Rapid Storage Technology
Intel® RST, RAID
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Raid 1 rebuild with Rapid Storage Technology

BLevi
Beginner
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I bought a Dell computer which came with a single drive and Intel Rapid Storage Technology software (mirrored drives were not an option). I then bought an identical drive and built a Raid 1 mirror using the Intel software, which went smoothly. At some point a couple months later the original Dell drive failed. Dell sent me a new drive, again identical. I want to rebuild the mirror but am nervous that I will accidentally wipe the only working drive. The original drive was on SATA 0 and the one I had purchased on SATA 1. After the failure I moved the working drive to SATA 0 and the replacement drive to SATA 1. Instructions that I've read say to land your cursor on the new drive and click 'rebuild volume' but that is not how it is working. Under "Status" I am given the option to rebuild and when clicked I am presented with an option to do so, but it's unclear which drive is which (see screenshots).

I would hope the software does not allow you to wipe your working drive but cannot find documentation to support that. Just nervous about losing the entire working drive. Can someone assist? Thanks in advance for any help.

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Jose_H_Intel1
Employee
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Basically the rebuild should work. If by any chance it does not you also have another option:

You may access the RAID BIOS (Ctrl + I) and choose "Reset Disk to non-RAID" (for both drives if needed). When you do this you will get a message warning you about data loss, in most RAID types this will be true but there is no problem with RAID 1, since it is a mirror the data will remain.

Now, in order to create the RAID 1 again without losing the data you will need to boot into Windows*, start Intel® Rapid Storage Technology, and create the RAID volume from the drive with existing data, as explained in the user guide (page 30). This option does not appear in the RAID BIOS, therefore creating the RAID volume there will delete the data.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-020670.htm Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) — User guides

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TBerg8
Beginner
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Sorry for digging out this old Thread, but this is exactly my problem:

When I try to create a RAID 1 with Intel RST UI, it tells me all data from System Disk will be lost. I have no option to choose to keep data from a disk.

Screenshots are in german, I'll try to translate:

The red marked part is where I am asked if I want to keep data from one of the chosen disks:

As you can see, there is no option to choose a disk. If I click next, a warning appears telling me all data from my System-Disk will be lost:

I also tried to insert a third drive, but anyway I try, RST tells my the System disk will be deleted.

How to avoid that?

Regards,

Thilo

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EstebanA_C_Intel
Employee
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Hello, ThiloB:

In this case, I would like to review the following message found here http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/chipsets/imsm/sb/irst_user_guide.pdf http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/chipsets/imsm/sb/irst_user_guide.pdf (page 30):

Warning:This operation will delete all existing data from the additional hard drive or drives and the data

cannot be recovered. It is critical to backup all important data on the additional drives before proceeding. The

data on the source hard drive, however, will be preserved.

Please note that this will affect the additional drive only. What it'll do with the main drive would just to copy that information.

If you have important information in the additional drive, it would be good to backup that information to then store it in the RAID 1 config you will get.

Regards,

Esteban C

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TBerg8
Beginner
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Dear Esteban,

thank you for responding. I've read that guide before, and on Page 31 follows this screen:

I don't have this point, it says it will delete my system disk. You think it won't be deleted either because it only affects the additional drive?

Regards, Thilo

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EstebanA_C_Intel
Employee
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Thank you for your answer ThiloB and sorry for the delay.

I would like to check what do you see while attempting to create the RAID, would you please provide me with a screenshot of the full window of Intel RST?

Additionally, it'd be awesome having the SSU report from your system, this is in order to gather up some information that will allow me to better understand this scenario and therefore assist you with it.

How to get that report?

-Access: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility Download Intel® System Support Utility

-Download the utility

-Scan your system with the utility

-Export the report (hit next and then save) and attach it to your answer with the advanced editor option (reply button and then check upper right corner)

Hope I can hear from you soon.

Regards,

Esteban C

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TBerg8
Beginner
6,905 Views

Dear Esteban,

basically it's all in my first post, but here in detail:

1. first screen of RST (with my red annotations). All Data is on System Disk ID1, which therefore has to be part of the array.

 

2. Klick on Create:

 

3. Klick on Next ("Weiter"). As you can see, I'm asked if I want to keep data but I do not get the option to choose a drive:

 

If I select drive ID3 instead of ID0 the screen looks the same.

 

If I klick on Next, I get a Warning that my System Disk will be deleted:

If I select drive ID4 instead of 3 or 0 I'm asked to keep data AND get an option to choose a disk, but only disk ID4. System Disk ID1 will be deleted anyway:

As you can see here:

SSU Report:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

1.2.0.58

07.01.2016

00:00:38.8807746

<Setting id="Number of Colo...

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EstebanA_C_Intel
Employee
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Thank you ThiloB for the information provided.

I was checking that this is a server system with Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Standard.

There is a specialised communities support for server systems, I would like to transfer this thread to that support platform in order to get it fixed from specialized peers there.

You will be getting an answer from them soon.

Motherboard: Intel® Server Board S1200BTL

OS: Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Standard

Hope you can get this configured soon.

Regards,

Esteban C

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TBerg8
Beginner
6,905 Views

since nothing happened anymore I created a new array with two fresh disks and used dd from a linux live cd to copy data to the newly created array.

Seems Intel has to improve on its software at this point... Would be a great feature, if it worked

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