Which Sata Channels for Raid

bigdogchris

bigdogchris

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First raid setup so I have a couple questions. My mobo (EVGA 750i FTW) has 4 sata channels, a0 a1 b0 b1. Should I put 1 disk on A0 and another on b0?

It also has raid setting raid 1 primary, raid 1 secondary, raid 0 primary, raid 0 secondary. I'm setting up raid 0, do I need to have 1 primary 1 secondary or have both primary?

Here is my manual http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/123-YW-E175-A1_Manual.pdf

*UPDATE*

I'm having issues with this. Please join the discussion below if you have time to help. Thanks!
 
You can put them on any channel you wish, you just have to specifiy in the BIOS which ones to use for your RAID set.

SATA doesnt have a primary/master thingy as PATA did, but for simplicity's sake, on your config, id use A0 and A1 for two disks.
 
OK I was just wondering if there was a performance boost at all by running 1 on A and 1 on B. Sata doesn't share between channels though right?

SATA doesnt have a primary/master thingy as PATA did, but for simplicity's sake, on your config, id use A0 and A1 for two disks.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know, but I'm wondering what that option is for? It shows it in that manual.
 
bigdogchris said:
OK I was just wondering if there was a performance boost at all by running 1 on A and 1 on B. Sata doesn't share between channels though right?

Yeah I know, but I'm wondering what that option is for? It shows it in that manual.
Click to expand...

There wont be a performance boost, in fact if you bench'd a system with all the various configurations possible (A0-B0, A1-B1, etc) you would not be able to determine which is which. Its left over terminology from PATA days. It should be correctly labeled as ports 1,2,3, and 4.
 
I guess sorta like Vistax64 system files being in the system32 folder ;)

Thanks for the help.
 
Up and running as intended. WD6400AAKS Raid0 :D Everything is looking good. Thanks!
 
Welp, maybe not so good. System just froze just now and the HDD light was in-active, not blinking, just blank. Could not alt-ctrl-del, had to hard reboot. Would that be a driver issue possibly? I used the 15.17 Nvidia driver. The system has been rock solid stable for 3 months before, using same driver versions for everything else (obviously went back to these for a reason so I knew everything was the same for a good stable baseline).

Rollback to default Vista driver? Disable NCQ? (was on before raid). Also, I'm powering both drives from 1 single Molex, split into 2 sata. But if that was an issue, I would think it would show it's dirty little head during installation/dozen reboots before lock up happened. :(

*edit*

OK, my modular PSU has a seperate cable for sata, which uses a 6 pin plug to the PSU then it has 2 sata power connectors on it. I suppose it needs the extra power for 2 sata drives since it has the extra 2 pins. I put this to one HDD, and a standard molex to sata converter on the other. I'll see how this works out. If it locks up again, i'll disable smart (no errors btw) and rollback to the default Vista raid driver.
 
bigdogchris said:
Welp, maybe not so good. System just froze just now and the HDD light was in-active, not blinking, just blank. Could not alt-ctrl-del, had to hard reboot. Would that be a driver issue possibly? I used the 15.17 Nvidia driver. The system has been rock solid stable for 3 months before, using same driver versions for everything else (obviously went back to these for a reason so I knew everything was the same for a good stable baseline).

Rollback to default Vista driver? Disable NCQ? (was on before raid). Also, I'm powering both drives from 1 single Molex, split into 2 sata. But if that was an issue, I would think it would show it's dirty little head during installation/dozen reboots before lock up happened. :(

*edit*

OK, my modular PSU has a seperate cable for sata, which uses a 6 pin plug to the PSU then it has 2 sata power connectors on it. I suppose it needs the extra power for 2 sata drives since it has the extra 2 pins. I put this to one HDD, and a standard molex to sata converter on the other. I'll see how this works out. If it locks up again, i'll disable smart (no errors btw) and rollback to the default Vista raid driver.
Click to expand...

k

keep us updated, some of us don't have much to do on a monday night.
 
Well, made it 6 hours overnight, and through a scheduled defrag I set up. But I'm far from satisfied, I need it to be stable for a week before I'm confident something is fixed. I'll probably pull some benchies tonight and install Bioshock or something, to try it out.
 
raid0benchwd6400aaks.jpg


Now, to keep this stable.
 
Lasted 10 days and it froze up again today. Funny, both times was view this site lol.

Anyways, it was stable for 10 days strait then locked up. The HDD light just stopped blinking. This system was stable for 90 days strait before I set up the raid. I highly doubt the 2nd drive is faulty. What should I try to do?

I have separate leads for each HDD, so I doubt it's a power issue (700W PSU). My SLI is fine.

I am using 15.17 Nvidia drivers. Should I disable the disk manager and just use the default Vista driver?
 
I've been using the setup for 10 days now If it didn't see it, I wouldn't be using it or been able to even install my OS, obviously. You must be thinking something else than what I'm thinking?

As soon as I hard reboot the system, it comes right back to life. So, I just disabled NCQ. I know the Nforce6 boards don't like NCQ and it can cause lockups. Maybe there is some carryover to these NF7 boards. If the drives die again, I will rollback the EVGA recommended raid drivers 9.92 and roll back to 15.08 mobo drivers.

I just don't know if the HDD stops responding, if it's a failed drive or a driver issue. SMART test pass on both drives.
 
Sounds like a driver issue, not the drive itself. Can you try the manufacturer's test utils? SeaTools or WD's lifeguard?
 
xenotype said:
WD's lifeguard?
Click to expand...
I guess I can try these but last I knew they haven't been updated for a few years. I don't think they will even support this drive.

Does seatools support WD drives then or were you just making a point of tools?

*edit*

OK tried the windows version of this that supports Vista. It does not show physical drives, just a logical c drive, so I can't test the individual drives. I'll try the dos version if I can find a blank cd laying around here :(
 
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