limited. You will have different equipment and different versions of software.
All the data below is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Equipment List For Tests
MSI 875P FIS2R Motherboard
Bios 1.8
Enermax EG365P-VE (350w) PSU
P4 2.6c CPU
Kingston KHX-3200A2 2x512MB Memory
Radeon 9800Pro AIW Video Card
WD 400JB 40GB/8MB cache IDE Hdd
2-Seagate 80GB 7200.7 SATA Hdd's
Liteon 52x32x52 CDRW
Floppy Drive
Tests
Generally, tests were as follows:
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 1 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1) and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on it. Then add 2nd SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial2) and migrate to Raid0 using Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition.
IDE drive used in these tests was pre-installed with a fresh copy of WinXP Home SP1a using default settings and the following drivers all from MSI setup CD and Raid Floppy Disks that came with motherboard:
Intel INF files - version 1002
Gigabit Lan drivers - 7.0.37.0
SoundMax drivers - 5.12.1.3538
Catalyst 3.7 & Multimedia Center drivers from standard ATI CD came with video card.
Pre-Raid BIOS Tweaks
Before I continue, I'd like to point out a few changes from the defaults that I alway make to Bios before I attempt a WinXP install or hardware change. I can't guarantee that they all apply to you but none should make things worse. If anything differs from a setting that you feel is fixing another problem you're having, by all means leave at your prefferred setting. Anything related to performance and overclocking can be raised again AFTER the Raid is all setup and everything is running smoothly.
Standard Cmos Features
The only thing I change here is to enable "32bit transfer mode" whenever I connect new devices to the Intel IDE controller.
Note: Devices attached to the Promise controller and the Intel Raid(when it is enabled) will NOT appear in the standard Cmos page
Advanced Bios Features
Everything on defaults is usually fine except I always change the following for WinXP:
APIC ACPI SCI IRQ - Enabled
Boot Device select is also on this page and you'll be changing it after all the hardware is setup; more later.
Advanced Cipset Features
Confirm that the memory timing "by SPD" is enabled
PNP/PCI Configurations
Clear NVRam option I always set to "YES" before the first boot after making hardware changes. I'm not sure how important this is but I understand that's what you're supposed to do. I believe it forces the motherboard to detect hardware changes. It reverts to "NO" after the reboot.
PCI/IDE Busmaster set to "enabled" to speed things up outside of Windows.
Integrated Peripherals (Before Raid for most flexibilty)
Onboard Promise IDE - Disabled if you have nothing attached to IDE3 and Serial 3&4
ON-Chip IDE Configuration:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only or PATA Only (select the one that you boot XP with)
Keep SATA Active - Yes (if option available)
Keep PATA Active - Yes (if option available)
PATA Channel selection - Both (if option available)
Configure SATA as Raid - No (if option available)
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above
Frequency/Voltage Control
Dynamic Overclocking - Disabled
Performance Mode - Slow
Dram Frequency - Auto
Adjust CPU Bus - 201 (for "c" type cpu's)
DDR Voltage - 2.65 (minimum for Dual-Channel Mem stability)
AGP Voltage - 1.55
Note: some features above may not appear with your Bios
Note: performance & overclocking features can be increased again AFTER the Raid array has been setup and is stable with Windows.
Raid On Promise Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding a Raid array to a system already having XP installed on another drive on the Intel controller or intending to install Windows XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 3 and Serial 3&4 connectors are controlled by the Promise controller.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid arrays using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 or even 2 SATA & 2 IDE drives. I only tested 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4 connectors.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid 0+1 using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 and 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4. See HERE for a related thread.
Note: It is possible to setup SATA or IDE drives on the Promise controller as separate drives NOT using Raid but I did not test this. See your manual.
- Attach the SATA drives to Serial 3&4 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
Integrated Peripherals:
Set Onboard Promise IDE - As Raid
- Save and reboot computer
- Use control-F keys during the boot(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Promise Raid Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the promise Bios if you have set the Promise controller to "As Raid" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Promise Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. Do some research.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from
- If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
- If you will be installing XP on the new Raid, make sure the new Raid array is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes USB/Zip drives.(See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the WinXP Promise FastTrack 376/378 Controller from the floppy that came with motherboard(If Required Download Floppy Here). There are a number of different choices on the floppy. PICK THE RIGHT ONE.
Note: if using Win2K with the floppy, you can scroll down to get more driver options on this screen. It's not readily apparent on the screen.
- Continue setup and Windows should now show you the new Raid array as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running, you can re-connect/re-enable any drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Promise Array Manager software(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which adds some array management settings.
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers.
- Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the Promise drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
- Device Manager should now show the Raid properly identified by XP.
- If the Raid array was not previously formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The Raid array should now show in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- When setting "Boot Device Select", if I selected "NO" for "boot from other devices", the motherboard would ignore my selection and still boot from other devices if the ones in the list were unusable.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Raid On Intel Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding 2 SATA hard drives for a Raid array on a system already having XP installed on another drive or intending to install XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 connectors are controlled by the Intel ICH5R controller. Only Serial 1&2 can be configured for Raid arrays.
You can also install a single SATA drive and configure the system for Raid BEFORE installing XP on this drive if you intend to add another SATA drive later to form a Raid array. This method was also tested. I will refer to this for the rest of the thread as the Raid-Ready Method.
Note: If you install WinXP on a single SATA drive without enabling Raid and loading Raid drivers, you will NOT be able to migrate the XP disk to a Raid array at a later date. Reinstalling XP would be required.
Note: There is no performance advantage to having a single drive with Raid enabled. But doing so makes the disk Raid-ready and XP reinstall unnecessary.
- Attach the SATA drive(s) to Serial 1&2 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
- In "Integrated Peripherals>>On-Chip IDE Configuration" set:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only (Even if you will be booting XP from a PATA drive)
Keep PATA Active - Yes
PATA Channel selection - Both
Configure SATA as Raid - Yes
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above.
- Save Bios and reboot computer
- Use control-I keys during post(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Intel Raid Bios Utility.
Note: If you are using the single SATA Raid-Ready Method, you can skip the steps involving the Intel Raid utility. Go to the step for setting Boot device select in main Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the Intel Raid Bios if you have set the "Configure SATA as Raid" option to "YES" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Intel Raid Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. The Intel utility does describe the different options well though.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from;
If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
If you will be installing XP on the new Raid or using Raid-Ready Method, make sure the new Raid array or raid-ready drive is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array or using the Raid-Ready Method, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other hard drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes Zip/USB drives. (See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array Or Using Raid-Ready Method(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the IAA Raid Driver for ICH5R (If Required Download Floppy Here) from the floppy that came with motherboard. I only had 1 driver to choose from on my floppy but if you have more, CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONE!
- Continue and Windows Setup should now show you the new Raid array or Raid Ready drive as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running and INF files and other important drivers installed, you can re-connect/re-enable any hard drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Intel IAA-Raid Program(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which gives some info and adds the array management settings(Not many. Just the enable/disable cache setting and the migrate to raid option).
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers. Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the IAA Raid drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
Note: If the IAA Raid program detects that the Raid controller is not enabled or no device is present, it will NOT allow you to install the drivers/utility.
- Using Windows Device Manager should now show the Raid device properly with no problems.
- If the Raid array has not been formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The new drive should now appear in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array. It is safe to assume this can occur with the Intel controller as well since I believe the problem occurs because of how WinXP setup addresses the hard drives.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Migrating XP System Disk To Raid On Raid-Ready System
This part describes how to use the Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition to migrate an existing WinXP system disk (1-SATA) to a 2-SATA Raid array.
This procedure is actually very well documented in the last part of the Intel SATA Raid manual that ships with the motherboard but I thought I’d add it to make this thread more complete.
Please note that to use this feature of the Intel raid software the disk you are migrating FROM must have been made Raid-Ready as described above. Basically, this means that Raid should have been enabled in the Bios and the drivers installed from floppy during the WinXP install.
Note: I tested this by migrating to a Raid0 array but Raid1 should work also if the latest Bios and version of Intel-Raid application used.
- Open the Intel Application Accelerator Raid utility.
- With the “Raid” tab window open, right-click on “Raid volume” and select “Create from Existing Disk” as seen below.
- Follow the next several steps to choose the type of Raid array and the strip size.
Note: 64kb strip size is good for general purpose and 128kb best for most desktops and work stations according to Intel. Anything smaller is for specialized purposes. You should research this a little because you can’t change it after easily.
- After configuring the array for your preferences, you will face a couple of warnings telling you that “All data will be deleted from the Raid-controlled drive(s) and is unrecoverable” and ask if you want to continue. Obviously all data(if any) on the new drive you’re adding will be lost but the OS and other data on the disk you’re migrating FROM will be striped to the new array and will remain intact.
Note: Any complex disk procedure such as this carries the risk of losing data. A backup of the disk is important BEFORE beginning the migration process. Don't say I didn't warn you.
- The migration process can take a long time. You should see the window below during the operation.
Note: With just a default WinXP installation, migrating to 2-80Gb drives took about an hour for me.
- After the migration is complete, you will be prompted to re-boot to complete the process.
- During the reboot, as the Intel Bios comes up for a couple of seconds(don’t blink) you will see the 2 drives configured as an array and they will be listed as “functional”.
- After the reboot, you should have a fully functional Raid array with 2 SATA drives and all data from the single drive will have been striped or mirrored into the second one. Check Windows Disk manager(Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to see the status of the new drive. See bugs/surprises below.
Bugs/Surprises
The only problem I had with this test came in the form of a small surprise after everything was completed and the computer had rebooted. Although the Intel Application Accelerator showed everything functioning normally, Windows explorer showed my Raid drive as 74Gb in size instead of the 150Gb or so that I expected. After checking Windows disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc), I found that the missing GB’s were in fact there but were unformatted. Unfortunately, Disk Manager does not seem to allow merging or extending partitions so I ended up using Partition Magic 8 to format the empty space and merge it with the rest of the partition. This seemed to work fine and I ended up with a single 150Gb drive showing up in Windows Explorer. I also briefly tested the performance to confirm that it was operating as a Raid array.
I know there is a utility for Win2K called DiskPart.exe that is run from command console to extend NTFS partitions but if anyone knows of an easier way or a FREE utility that will format/merge NTFS partitions that they have confirmed works, please PM me so that I can include a reference to it here.
All the data above is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Vango44

Great work vango44!
Here are some RAID performance statistics I gathered while testing RAID on my system. The testing software was Winbench 99. The hard drives tested were new Seagate ST380013AS drives, formatted NTFS. Winbench was running on a third drive that is not included in the tests and should not affect the results.
The drives were reformatted between tests and chkdsk'ed to try and keep things "apples to apples".
No hardware or software changes other than the RAID setup/connections were made between tests.
Higher numbers mean better performance.
I also ran the same tests on the newish WD Raptor 10K drives:
I couldn't stand all the noise the Raptors made, so I returned them.
On my motherboard:
SATA 1 & 2 = Intel RAID controller
SATA 3 & 4 = Promise RAID controller
If the test title does not include "RAID", then it was a single drive test.
Unfortunately, I don't have a spreadsheet version of the above stats. Otherwise I'd create nice bar charts for us and it's would be easier to deduce performance.
Perhaps some kind reader will OCR the pictures, put them into Excel, and make some nice bar charts for us?
Hope the info helps.

Udev/dmraid not picking up all partitions of a fake RAID setup! [EDIT]

Hey all. I've been having a problem with my RAID setup in Arch. At first Arch wasn't picking up a partition on one of my arrays, (a single large NTFS partition on a 2TB array between two 1TB drives) but after re-creating the RAID array in the Intel Storage Manager I have a different problem. Arch now find the single large partition, but now /dev/mapper isn't populated with the other two partitions on the other array that my operating systems are on (Arch and Windows), when it used to just fine! The only thing I changed was re-creating the partition table on the other array, so I don't know what's going on.
Upon trying to boot, GRUB comes back with the error described on the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … oot_device
However I can't boot into the fallback image either! This means that I can't apply the fix as described in the wiki.
I'm starting to think there is a limitation in Arch where it can only handle a certain number of mapper devices (seems to be 3), or maybe it only detects the partitions on the first detected array? Now that I recreated the partition table on the larger array, it seems like that's the array that's detected first in both a GParted live session and Arch. But in a live GParted session, /dev/mapper was fully populated with all of my disks and partitions... so why is it that Arch can only find the partitions on one of the RAID arrays?
If you guys need any additional information just let me know... I really want to get my Arch setup up and working so I don't have to use Windows all that often (only games that don't work well in Wine).
EDIT: Changed post and title to reflect new problem after recreating the 2TB array
Last edited by pad76 (2011-08-11 13:15:36)

Does anyone know if I can damage my arch install by using mkinitcpio through a Debian live-cd? I'm going to try and use one to remake my initrd by chrooting using this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … oot_device
Basically the commands I'm looking to execute would be this:
# mount /dev/mapper/isw_ArchRaidPartition /mnt/
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
# mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
# mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
# chroot /mnt /bin/bash
(edit mkinitcpio.conf according to wiki, inserting the "sleep" hook)
# mkinitcpio -p 3.0-arch
So my question is would using the commands from a debian live distro work? I have to use debain since arch live-installs don't detect my arch raid partition, like how I described above. I also can't boot into fallback.

Udev/dmraid not picking up all partitions of a fake RAID setup!

Hey all. I've been having a problem with my RAID setup in Arch. At first Arch wasn't picking up a partition on one of my arrays, (a single large NTFS partition on a 2TB array between two 1TB drives) but after re-creating the RAID array in the Intel Storage Manager I have a different problem. Arch now find the single large partition, but now /dev/mapper isn't populated with the other two partitions on the other array that my operating systems are on (Arch and Windows), when it used to just fine! The only thing I changed was re-creating the partition table on the other array, so I don't know what's going on.
Upon trying to boot, GRUB comes back with the error described on the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … oot_device
However I can't boot into the fallback image either! This means that I can't apply the fix as described in the wiki.
I'm starting to think there is a limitation in Arch where it can only handle a certain number of mapper devices (seems to be 3), or maybe it only detects the partitions on the first detected array? Now that I recreated the partition table on the larger array, it seems like that's the array that's detected first in both a GParted live session and Arch. But in a live GParted session, /dev/mapper was fully populated with all of my disks and partitions... so why is it that Arch can only find the partitions on one of the RAID arrays?
If you guys need any additional information just let me know... I really want to get my Arch setup up and working so I don't have to use Windows all that often (only games that don't work well in Wine).

Please do not crosspost. Follow forum rules.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=124247
Closing..

D20 with Win7(Finnish) + Marvell Raid Utility: Cannot log in as administrator

This is not really just "Lenovo problem", but more like Marvell-issue. But hoping that someone here would have encountered this similar problem.
using: 2x 500GT (Ide-)HD as RAID1, Win7 professional (Finnish version).
Marvell Raid Utility (MRU) uses win7's user database to check out which user has the right to adjust raid-stuff. The MRU is a web-browser -based. My problem is, that I cannot log into MRU with admiministrator rights.
Tried so far:
- My "user name" has all the rights it should
- Checked out that my name is listed in the administrator group
- Made a new user named: Administrator with admin rights
- Cannot launch MRU with "Run as administrator" (it is just a link-icon to a "web-page" : localhost://, etc)
- Tried to use different browsers as "run as administrator" (exploder, firefox, chrome)
- Tried to run diff.browsers as normally
- Tried to log into the mru with different usernames (with administrator rights)
- Tried to install MRU using "run as administrator" hoping that the rights would "transfer" to the installed program
MRU always logs me in as "Guest". It shows that there is two physical discs and a virtual disk has been created. But I can't to anything with the two disks, cannot format them, cannot make anything - windows doesn't even understand the disks - it finds them allright (with: Devices -> diskdrives(?) -> marvell raid VD 0 SCSI Disk Device : Drives (Refresh) // Type: Unknown, State/Status: Unformatted, Type: Not usable, size: 476860MB...)
Solved!
Go to Solution.

you can access the marvell BIOS at POST by pressing ctrl+M. this will allow you to set up RAID manually.
ThinkStation C20
ThinkPad X1C · X220 · X60T · s30 · 600

X-58 Marvell Raid 1 Issue

Hello all,
I'm new to the forum, and pretty new to the high performance computer world. This is my first build and my first new computer in 9 years so my ignorance level is high.
Up until today the new machine worked fine. After trying to load Office 2010 the computer took a very long time to shut down and then would not reboot. The Marvell setup shows a degraded array, with 1 HDD out. Under "Free Physical Disks" it shows simply PD 8 for the missing drive; When I highlight this I'm presented the option to "Erase RAID Config Data". Then the warning about damaging the array on this disk comes up.
My first question is should I go ahead and erase the RAID configuration on this drive?
I'm trying to avoid having to reload the whole thing, but if that's what it takes, better now than later.
I see there have been some issues with the Marvell RAID system. Would I be better off to move the HDD's to 1 and 2 and use the Intel drivers? If so, will I lose the array when I move them?
By the way, I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate.
Thanks in advance...
Ed

Are the HDD's the WD SATA 6Gb/s drives? if so, they would perform best on the Marvell controller I would think. Possibly a bios update may help, as well as an update to the Marvell if a more current version is available. I'm not 100% positive, but it seems some SATA 6Gb/s WD's of a certain revision group needed a firmware update.
Quote
Would I be better off to move the HDD's to 1 and 2 and use the Intel drivers? If so, will I lose the array when I move them?
I believe the array would be lost. Also, if they are the 6Gb/s drives, they would need to be jumpered to work on the ICH10R.

D20 - 4158 with Marvel Raid + windows 7 failed to restart (Blue screen) after installation

I installed Windows 7 64 bit by providing the Marvell RAID driver downloaded from http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?&LegacyDocID=MIGR-73716. The installation goes fine, when the computer restarts, the windows 7 logo flashes and then immediately the blue screen comes and then the computer restarts. This continues repeatedly.
I checked the Raid, we have one array with Raid 0 configuration. I could not find out why the OS installation goes fine but it fails to restart
Kindly provide some technical input.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

After double checking the link you provided....I'm confused on your setup. Can you reiterate which drives you have in the system and which ports they are connected to?
For a D20, you should have all HDDs attached to the blue ports. These ports route directly back to the Marvell controller. Then during the OS install, you need to supply the Marvell driver (not the Intel RAID driver that you specified in your link).
The only reason you would supply the drive you listed in your link is if you're attempting to run HDDs off the black ports on the system. This will work (but is not supported) for regualar HDDs in a non-RAID config. The D20 utilizes the ICH10, not the ICH10R, so there is no way to utilize RAID off these ports. The black ports are intended for ODD use only.
So I'm guessing you either have drives connected incorrectly, or you were attempting to provide the incorrect driver during the OS installation.

Cannot see other drives after RAID setup

heys..ppls. i just setup my first RAID array with help from vango44..thnx alot m8.. all worked out perfectly.. but..when i was done and installed XP i hooked up my ''old'' drives and yes i put the jumpers to slave.. they dont appear in Windows and it takes a considerable amount of time to start XP while b4 this all XP started very quickly..can ya'll help me out?
btw here's the guide i used.. i am using the Intel controller..
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threadid=38845&sid=

First of all sorry for being incomplete with info .. but i just came home from a long vacation.. tired ..cranky.. computer not working .. u know the usual agony..
anyhows..
I have 2 drives as u can see in my sig that i want to use as storage. And yes they are IDE
The Raptors are for my OS, games and programs.
My bios on chip ata settings are:
Native Mode
S-ata only
sata and pata both active
pata channel both
config sata as raid yes
How do i reconnect my 2 Maxtors.. physically? I presume on IDE2..?
And is it a problem that one 1 of those Maxtors an old version of XP is installed?
And yes during the RAID setup i dissconnected my 2 Maxtors..
After have gone to bed yesterday i shut down my pc with 2 Maxtors connected and when i started it up this morning all settings were gone.. RAID gone at least not activated.. and i had 2 activate the RAID settings again. I just removed the Maxtors and activated everything again.. RAID is working fine.. please help :(
Need more info? just hollar..

K9N2 SLI Platinum raid setup after bios flash

Hi
I'm building a new system based on K9N2 SLI Platinum. Apart from a new 80 GB sys. HDD everything else is reuse from another MB (MSI K9N Platinum).
Here is what is puzling me: Before trying to install WinXP i flashed the bios to 3.2 because of the included updates to the raid bios. Flashing went well, however in my setup I want the 80 GB HDD to be non-raid and the two 320 GB HDD to be raid1. I've set this up in bios so that only channel 5 and 6 is enabled for raid and would expect that the 80 GB HDD (channel 1) would show up as a normal sata HDD when starting up. But it doesn't - it is listed as 0.0 xxxx after the "press F10 to enter raid setup" message?
This is strange because I had the same HDD setup on my old MSI K9N Platinum and there the 80 GB sata HDD was shown as a "normal" disk and not as a "appendix" to the raid list.
Because of this I have problems installing WinXP on the 80 GB HDD
Any suggestions?

Hi BOSSKILLER
Thanks for your quick response.
Quote from: BOSSKILLER on 12-August-08, 00:14:44
Well, leave the 80GB only and install XP over it.
Then connect other two HDD's and enable RAID for them.
Unfortunately this didn't help. As soon as I installed the Windows nVidia RAID SW it prompted med that it had registered the 80 GB disk as a new disk that wasn't a member of any RAID. This happened everytime Windows XP was started.
The trick was to add the 80 GB disk as a Spanned disk using the nVidia RAID BIOS setup utility. Install Windows XP (again) and the Windows nVidia RAID SW and setup RAID 1 on the other two sata disk.
I don't think this is a great setup but it works. I hope that MSI will fix this issue in a later BIOS upgrade. It would be nice if the enabled/disabled for sata RAID setting actually worked.

Marvell Raid Setup Problem

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