Can I have SSD and HDD while BIOS set to RAID

[aaronT]

I recently installed a 128GB SSD into my Dell Vostro 400 w/ 500GB HDD. The BIOS (1.0.15) according to the dell documentation is supposed to have an AHCI setting but I was only presented a choice of IDE and RAID. I selected RAID and proceeded with a Win7 reinstall (all this while the HDD was unplugged). Now that I have the Win7 installation complete, I am trying to bring the HDD back online. However, when I boot up with both SSD and HDD plugged in, I am being forced into Intel Matrix Storage manager 7.5.0.1017 ICH9r where my only options are to "create RAID volume" or "reset disk to non-raid". Both sound distructive to my existing data and I assume I will loose TRIM support if I go to non-RAID.

It seems the lack of a plain AHCI option in the BIOS is coming back to bite me. Should I be able to get both drives working independently? Any ideas? Do I need to somehow fix the BIOS to have the AHCI setting? Do I then need to reinstall Win7 on the SSD after that? Or what exactly happens if I select one of the two options in storage manager?





Thanks!

 

[Pinhedd]

On Intel chipsets, RAID is done at the firmware level which means that it's nothing more than a software RAID with firmware drivers that allow it to be bootable. Enabling RAID mode on Intel chipsets also enables AHCI. It is possible to have RAID mode enabled but have all disks functioning as non-members

 

[zloginet]

On Intel chipsets, RAID is done at the firmware level which means that it's nothing more than a software RAID with firmware drivers that allow it to be bootable. Enabling RAID mode on Intel chipsets also enables AHCI. It is possible to have RAID mode enabled but have all disks functioning as non-members

Your system is overkill lol.. j/k

 

[mightymaxio]

8 platter drives in one PC. lol what a heavy beast thats why i offloaded all my drives to a file storage server with 16 2tb drives.

 

[aaronT]

On Intel chipsets, RAID is done at the firmware level which means that it's nothing more than a software RAID with firmware drivers that allow it to be bootable. Enabling RAID mode on Intel chipsets also enables AHCI. It is possible to have RAID mode enabled but have all disks functioning as non-members

I edited the original post with a bit more information showing my limited choices in the storage manager. I dont see how I can proceed without defining a RAID array. If I do exit without changing any setting it starts loading windows then quickly blue screens and reboots. infinite loop.

 

[Pinhedd]

I edited the original post with a bit more information showing my limited choices in the storage manager. I dont see how I can proceed without defining a RAID array. If I do exit without changing any setting it starts loading windows then quickly blue screens and reboots. infinite loop.

That's normal. Everything in that screen looks exactly as it should. It appears that Dell may have simply omitted the "AHCI Only" option in favor of "AHCI + RAID OPROM". The only difference between the two is that the RAID OPROM allows for the disks to be put into a software RAID and booted from.

Windows will tend to bluescreen if it is installed in IDE mode and the controller is then switched to AHCI mode. This is because different drivers are used for IDE and AHCI. Reinstalling Windows should do the trick. Also, make sure that your optical disk is connected to the Intel storage controller as well, not to an add-in storage controller from Marvell, Promise, ASMedia, etc... Similarly, you can also have the HDD present during the installation process.

 

[aaronT]

That's normal. Everything in that screen looks exactly as it should. It appears that Dell may have simply omitted the "AHCI Only" option in favor of "AHCI + RAID OPROM". The only difference between the two is that the RAID OPROM allows for the disks to be put into a software RAID and booted from.

Windows will tend to bluescreen if it is installed in IDE mode and the controller is then switched to AHCI mode. This is because different drivers are used for IDE and AHCI. Reinstalling Windows should do the trick. Also, make sure that your optical disk is connected to the Intel storage controller as well, not to an add-in storage controller from Marvell, Promise, ASMedia, etc... Similarly, you can also have the HDD present during the installation process.

Was bluescreening as the boot order of the drives was HDD then SSD and the OS on the HDD was installed while in IDE mode. Swapped the boot order to be SSD and then HDD and magic, it worked. Thanks for the help!

 

[aaronT]

Best answer selected by aaronT.

 

[Pinhedd]

Was bluescreening as the boot order of the drives was HDD then SSD and the OS on the HDD was installed while in IDE mode. Swapped the boot order to be SSD and then HDD and magic, it worked. Thanks for the help!

That's the next thing I was going to have you check. Glad you got it sorted!

 

[ctbrowncoat]

aaronT - I'm not sure if I can't private message you because I'm new here, or what.... I have a Dell Vostro 400 as well and I've been struggling trying to get my new Intel SSD to work with it. Can you provide a bit more info on what you needed to do/configure to get SSD working? I contacted Dell Support via chat and the rep told me the Vostro 400 does not work with SSD -type hard drives. Which kinda smelled like BS.

I currently have a 150GB HDD (C: - Windows 8 and programs) and a 1TB HDD (D: - data drive). I followed a LifeHacker migration guide which had me clone the C drive onto my new 240GB SSD. This seems to have worked fine. However, I cannot boot to the drive, either with or without the HDDs connected. Weirdly, I seem to get inconsistent results. Variations of black screens, blue screens, Windows login screens that never stop, etc. Have yet to have a successful boot-up and login. Any tips? PM me if you're able/prefer.

Thanks!