??? Microsoft RAID/Disk Manager -vs- Intel Matrix Storage Mgr/ROM

[Ross Bennett]

My question.. I created a RAID 0 Volume using Intel's ROM Utility (NOT
Microsoft RAID). Should I ignore Microsoft's Disk Manager as it relates to
that RAID Volume.

These points seemed odd that Microsoft's Disk Manager...
1. reports my RAID 0 Volume as Basic (not Dynamic)
2. displays the entire Disk 0 as "Primary Partition" instead of a "Striped
Partition".
3. does not display the member drives in the Array.. instead it displays
the entire Raid 0 Array as Disk 0.

I started with 2 blank 500GB WD HDD's.. using the ROM Utility (Intel Matrix
Storage Utility - ICH8R) to create a Raid 0 array as a single partition.
Next, I installed a clean copy of Vista Home Premium on that single large
volume.
Then I installed the Intel Matrix Storage Manager which correctly displayed
the RAID 0 Array, the Volume, and the 2 member WD HDD's.

(dumb question - Does Microsoft Vista function with all the performance
benefits of RAID 0 even though Disk Manager can NOT display the actual
configuration?)

Thanks in advance for your help!
Ross

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Ross,

This is perfectly normal behaviour. As far as Vista is concerned, a RAID
array created in hardware appears as a single disk in Disk Manager. The
reason why the Intel Matrix Storage Manager is able to display the correct
details is because it is able to access them from the RAID controller itself.
To Vista, the RAID controller appears as a SCSI device. If, however, you had
chosen to create a software array in Vista, then the Disk Manager would
probably display it correctly. Although I have RAID, I too have hardware RAID
and have not tried the software version - perhaps someone who has can shed
some light on this issue. Hardware RAID which is built-in to the motherboard
is, in my opinion, the best option for those who wish to use RAID. A hardware
RAID solution is always going to be better than a software solution and much
more reliable. To answer your dumb question - as long as Disk Manager sees
the total of the array (in your case slightly less than 1TB) then it should
be functioning correctly.
Dwarf