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MB Raid???

kdw1975

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
142
I am setting up a RAID using my Asus P9X79 Pro MB. Is the built in raid controller going to be just terrible compared to a RAID card or will it work just fine? I am planning to do RAID 10 with 4 3TB drives. I will be using it for storage of my photos and videos so speed isn't that big of a deal. I just don't want to lose them as they are of our families. I back up online as a last resort.
 
For that application it will be plenty fast. I don't doubt you'll see at least 130MBps sequential. Where motherboard RAID sucks is RAID5 because of the parity calculation. But for just straight striping, they work plenty fine. Also easy to boot from.

Also verify your RAID controller will go past 2.2GB per drive. Many raid controllers still limit drives to appearing as 2.2TB. EDIT: Sounds like X79 is fine with this.
 
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Thanks for the info.

I tried switching the BIOS from AHCI to RAID, but that made my machine no longer boot. Is there some trick in order to get my RAID setup without affecting my boot drive and the other two drives which are not part of the RAID?
 
I have been able to switch between AHCI and RAID on intel boards before. You will need to switch the mode from AHCI to RAID, and then go back into boot order and tell it what disc to boot from, or it might also list "windows boot manager" as one of the drives. You can have both RAID and non-RAID drives on the intel at the same time.

I guess I should ask by not booting do you mean it says no valise bootable drive found or does windows try to boot but blue screens?
 
I have been able to switch between AHCI and RAID on intel boards before. You will need to switch the mode from AHCI to RAID, and then go back into boot order and tell it what disc to boot from, or it might also list "windows boot manager" as one of the drives. You can have both RAID and non-RAID drives on the intel at the same time.

I guess I should ask by not booting do you mean it says no valise bootable drive found or does windows try to boot but blue screens?

Windows starts to load, but then it reboots endlessly.
 
RAID mode requires a different driver than AHCI mode. You have to install that driver first, there a lot of guides about what exactly has to be done.
 
RAID mode requires a different driver than AHCI mode. You have to install that driver first, there a lot of guides about what exactly has to be done.

I just want to make sure that those drivers won't affect my boot drive which isn't part of a RAID.
 
no, wont touch any drives or their configuration, it just allows windows to boot while in RAID mode.
 
Could someone give me an idea where I might find the drivers? It appears my motherboard uses the Intel C600.

I have the Intel RST drivers loaded in Windows. I tried again to change the BIOS over to RAID and while loading Windows it flashed a blue screen and rebooted endlessly.

Then when I switched it back to AHCI it started some kind of startup repair that I wasn't able to cancel. It told me that it was unable to fix the problems and would exit.

Then it proceeded to load Windows and work properly again.

UPDATE:
Found this link. I will give it a shot.
http://superuser.com/questions/2101...windows-7-install-before-enabling-raid-in-bio
 
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if your motherboard doesnt have 2 chipsets one for a raid controller and one for normal then when you change the SATA ports to RAID then all the drives will be using the raid setting even if they are single drives not in array meaning they need the RAID drivers to be used.

some motherboards allow ACHI on channels 1-2 and 4-6 on RAID and such, sounds like your is all or nothing.

just reinstall windows with the RAID enabled and install the RAID drivers during setup.

W8 saw my RAID controller (onboard) without any need to add drivers. FYI
 
Why do people talk about re-installing Windows as if it is a 5 minute procedure? It is a frickin nightmare to un-register, re-install and re-register it. Takes a solid day to get things back to the way they were.
 
I can say it doesn't take me long, with dropbox, iTunes and other places where my data lives it makes reinstalling easier.


But for some it may be longer.


Installing W7 or 8 is fairly quick.... office 365 and adobe's subscription services makes reinstalling easier as well.
 
Why do people talk about re-installing Windows as if it is a 5 minute procedure? It is a frickin nightmare to un-register, re-install and re-register it. Takes a solid day to get things back to the way they were.


some people would be me..... :rolleyes:

and for me it is not a whole day task...
 
some people would be me..... :rolleyes:

and for me it is not a whole day task...

Your not the only one. I remember tech support frequently saying to try re-installing the OS. On the Macs it wasn't too bad, but with Windows and having to re-load the programs.....uggghh..
 
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