XPS9000 & RAID
in [Dell]
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From: Tony Harding on 12 Apr 2010 23:37 Going nutz here, turning to the real deal here for advice/help. :) Have had an XPS9000 since 12/31/09, came with a 640GB HDD, 12GB memory, i7-975 Extreme Edition processor, Blu-Ray ROM/DVD burner, etc. Decided Fri, 04/09, to implement RAID as an upgrade (I have 2 identical Seagate 7200.12 HDDs for it). Problem is the JMicron RAID drivers (whether Dell's or JMicron's), I cannot get them to install/work. I run the driver install and everything seems to have run okay, but when I run the JMicron utility it tells me there's an error, RAID device not found. Setting up/breaking an array in the BIOS (which is set to RAID, BTW) makes no difference at all. I created the driver floppy as described by copying the 4 files from the \floppy64 folder to the root of a FDD. When I tell Win7 Setup I have mfg files, it will look at the FDD. The screen has a checkbox to exclude drivers which are incompatible with my hardware, when it's checked, nothing comes up. If I uncheck it, it lists the same thing 11 times (JMB36x RAID drivers (or words to that effect); but doesn't like it. Intel's MSM (Matrix Storage Mgr) is a similar deal, i.e., copy files to a FDD and tell Win7 Setup. This seems to go properly, I can define/break an array, define the array as a simple disk in Win7's Comp Mgmt, etc. I don't want to bet on the wrong thing here and lose 100's of GBs of video, so I'm asking here for advice/help/whatever you've got here. TIA, Tony H
From: William R. Walsh on 13 Apr 2010 14:00 Hi! > I don't want to bet on the wrong thing here and lose 100's of GBs > of video, so I'm asking here for advice/help/whatever you've got > here. I think that you'd better make a backup before doing anything. Tinkering with RAID settings can be a data destructive process. You should expect the worst when "fakeraid" is in use. I looked at the specifications for the (Studio) XPS 9000 and it seems to use the Intel ICH10/ICH10R southbridge. This southbridge provides for at least six serial ATA ports. After looking at the Dell service manual and its drawings of the motherboard, I can only conclude that there is no need for any additional serial ATA controller such as the JMicron part. I'd suggest looking at the motherboard to see whether or not such a part is there to start with. William
From: WSZsr on 13 Apr 2010 18:47 JMicron controls the eSATA port on the 9000. "William R. Walsh" <wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:2cee25a7-5dd8-4020-a0b8-1a478b681eb6(a)x42g2000vba.googlegroups.com... > Hi! > >> I don't want to bet on the wrong thing here and lose 100's of GBs >> of video, so I'm asking here for advice/help/whatever you've got >> here. > > I think that you'd better make a backup before doing anything. > Tinkering with RAID settings can be a data destructive process. You > should expect the worst when "fakeraid" is in use. > > I looked at the specifications for the (Studio) XPS 9000 and it seems > to use the Intel ICH10/ICH10R southbridge. This southbridge provides > for at least six serial ATA ports. After looking at the Dell service > manual and its drawings of the motherboard, I can only conclude that > there is no need for any additional serial ATA controller such as the > JMicron part. > > I'd suggest looking at the motherboard to see whether or not such a > part is there to start with. > > William
From: Tony Harding on 14 Apr 2010 00:46 On 04/13/10 18:47, WSZsr wrote: > JMicron controls the eSATA port on the 9000. > > "William R. Walsh" <wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message > news:2cee25a7-5dd8-4020-a0b8-1a478b681eb6(a)x42g2000vba.googlegroups.com... >> Hi! >> >>> I don't want to bet on the wrong thing here and lose 100's of GBs >>> of video, so I'm asking here for advice/help/whatever you've got >>> here. >> >> I think that you'd better make a backup before doing anything. >> Tinkering with RAID settings can be a data destructive process. You >> should expect the worst when "fakeraid" is in use. >> >> I looked at the specifications for the (Studio) XPS 9000 and it seems >> to use the Intel ICH10/ICH10R southbridge. This southbridge provides >> for at least six serial ATA ports. After looking at the Dell service >> manual and its drawings of the motherboard, I can only conclude that >> there is no need for any additional serial ATA controller such as the >> JMicron part. >> >> I'd suggest looking at the motherboard to see whether or not such a >> part is there to start with. >> >> William Thanks to you both for replying. Interesting point re: JMicron & the eSATA port. System seems to run fine without the drivers supplied by Dell (so I guess Win7 includes what's required). The RAID0 array I defined was via Intel's MSM (the 2 TB Seagate 7200.12 HDDs). I know I have the ICH10R in my X58 chipset (yet no chipset drivers<shrug>), with the 6 ports, so this sounds right to me. HDTune says they average 181.5 MB/sec and peak at 214.4MB/sec. That's a lotta bytes! With the disk, memory & i7-975 processor I'm trying to build a monster for video capture, editing & rendering; however, I don't want to commit to this RAID setup until I feel comfortable with it. I've moved < 100GB of video to it so far, but haven't tried to capture yet. Once again, thanks to you both, I'm feeling more comfortable with this setup.
From: Tony Harding on 14 Apr 2010 00:51
On 04/13/10 14:00, William R. Walsh wrote: > Hi! > >> I don't want to bet on the wrong thing here and lose 100's of GBs >> of video, so I'm asking here for advice/help/whatever you've got >> here. > > I think that you'd better make a backup before doing anything. > Tinkering with RAID settings can be a data destructive process. "Can"? :) > You should expect the worst when "fakeraid" is in use. Good advice - backup's long since done. I tinkered with RAID about 3 yrs ago with my XPS720 & XPS410 - dumped them both because I encountered stability problems - a real no-no! Should I be looking at a "real" RAID controller, i.e., a card, if I'm serious? |