ssd - How can I create a single RAID volume with a single HDD?
2014-07
Odys
I have an i7 3770k, Asus P8Z77-Pro and two drives. An SSD 120Gb and a regular HDD 500Gb.
I'm interesting in using the SSD with the Intel's Smart Response technology.
As stated in the requirements:
- Intel® Z68/Z77/H77/Q77 Express Chipset-based desktop board
- Intel® Core™ Processor in the LGA 1155 package System BIOS with SATA mode set to RAID
- Intel Rapid Storage Technology software 10.5 version release or later
- Single hard disk drive or multiple drives in a single RAID volume
- Solid State Drive (SSD) with a minimum capacity of 18.6GB
- Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista* (32-bit and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows 7* (32-bit and 64-bit editions)
How can I create a single RAID volume with a single HDD?
The raid utility (Intel Rapid Storage Technology rom utility) only allow me to create raid 0 with ~250Gb and Raid 1 with ~110Gb (which seem normal). No option to create a Single Raid Volume with a Single HDD. Also, If I remove the SSD the raid utility is not accessible.
m4573r
The core notion of RAID is to use multiple hard drives (to achieve different purposes depending on the type of RAID you want). RAID with a single drive just doesn't make any sense.
The Intel doc is a bit ambiguous, but it really says
(Single hard disk drive) or (multiple drives in a single RAID volume),
and not
(Single hard disk drive or multiple drives) in a single RAID volume.
Mark Henderson
I think you might be mis-reading what Intel have written:
Single hard disk drive or multiple drives in a single RAID volume
This is ambiguous, because it could mean:
- Single Hard Disk Drive
- Multiple Drives in a Single RAID Volume
OR
- Single Hard Disk Drive OR Multiple Drives
- In a RAID Volume.
They mean the first one. It is impossible to do RAID on a single disk, because the A in RAID requires more than one.
What Intel is implying is that the SSD can be used against a single volume. That volume can be a RAID set, or a single normal disk.
Mike Pateras
I just found this article, that says that Intel now supports TRIM for SSDs when the Intel storage controller is in RAID mode. It links to this download page. I'm pretty excited about that, but I'm a little confused. There seem to be two sets of drivers, an executable and something that's bootable. I ran the executable. Is that just to apply the drivers to my system now, and are the bootable drivers so that if I re-format, I won't have to re-run everything? Do I need to do both? And is there a way to check if it worked?
I'm running an i7 in Windows 7 (ASUS P6T Deluxe Motherboard) with RAID 0, if that's significant.
coneslayer
The "F6" drivers are only necessary during the installation of Windows, and they were only necessary for versions of Windows earlier than Win 7. In previous versions of Windows, there was no built-in AHCI or Intel Matrix RAID / RST driver, so you had to hit the F6 key and load suitable drivers from a floppy in order to proceed. So you don't need those.
The .exe file is the installer for the drivers you want. I assume that if you have RAID 0 set up and your system is working, that your BIOS was set to RAID (not IDE or AHCI) when you installed Windows. If you change that setting after Windows is installed, you either have to reinstall Windows or change some registry settings before changing the BIOS.
Finally, sblair's comment is correct, the TRIM passthrough only works for SSDs that are not actually part of the RAID. For example, if you had a boot SSD, plus a separate RAID 1 or RAID 0 pair of mechanical hard drives, TRIM would work on the SSD. If it's a pair of SSDs that you have in RAID 0, TRIM still won't work yet.
pgs
Looks like it comes in two parts: The first is the installer for the update, the second contains the update itself.