Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H RAID help

T

TH3 H4NGMAN

New member
Hi guys. I've recently added to WD 320GB Caviar Blacks to my system. I originally wanted to run them in RAID 0 as storage drives, but now I am reinstalling Windows so I figured I'd use them as my primary drives. I setup the array the first time, for storage, in the BIOS and booted but it would hang on the loading graphic. I tried to use the Windows 7 disk to install the drivers, but that didn't work either. Now I'm going to install the drivers while installing the OS, but I've never done it in Windows 7. I know in XP you just hit F6 and load from a floppy, but my floppy drive seems to not work. Can I use a CD? When do I load the drivers? Any help would be great. Thanks.
 
I've had something like this happen. Its very unlikely that windows doesn't have the drivers, but you can usually load them onto a usb stick (easier than a floppy). Make sure there are no other HDs in the PC when you install windows and that the drive shows up as one large drive (640 not 2 320s).
 
I do have the drives recognized as being in RAID by the BIOS. However, it lists my array as #3, which I think is because the drives are in SATA 3 and 4. I haven't tried only using these drives, so I'll do that. Just to clarify, I do not need to load drivers but I should have them on a flash drive in case I need them?
 
It seems odd if W7 doesn't have the drivers, all the motherboard raid setups were already found when I've done it in the past and it even found my adaptec raid drives first time. Try remaking the array, and making sure windows is trying to install on the correct drives. Have the drivers on a flash disk on hand just in case.
 
Yeah I reckon 140-150 might well be possible. It will depend what size file you are writing obviously, and on the RAID controller.
 
So I setup RAID no problem, Windows saw my array and installed drivers. I get about 130 MB/s from my array. Thanks for your help guys.
 
glad its working for u mate and those are some pretty decent numbers
smile.gif
 
if it is possible to set your RAID to use 64k blocks....you will see an even larger speed boost...at the expense of a bit of space (overhead for "header")

of course that would require a format...but I have one of these mobo's in one of my storage servers....and they are great little boards

Windows will want to install at 4096 byte/sectors....and your drives are probably physically 512 (on chip)....the closer you can get those all to a larger allocation...the better

i am running a RAID 10 on my desktop using 64k byte/sector and am getting speeds closer to 250/mbs

RAID 10 (0+1) should be nearly identical to RAID zero in performance....since RAID 10 is simply a spanned set----followed by a parity set....

and I am getting those numbers out of cheap Hitachi k series 2tb drives.....you should be able to get a bit more out of your WD's

also what are you seek times?

have you enabled write back caching for the array?

it is not set-up as standard on an intel controller...it is on the o/s partition, but not on the hardware level....you need to go into the intel RAID management tools and turn it on
 
TH3 H4NGMAN said:
I was under the impression that 128Kb was better for RAID 0, so I set it to 128 despite the default being 64.
Click to expand...

oh yes...that is 100% the case....the larger the sector allocation the faster your iops should be

how did you get your controller to set to 128k?? that is not an option on my us2h

I wonder if we have different revisions....yours is intel 101 controller correct?

4096 will actually get better randoms on an o/s drive....Windows 7 is optimized for that (very lenghty white paper from microsoft on the subject).....but for larger files, like video and such a large allocation should give you better sequential numbers

you should actually be getting slightly better numbers out of those Caviars

I have a pair of OOOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDDDDD Deskstar 250gb in RAID 0 on a lesser workstation (as a photoshop paging file) and they are getting about the same 150-180/mbs on an AMD controller....

hmmmm....really curious about the 128k setting in your controller....if you could tell me the revision of your mobo and the controller that would be awesome...thanks
 
The controller is definitely not an Intel model, because this is an AMD board. I just selected the stripe size, which was 64KB by default, his space, and it switches to 128KB. You also need to keep in mind that the OS is installed on the drives, so it will be slower than just plain old storage drives. Oh, and I believe my revision is 1.3.
 
TH3 H4NGMAN said:
The controller is definitely not an Intel model, because this is an AMD board. I just selected the stripe size, which was 64KB by default, his space, and it switches to 128KB. You also need to keep in mind that the OS is installed on the drives, so it will be slower than just plain old storage drives. Oh, and I believe my revision is 1.3.
Click to expand...

my bad buddy, we have 2 different mobo's
laugh.gif


there is a us2h in intel spec. as well

that explains it.......

it might be very enlightening to go read Microsofts white paper on the 4096 allocation size for their o/s installs....

it seems to give the best balance of randoms and sequentials.....

there is a growing consensus among drive manufacturers to sqith over from 512 to 4096 for on chip allocation as well

what are you using to bench you physical volume?

also I think the only thing that would make a o/s read "slower" than mass storage, would be if you were doing a bench on the logical drive....not the physical volume....

the Everest disk bench is on the low level physical volume (on chip allocation)....so it should make no difference what is installed or not installed on the disk....

I really prefer everest disk bench, for this specific reason....it benches low level

thanks for finding that revision...it's my fault that it's irrelevant
ohmy.gif
 
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