General Information:

• System Requirements for Configuring RAID
• Where to Find the Latest RAID Drivers
• RAID Properties
• Supported RAID Levels
• Serial ATA and Microsoft Microsoft Windows*
• Serial ATA DVD/CD Drives
• Mixing SATA and PATA (IDE) Devices
• Enabling RAID in the BIOS
• SATA Modes (AHCI; Hot Swap)
• Configuring RAID on a New PC
• Configuring RAID on an Existing PC
• Unattended Installation Instructions Under Microsoft Windows* XP

Troubleshooting:

• Serial ATA Drive Not Recognized
• Ctrl-I Option to Open RAID Configuration Utility Does Not Appear
• Nothing Happens when Pressing F6 During Microsoft Windows* Setup to Load 3rd Party RAID Driver
• Serial ATA Drives Disappear from RAID Array
• Degraded RAID Volumes
• 137GB Drive Size Limitation
• SATA Controller Not Running at 150MB per Second
• USB Floppy Drive Does Not Work to Install Mass Storage Drivers
• Serial ATA Port Numbers Do Not Match
• Optical Drives Connected to Blue SATA Ports Do Not Work
  

General Information

System Requirements for Configuring RAID
In order to configure your system for RAID, it must meet the following requirements.

Desktop Board:
Must be one of the following:

Operating System:

• Microsoft Microsoft Windows* 2000 (No Microsoft Windows* 2000 support for G33, P35, Q35, X38, X48, 5400XS, DG965PZ or DQ965WC)
• Microsoft Microsoft Windows* XP Home Edition
• Microsoft Microsoft Windows* XP Professional
• Microsoft Microsoft Windows* Media Center Edition
• Microsoft Microsoft Windows* XP Professional x64 Edition (No XP Professional x64 support for D865PERL or D875PBZ)
• Microsoft Microsoft Windows* Vista*

Configuration Software:

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager or Intel® Application Accelerator RAID Edition version 4.0 (depending on board model), available on the driver CD that came with the Intel® Desktop Board or downloadable from Intel’s Download Center.

Where to Find the Latest RAID Drivers
You can download the most current SATA drivers for your Intel® Desktop Board from Intel’s Download Center.

RAID Properties

^A Performance as compared to single hard drive performance
^B Assumes all hard drives are of the same capacity. If drives are not the same capacity, then the size will equal that of the smaller drive.
^C RAID 0, 5 or 10 configuration with more than two drives requires an Intel® Desktop Board with ICH7R.

Supported RAID Levels
Intel® Desktop Boards support the following RAID levels:

*A "RAID Ready" system is a specific system configuration that enables a seamless migration from a single non-RAID disk drive to a dual disk drive RAID 0 or RAID 1 array.

**For boards using ICH7R, ICH8R, ICH8DH or ICH8DO chipsets, a maximum of 4 drives can be used in a single RAID 0 or RAID 5 array. A maximum of 2 drives can be used in a single RAID 1 array. The other SATA connectors can be used for single drives or to create another RAID array.

Serial ATA and Microsoft Windows*
Microsoft’s* paper, Serial ATA in the Microsoft Operating System Environment*, provides additional information about Serial ATA support for the Microsoft Microsoft Windows* family of operating systems.

Serial ATA DVD/CD Drives
Currently, SATA speeds are not significantly that much faster than the older PATA interface (150 MB per second as opposed to PATA's up to 133 MBps), it promises to eventually attain speeds of up to 600 MBps.

However, these speeds are relevant only to hard drives. These numbers aren't meaningful to optical drives. Optical drives generally top out at about 22 MBps for reads and 16.5 MBps for writes, far below the level of PATA'S current capabilities.

SATA has some advantages that apply to DVD drives:

• It uses slimmer cables, which improve circulation within the PC and keep the insides cooler.
• You connect only one device per cable, which eliminates the need for master/slave/cable select jumper settings and simplifies drive installation.
• It allows up to 3.3-foot cable lengths as opposed to PATA's 1.5-foot limitation.

Mixing SATA and PATA (IDE) Devices
SATA and PATA devices can work together in a single system. Typically, the SATA connectors would be used for hard drives and the PATA connector would be used for DVD or CD (optical) drives, although hard drives can be installed on both connector types.

Intel’s RAID configuration software offers the ability to create RAID volumes manually. This option should be used if you are using a third bootable device such as an IDE or SCSI hard drive – in addition to using two SATA hard drives. To create a RAID volume manually, see the section titled "Create Volume Manually" in the User’s Manual.

One benefit of using a third bootable device and creating a RAID volume manually is that the operating system is not located on the RAID volume. Should something happen to the RAID volume, the operating system should not be impacted.


Enabling RAID in the BIOS
The RAID option must be enabled in BIOS before the system can load the Intel RAID Option ROM code.

1. Enter the BIOS Setup program by pressing the <F2> key after the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) memory test begins.
2. Select the Advanced menu, then the Drive Configuration menu.
3. Switch the Drive Mode option from Legacy to Enhanced.
4. Switch the RAID option to Enabled. (Terminology can differ by board model; may show as SoftRAID or Intel® Matrix Storage Technology.)
5. Press <F10> to save the BIOS settings and exit the BIOS Setup program.

If you do not have any settings in the BIOS to turn on RAID, double check your desktop board model to make sure it is supported.

SATA Modes (AHCI; Hot Swap)
The SATA controller has three modes of operation:

• IDE mode - no AHCI, no RAID
• SATA mode (sometimes called AHCI mode) - AHCI enabled, no RAID
• RAID mode - AHCI enabled, RAID enabled

AHCI mode also allows for Hot Swapping drives.

Switching SATA modes in the BIOS after installing the operating system is not recommended when a SATA drive is the boot drive. Switching modes may cause an immediate blue screen with an 0x0000007b error code, followed by a reboot.

For complete information on the SATA Mode, refer to Changing and/or choosing SATA modes.

Configuring RAID on a New PC
You can configure your new system for RAID and install the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager driver during the Microsoft Windows* operating system installation. Refer to the User’s Manual for complete steps.

Configuring RAID on an Existing PC
Intel’s RAID configuration utilities offer the flexibility to upgrade from a single Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive to a two drive RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration when an additional SATA hard drive is added to an existing PC. Beginning with Intel Matrix Storage Manager, you can also migrate to a 3 or 4-drive RAID 5 or a 4-drive RAID 10 configuration on ICH7R systems.

Refer to the User’s Manual for complete steps.

Unattended Installation Instructions Under Microsoft Windows* XP
For instructions on doing an unattended installation with the Intel® Matrix Storage Technology software under Microsoft Windows* XP, refer to Unattended Installation Instructions Under Microsoft Windows** XP.


Troubleshooting


Serial ATA Drive Not Recognized
There are several reasons why a serial ATA drive may not be recognized at bootup or by the operating system.

No Power to the Drive
Check that the power cable is connected from the power supply to the SATA drive. If your power supply does not include a SATA power connector, you will need an adapter.

SATA Data Cable is not Connected
Check that the SATA data cable is firmly connected from the SATA drive to the SATA header on the desktop board.

SATA Drive is not Formatted
Like all drives, serial ATA drives must be formatted before use.

BIOS Issues
Random BIOS problems may interfere with the detection of SATA drives.

• Make sure you have the latest BIOS version for your desktop board.
• Try a BIOS recovery.

Ctrl-I Option to Open RAID Configuration Utility Does Not Appear
After configuring the BIOS for Intel Matrix Storage Technology, upon reboot you will see the Intel® Application Accelerator RAID Option ROM status message on the screen: Press <CTRL-I> to enter RAID Configuration Utility.

If the BIOS setting for Addon ROM Display Mode is disabled, the CTRL-I message may not appear. To resolve this:

1. Enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F2 during boot.
2. Go to the Boot menu.
3. Enable Addon ROM Display Mode.
4. Save and exit the Bios Setup.

Nothing Happens when Pressing F6 During Microsoft Windows** Setup to Load 3rd Party RAID Driver
If you have enabled RAID, at the beginning of Microsoft Windows* Setup, you’ll see a prompt to “Press <F6> to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver”. When you press F6, it may appear as if nothing happened as a dialog box will not appear and you will not immediately see a prompt. You likely will not see any sort of dialog box appear at the time you press F6. Instead, later during Microsoft Windows* Setup, however, you will be prompted to insert the RAID driver floppy disk that came with the desktop board.

Serial ATA Drives Disappear from RAID Array
Refer to the Troubleshooting chapter in the User’s Manual for complete steps in troubleshooting failed drives.

Degraded RAID Volumes
Refer to How to Recover when troubleshooting degraded RAID volumes.

137 GB Drive Size Limitation
The original Microsoft Windows* XP or 2000 CDs can only support a maximum hard drive capacity of 137 GB. To install a hard drive larger than 137 gigabytes on your computer you need Microsoft Windows* 2000 Service Pack 3 or later or Microsoft Windows* XP Service Pack 1 or later.

SATA Controller Not Running at 150MB per Second
Intel® Desktop Utilities may report that Serial ATA drives are running at ATA speeds (ATA/100 or ATA/133). This is because the Serial ATA controller is running in Emulating Parallel ATA mode and is using Microsoft Windows* parallel ATA drivers (i.e. atapi.sys). While the Serial ATA controller may be operating at a higher transfer speed, it may claim to be operating in a slower parallel ATA transfer mode. All versions of Microsoft Windows* prior to Microsoft Windows* Server 2003 have support for Emulating Parallel ATA mode. For additional information refer to Serial ATA in the Microsoft Operating System Environment.*

¹When RAID is enabled, you cannot check which port a drive is connected to in the BIOS. The BIOS will show the individual SATA ports, but all of them will show "Not Connected" even if there are drives connected. You can only check it from the option ROM, the Intel® Matrix Storage Console and the board silkscreen.


Optical Drives Connected to Blue SATA Ports Do Not Work
With the Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX2 or DX38BT, CD or DVD drives connected to the blue SATA ports may not be recognized by Microsoft Windows*. This can result in failures when trying to write to CDs or DVDs in the drive. To resolve this, connect the optical drive it to a black SATA port.

This applies to:

Intel® Desktop Board D201GLY2 Intel® Desktop Board D5400XS Intel® Desktop Board D865GSA Intel® Desktop Board D865PERL Intel® Desktop Board D875PBZ Intel® Desktop Board D915GMH Intel® Desktop Board D915PBL Intel® Desktop Board D915PDT Intel® Desktop Board D925XBC Intel® Desktop Board D925XCV Intel® Desktop Board D925XEBC2 Intel® Desktop Board D925XECV2 Intel® Desktop Board D925XHY Intel® Desktop Board D945GCLF2 Intel® Desktop Board D945GCNL Intel® Desktop Board D945GCPE Intel® Desktop Board D945GCZ Intel® Desktop Board D945GNT Intel® Desktop Board D945GSEJT Intel® Desktop Board D945PDK Intel® Desktop Board D945PVS Intel® Desktop Board D946GZAB Intel® Desktop Board D955XBK Intel® Desktop Board D955XCS Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX2 Intel® Desktop Board DB43LD Intel® Desktop Board DG31GL Intel® Desktop Board DG31PR Intel® Desktop Board DG33BU Intel® Desktop Board DG33FB Intel® Desktop Board DG33TL Intel® Desktop Board DG35EC Intel® Desktop Board DG41KR Intel® Desktop Board DG41RQ Intel® Desktop Board DG41TY Intel® Desktop Board DG43GT Intel® Desktop Board DG965MQ Intel® Desktop Board DG965OT Intel® Desktop Board DG965PZ Intel® Desktop Board DG965WH Intel® Desktop Board DP35DP Intel® Desktop Board DP45SG Intel® Desktop Board DP55KG Intel® Desktop Board DP55SB Intel® Desktop Board DP55WB Intel® Desktop Board DP55WG Intel® Desktop Board DP965LT Intel® Desktop Board DQ35JO Intel® Desktop Board DQ35MP Intel® Desktop Board DQ43AP Intel® Desktop Board DQ45CB Intel® Desktop Board DQ45EK Intel® Desktop Board DQ965CO Intel® Desktop Board DQ965GF Intel® Desktop Board DQ965WC Intel® Desktop Board DX38BT Intel® Desktop Board DX48BT2