Troubleshooting Serial ATA / RAID Issues
General Information:
- System Requirements for Configuring RAID
- Where to Find the Latest RAID Drivers
- RAID Properties
- Supported RAID Levels
- Serial ATA and 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 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 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
System Requirements
for Configuring RAID
In order to configure your
system for RAID, it must meet the following requirements.
Desktop Board:
- Intel® Desktop Board D955XCS
- Intel® Desktop Board D955XBK
- Intel® Desktop Board D945PVS
- Intel® Desktop Board D945GTP (D945GTPLKR and D945GTPLR SKUs only; D945GTPL does not include RAID support)
- Intel® Desktop Board D945GNT (D945GNTLKR and D945GNTLR SKUs only; D945GNTL does not include RAID support)
- Intel® Desktop Board D945GCZ (D945GCZLKR and D945GCZLR SKUs only; D945GCZL does not include RAID support)
- Intel® Desktop Board D925XECV2
- Intel® Desktop Board D925XEBC2
- Intel® Desktop Board D925XCV
- Intel® Desktop Board D925XBC
- Intel® Desktop Board D915PBL
- Intel® Desktop Board D875PBZ
- Intel® Desktop Board D865PERL (D865PERLL or D865PERLK SKUs only; D865PERL and D865PERLX do not include RAID support)
Operating System:
- Microsoft* Windows* 2000
- Microsoft* Windows* XP Home Edition
- Microsoft* Windows* XP Professional
- Microsoft Windows*
- Microsoft* Windows* XP Professional x64 Edition (No XP Professional x64 support for D865PERL or D875PBZ)
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.
Note: There are no RAID drivers available for Linux* or Windows* Server 2003 Server for Intel® Desktop Boards.
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.
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Note: In order to successfully complete the installation of the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager or the Intel® Application Accelerator 4.0 in Windows* XP or Windows* 2000, you must be logged on with Administrator rights.
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A Performance as compared to single hard drive
performance
BAssumes
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.
CRAID 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:
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*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.
Serial ATA and
Windows*
Microsoft's paper, Serial
ATA in the Microsoft Operating System Environment†,
provides additional information about Serial ATA support for the 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. Note:
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager supports SATA 3.0 Gb/second.
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.
One benefit of using a third bootable device and creating a RAID volume manually is that the operating system is not be located on the RAID volume. Should something happen to the RAID volume, the operating system should not be impacted.
In order to use both IDE and SATA hard drives in a RAID configuration, please refer to the User's Manual. See the section titled 'Create Volume Manually' for additional information.
Enabling RAID in the
BIOS
The RAID option must be enabled
in BIOS before the system can load the Intel RAID Option ROM code.
- Enter the BIOS Setup program by pressing the <F2> key after the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) memory test begins.
- Select the Advanced menu, then the Drive Configuration menu.
- Switch the Drive Mode option from Legacy to Enhanced.
- Switch the RAID option to Enabled. (Terminology can differ by board model; may show as SoftRAID or Intel® Matrix Storage Technology.)
- 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 "NTLDR" error, an immediate blue screen error followed by a reboot, or other boot failure.
For complete information on the SATA Mode, refer to Changing and/or choosing SATA modes.
Configuring RAID on a
New PC
There are several documents available to help you to configure a new system for
RAID:
Intel®
Application Accelerator RAID Edition User's Manual
Discusses how to properly configure your system when using the Intel®
Application Accelerator.
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 RAID Migration Instructions chapter in the User's Manual for complete steps.
Unattended Installation Instructions
Under Windows* XP
For instructions on doing an unattended installation with the Intel® Matrix
Storage Technology software under Windows* XP, refer to Unattended
Installation Instructions Under Windows* XP.
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. Refer to Serial ATA Power
Cable for more information.
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. Refer to Serial ATA Data
Cable for more information.
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:
- Enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F2 during boot.
- Go to the Boot menu.
- Enable Addon ROM Display Mode.
- Save and exit the Bios Setup.
Note: If you are in AHCI mode or have only a single SATA hard drive installed, the Option ROM will not load and you will not be able to enter the RAID Configuration Utility.
Nothing Happens when
Pressing F6 During Windows* Setup to Load 3rd Party RAID Driver
If you have enabled RAID, at the
beginning of 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 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 dropped drives.
Degraded RAID
Volumes
Refer to the Troubleshooting chapter in the User's
Manual for complete steps in troubleshooting degraded RAID volumes.
137 GB Drive Size
Limitation
The original 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 Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later or 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 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 Windows
prior to Windows Server* 2003 have support for Emulating Parallel ATA mode. For
additional information refer to Serial ATA in the Microsoft Operating System Environment.*
This applies to:
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