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New Systems Build: Hard Drive Confuration help

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  • NAS / RAID
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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August 28, 2014 10:19:52 AM

I am organizing a new system. Below are the elements I am using. The essential purpose is a graphics station for hobby purposes linked to CAD CAM and Video production both.

Motherboard- ASUS Z87-Plus
CPU- Haswell 4771 (no overclock)
Graphics Card- Nvidia QUADRO 4000K
Memory- 32 gigs ddr3
HDD- 4 Western Digital Black 1TB drives @ raid 10
SSD- 1 ~500GB Samsung
Sound- MB
Optical Disc- LG Blu-Ray burner
Case- Lian Li (right now I don't remember which model)
Cooling- Air via Heatsink+fan

OS- Win 8.1 Pro 64bit
Software

SolidW, BobCad, CS6 Master Suite, Office 2007

My question is concerned with configuring the Disk Storage so that the HDDs are Raid 10 for storage and file usage. The OS is on the SSD.

I have received the following advice:
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1. When you install Windows on the SSD, ONLY have the SSD connected to the PC, in the Intel SATA port 0 or 1 (whatever is first). You can have your HDDs installed, but just don't have them powered up during the Windows installation. Otherwise Windows will put the MBR on a drive other than the SSD, a strange trait of Windows that will cause grief when you create your RAID volume. Simple to avoid this by just having the target drive active when you install Windows.

If you are using a Windows installation disk, you must use a DVD drive, which is fine and won't be a problem. Be sure to have the DVD drive connected to an Intel SATA port too. I mention this because many boards have secondary add-on SATA controllers (ASMedia, Marvell) that are not as stable as the Intel SATA interface, and their performance is much lower than the Intel SATA interface. If you blindly connect your drives to whatever ports you find, you may be using those other interfaces, which is not a good idea.

2. Be sure to set the SATA mode on the Intel SATA interface to RAID before you install Windows. Changing to RAID mode after a Windows installation requires a registry edit which can be avoided by setting things up right in the first place. Again, better to do it right now then later.

3. Since you aren't installing Windows on a RAID volume, you don't need to install the "F6 Floppy" RAID driver during the Windows installation. You can install that driver from a USB flash drive, but it is not necessary. Windows has since version 7 included a basic Intel RAID driver that it uses during the installation. So even if you were using a RAID volume for Windows, you don't need to install the F6 RAID driver.

After Windows is installed you then install the full IRST driver package, that includes a Windows UI to create and manage RAID volumes. You'll find an entry for that in the Windows Control Panel after you install the Intel RAID driver package. That UI has a Help "button" at the top of its display, that will open another window with extensive documentation about creating RAID volumes. That is your best reference on Intel's RAID capabilities.

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I have no confusion over what the above instructions involve. I built SCSI systems for a long time due to document scanners requiring this interface. For the last 10 years I have build SATA RAID systems. I recently switched from XP to Windows 8.1 via an ASUS laptop. However, this will be my first build in that OS and my first build using an SSD for the OS. I was hoping the community would augment what I have to do on the way to getting the system up and running. All parts are in my possession. I am waiting for the learning curve to begin!

I've been following Tom's for about 12 years now and am excited to start being a community contributor with this email. As I have stated, the OS will be installed on the 500GB SSD. The HDD raid 10 will be for the large files used by CAD CAM and Machining hardware alongside video files.

Thanks to all in advance,

psient

More about : systems build hard drive confuration

August 28, 2014 10:47:36 AM

Well, the great thing with Windows 8 is that you do not have to worry about the MBR on the additional drives as it lets you select where that goes. So, set everything up all at once and your good. You will have to go through the UEFI Bios which is accessed by Delete or F2 and you can enable the Raid system and setup the Raids before you install the OS as well. Since your installing onto the SSD only then there should be no worries with drivers, just a clean install. :)  You might have to install the raid drivers after you install the OS if you don't have a thumb drive or external that already has those drivers.
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August 28, 2014 10:55:24 AM

jdcranke07 said:
Well, the great thing with Windows 8 is that you do not have to worry about the MBR on the additional drives as it lets you select where that goes. So, set everything up all at once and your good. You will have to go through the UEFI Bios which is accessed by Delete or F2 and you can enable the Raid system and setup the Raids before you install the OS as well.

Thank you for your response.

I understand the post I created is long but please let me know you read it. Isn't this addressed in what was already forwarded to me?

jdcranke07 said:
Since your installing onto the SSD only then there should be no worries with drivers, just a clean install. :)  You might have to install the raid drivers after you install the OS if you don't have a thumb drive or external that already has those drivers.


Once again and with all due respect, isn't this redundant with the information I already have? Should I take your response as an affirmation of the already-referenced information?

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August 28, 2014 11:52:52 AM

psient said:
jdcranke07 said:
Well, the great thing with Windows 8 is that you do not have to worry about the MBR on the additional drives as it lets you select where that goes. So, set everything up all at once and your good. You will have to go through the UEFI Bios which is accessed by Delete or F2 and you can enable the Raid system and setup the Raids before you install the OS as well.

Thank you for your response.

I understand the post I created is long but please let me know you read it. Isn't this addressed in what was already forwarded to me?

jdcranke07 said:
Since your installing onto the SSD only then there should be no worries with drivers, just a clean install. :)  You might have to install the raid drivers after you install the OS if you don't have a thumb drive or external that already has those drivers.


Once again and with all due respect, isn't this redundant with the information I already have? Should I take your response as an affirmation of the already-referenced information?



Yes, you don't have to worry about as many of the small steps you mentioned in the instructions you were given, but its pretty much the same deal.
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