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Re: Max Raid 0 size on Intel Raid Matrix

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:24:32 GMT

I know that the 64bit version of Windows 7 supports larger than 2tb volumes, but I haven't tried to boot from one. Western Digital says that XP can't surpass the 2tb limit because it can't address more because of its 32bit architecture.

However, if you use ntfs with 128KB sectors, working with larger non-boot volumes should even be possible in xp just as long as you keep in mind that your Master Boot Record will limit your boot volume to 2TB. I've edited my first comment with everything I know.

See this thread information by smarter people:

http://discussions.hardwarecentral.com/showthread.php?t=179719

Especially the wikipedia quote:

Maximum Volume Size

In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 264-1 clusters. However, the maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in Windows XP Professional is 232-1 clusters. For example, using 64 KiB clusters, the maximum NTFS volume size is 256 TiB minus 64 KiB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KiB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 TiB minus 4 KiB. Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes up to 2 TiB, dynamic or GPT volumes must be used to create bootable NTFS volumes over 2 TiB.

Re: Max Raid 0 size on Intel Raid Matrix

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:09:11 GMT

At 2TB you pass the theoretic max for most cluster sizes. So first step is to be sure to format at 4kb. When you create a striped raid array (raid 0) that is larger than 2TB, your data is split between the member disks. So if you have 2 disks, make sure that your strip size is at least twice the recommended cluster size of 4kb. I think the Intel Matrix Raid comes with a preselected suggestion for strip size. With large hdd sizes I believe that this will be 128KB. You are wise to follow the suggestion, unless you want to use your machine for a really specific purpose (e.g. a database server).

I've heard of problems with Intel Raid Matrix at raid 0 with hdd's exceeding 2TB, so if following these tips doesn't help, it may very well be the driver.

Also, Windows will not install on a raid volume larger than 2TB. For such a volume you need to create partitions first. Or - if you want to start over - you can do what I did and create several volumes on the same physical member drives. I was advised to make them the same raid flavour. When creating partitions always use ntfs for XP, Vista and 7. Windows 7 & your program files are happy on a 90GB volume or partition. When you go for that size, it is smart to move the default location of standard folders (e.g. "Movies") to another volume. From within Windows you can do that through the folder's properties.

Btw, with four disks I prefer using 1+0 (mirror & stripe), aka raid 10 for speed and safety. Other people may prefer raid 5 (stripe with parity) despite a performance penalty.

Message was edited by: whatdoesitwant

Re: Max Raid 0 size on Intel Raid Matrix

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:51:50 GMT

On my setup the raid configuration takes place within the Intel Matrix bios. You can enter this bios by pressing [ctrl]+[i] when requested during startup. When you do a clean installation of Windows you can install this bios. The necessary driver depends on your chipset. You can find your chipset on motherboard's box. If you don't know the name and version number of your motherboard and you already have a (temporary) Windows installed on a single disk, you can alternatively download software like Everest or Sisoft to find your chipset. The driver for the chipset can be downloaded on the Intel website under "Downloads". When you want to install Windows xp, you need to create an old fashioned floppy disk with the disk creation tool on the Intel website and your hardware needs to have an fdd available. Windows Vista and Windows 7 allow you to install the bios from an external (usb or sata) drive, cd or dvd. I am not familiar with the possibility to configure raid from within Windows XP. If your hardware can take it (min 3gb ram, and check your gpu specs first) and you have the money, i urge you to skip Windows XP and go with Windows 7. It is much more user friendly.

Re: success with ich9r drivers for windows 7 64 bit? (gigabyte p35-ds4)

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:14:35 GMT

Success!

Well, sort of.

Gigabyte p35-ds4, dq6 comes with intel matrix storage manager. After downloading version 8.8 of this software for x64 vista to use while installing windows 7 rc, i ran into difficulties. I was unable to install windows 7 rc clean with these driver files (see previous).

What I learned:

Gigabyte's phoenix/award bios includes intel raid storage manager rom. My bios (F4) comes with version 7.something. To upgrade the rom, you must flash the bios. However, this was NOT necessary and i still do not dare to do so.
The Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode option controls the state of the GIGABYTE IDE and SATA 2 ports (separate jmicron controller, has nothing to do with intel). You can leave these in ahci mode if you have a sata dvd writer. Connect the dvd to this controller to boot from your windows 7 installation dvd.
Windows 7 creates a partition called System Reserved and this can really &^%$^#$@ up your raid. It seems not to allow installation on the same volume as the windows partition, causing all kinds of headache.

Further tips

Follow his description to the letter:

http://www.candiedbrains.com/2009/06/20/ich9r-raid-with-windows-7-or-vista/

So:

first del into your bios and set the intel raid to ahci.
Here's a tip: Install windows 7 first. Tweak it a bit and when you are satisfied, create a system back-up, preferrably on an external drive or on an internal drive that is not going to be part of your raid. This back-up will also contain the system reserved partition. (Later, if anything goes wrong with trying to get the raid going, you will find yourself in a situationm with a crooked raid. To get back to the current situation you can then simply delete the raid in the ctrl-i step, manually reboot, del into your bios and set sata from raid to ahci, boot from dvd and restore from this image on a regular drive. This is actually a timesaver.)
Anyway, now install the latest intel matrix storage manager (8.8.something i believe) and reboot to finish.
Perform the registry tweaks, I found that changing the values in hex or decimal does not make a difference in our situation.
Reboot but do not forget to del into bios to set the intel sata to raid. Do not yet create your raid at this point. See if windows 7 still starts.
If so, check the device manager and find the controller in the image. Otherwise just try again and read the linked article even better. (been there, done that).
This is the time to make a new system back-up. One problem is that when you try to do that in the location of a former back-up Windows 7 will throw an unspecific and unrelated error. Instead move any WindowsBackupImage folder to another drive or simply rename it. You'll need to give yourself some rights to do so. Also, i've been told system back-up is only available in business and ultimate. Anyway this is the back-up that you are actually gonna clone to your raid. To do so, you need to create the raid (reboot, ctrl-i). Be careful when selecting your drives!
Now manually reboot before going into windows and del into bios to check the boot sequence. Windows 7 is going to put that extra 100mb partition on the volume you put first here.
Afterwards when you restore from your back-up be sure to exclude your drives that contain data.
At that point also ignore any suggestions to install additional drivers.

I noticed that you can get an error asking you to restart your pc, or another unspecified error. Both relate to both back-up partitions not getting mapped to the raid volumes. Most often it is a space problem. If this happens after you created only a single raid volume, try two next time. Otherwise check the size of the original partitions, that are int he back-up and be sure to have your raid volumes match or exceed those sizes. I don't know for sure but it seems having the first volume be bigger than the second (in boot order) may be an issue.

Also, when making a system back-up to the same drive you made a back-up to earlier, rename the original folder. Otherwise Windows 7 will not back-up.

Well, this took me just one day altogether, and i now have raid10 with windows 7 64 bit running on it.

Seriously, Microsoft and Intel need to improve their support on this raid issue. This is major suckage. I am now seriously looking at other os. The time it took me to migrate is equal to the effort of an introduction into linux or osx. Although I must say, now that i do have it running, windows 7 is very pretty and very fast on my machine. Bring out the virtualbox!

success with ich9r drivers for windows 7 64 bit? (gigabyte p35-ds4)

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:03:30 GMT

Intel's x64 drivers voor ich9r sata raid are not properly recognized by windows 7 rc. This applies to the drivers that come with the intel matrix storage manager 8.8 installation package (IIF2\Winall\Driver64\iaStor.inf and IIF2\Winall\Driver64\iaAHCI.inf) as well as those that are included within the 64-bit Floppy Configuration Utility. I believe that these are the same driver files.

The problem occurs on my pc after creating a raid 10 partition (4 drives mirrored and striped) while doing a clean installation of windows 7 rc (with a non-corrupted dvd). With bios in raid windows 7 rc doesn't recognize the volume altogether and the installation will fail. Windows 7 will either ask for an unspecified device driver or tell you that a cd/dvd device driver is missing.

Enabling ahci in the bios for both the controller and the drives resolves this but shows the actual drives that make up the raid volume.

Enabling ahci in the bios for just the drives, leaving the controller in raid mode appears to solve the problem.

However, windows 7 rc will then tell you that it is not able to install on the selected volume, ask for the mentioned drivers and fail miserably at installing them with effect.

After thinking about this for a while this is what i think. I think i was still using 32-bit intel matrix raid to create my raid 10 volume in the first place.

Presumably there are two ways around this:

Option one - get a floppy, install the 64 bit drivers in dos mode, create the volume again and try again. But wait, I don't have a floppy.

Option two - delete the volume. Set the controller back to ahci. Install windows rc 7 on (a partition of) one of the four drives. Now boot into win7 rc and install matrix storage manager. Next, create a full back-up of the installation (only available in business and ultimate, i believe) on an external drive. Reboot. Set the bios back to raid. Boot into intel raid storage manager (Ctrl-I) Configure intel-raid again, giving the raid-10 volume the exact same size as the installation on the single drive. From the windows 7 rc installation, restore the back-up on this volume. Think that's difficult? Still easier than getting a floppy drive to work properly on this main board.

I'll let you know if this will work. If you don't hear from me again, asume that intel and vista still have some work to do (it's the 21st century for pete's sake, floppies, come ON!). See also this link for another approach:

http://www.candiedbrains.com/2009/06/20/ich9r-raid-with-windows-7-or-vista/

And this link (dutch) for creating a bootable usb drive:

http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

Wish me luck,

Willem