how do I set up RAID 1 on xw6200 and win 7?

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useOldStuff

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Jul 9, 2013
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I'd like to set up mirroring (RAID 1) on an HP xw6200 workstation with Win 7 and I'm finding that the chipset and RAID Bios is not supported. Is there any way to do this?

I found that the chipset is 82801EB ICH5.. and the last driver for it supplied by HP is for Win XP. THe intel site doesn't seem to have anything... (I found some drivers for 82801ER ICH5R but also XP, I believe)
When I turn on the Sata raid option in the bios, the win 7 installer can't find the disks. When I try to do an F6 driver install with the XP drivers from HP, they are not signed and it's refused.
I tried installing Win 7 on an EIDE drive but that seems bootable only when the raid option bios is turned off. (I thought I'd use some unsigned drivers but I have to get to that point with Windows somehow.. I don't think the installer lets me do that).

Am I missing some clever techinque?
Or are my options to get a sata RAID controller or use software raid?
If the controller, what would be the least expensive that is supported under Win 7, works with an xw6200 and is bootable?

Thanks!


Update: I looked again on Intel's site and found someone successfully installing the 5.5.0.1035 driver (http://communities.intel.com/thread/7788). I now think my problem is that I have a 64 bit OS, which I think this driver does not support ( because I looked at the inf file and also doing the F6 driver install the 82801ER driver doesn't show up).

Anyone know what would happen if I used the 32 bit driver?
Also, the question stands -- what would be a good inexpensive RAID card to get?
 
Solution
popatim
The driver you need to use is the 'Intel® Matrix Storage Manager version 5.5.0.1035' from the Intel's site
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&DwnldID=15551
When you go to load the driver during install uncheck the box to only show compatible drivers and then select the 82801ER driver.

You need to have the raid setup in the raid-bios (ctrl+i?) before you begin installing. Also theres a trick to get install to see the ide drive as a possible boot drive but I dont recall what it was at the moment.
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popatim

popatim

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according to HP:

SATA
The embedded SATA controller on the xw6200 supports RAID 0 and 1 on up to 2 SATA drives; RAID migration is not supported. The workstation is shipped with RAID not enabled. The user must enable RAID in the BIOS.


Perform a backup of your data as it looks like you will be needing to reinstall everything if you wish to enable raid.
 
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useOldStuff

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Jul 9, 2013
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Yes, I have turned on an off the RAID setting in the BIOS. If I turn it on, Win 7 install won't identify the disks, and won't boot from the EIDE drive. If I turn it off -- well, then I don't have RAID.

As I mentioned, I got the final version of the Intel raid driver, and it won't install off of the disk because it won't show the 82801ER driver. I think this is because of the iastor.inf file in the driver:

[INTEL_HDC]
<snip>
; ICH5R - 82801ER
%PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF&CC_0104.DeviceDesc% = iaStor_Inst_RAID, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DF&CC_0104

[INTEL_HDC.ntamd64]
; ICH7R/DH - 82801GR/GH
%PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104.DeviceDesc% = iaStor_Inst_RAID, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104

; ICH6R - 82801FR
%PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0104.DeviceDesc% = iaStor_Inst_RAID, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652&CC_0104

The point is that I'm using Win 7 64-bit and only the GR and FR drivers show up, not the ER, which makes sense based on the above since ER is not under the ntamd64 section.

As for the actual chipset it's not clear to me why cpuz and such utilities report 82801EB. It might depend on the BIOS being enabled for RAID? I enabled it and used HP Insight diagnostics 8.2.0.3012A and it lists

Intel Corp. LPC Interface Controller 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R)
Bus 0
Device 31
etc...

Anyway, my analysis of this is that this won't work because of 64 bit windows drivers from INTEL are missing.
My options are RAID card or software RAID.

I will look at the RAID card suggested above. Are there others to consider? (Should have win 7 64 bit drivers, and be able to boot the system)?
Would the Win 7 built-in RAID degrade performance or is it okay?

Thanks.
 
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popatim

popatim

Titan
Moderator
Dec 2, 2009
38,898
979
135,890
The driver you need to use is the 'Intel® Matrix Storage Manager version 5.5.0.1035' from the Intel's site
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&DwnldID=15551
When you go to load the driver during install uncheck the box to only show compatible drivers and then select the 82801ER driver.

You need to have the raid setup in the raid-bios (ctrl+i?) before you begin installing. Also theres a trick to get install to see the ide drive as a possible boot drive but I dont recall what it was at the moment.
 
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Solution
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useOldStuff

Honorable
Jul 9, 2013
3
0
10,510
Even when you uncheck the box, The 82801ER driver doesn't show up, only the 82801GR and 82801FR drivers.
Again, I believe this is because I'm installing 64 bit Windows. The inf file lines I copied above show that the 82801ER is not under the 64 bit section.

I also found that the above suggested RAID card is a software RAID only.
 
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