RAID – What is RAID? And Setup Guide For First Timers

[MarshallR@ASUS]

RAID Setup Guide: What is RAID?

A redundant array of independent disks, or RAID, is a way of storing the same data in different places (where the term redundant comes from) on multiple hard disks.

There are many ways to use RAID and there are several different types of array. Some use multiple disks to increase performance – think a two or three lane road instead of single, that has to serve traffic going in two directions – while others are used to increase reliability. Additionally, there is a third type of RAID that offer the best of both worlds; all of which we’ve explained below.

A RAID array appears to the operating system to be a single logical drive, regardless of how many individual drives are part of the RAID array. Both hard disks and SSDs can be used, and while it’s advised that matching drives are used in a single array for best performance, it’s not strictly required.



This article focuses on setting up a RAID array with an Intel motherboard for the single user.

What kinds of RAID are there?
I know of 9 different kinds of RAID plus a performance RAID that has no redundancy built into it, however on everything outside of the high-end server environment you’ll only be offered the four main versions: RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5. These RAID configurations can and are used independently or in different combinations. Below are the different kinds of a RAID that are used today.

RAID-0: This technique has striping but no redundancy of data. It offers the best performance as data is read/written to both drives simultaneously, but no fault-tolerance so if one drive fails you lose both drives data. Drives are typically added in multiples of two.



RAID-1: This type is also known as disk mirroring and consists of at least two drives that duplicate the storage of data. There is no striping. Read performance is improved since either disk can be read at the same time, meaning if one disk is busy the other is accessed. Write performance is the same as for single disk storage. RAID-1 provides the best performance and the best fault-tolerance in a multi-user system, although for a single user it’s unlikely to see as much benefit. Again drives are typically added in multiples of two.



RAID-2 (non-consumer): This type uses striping across disks with some disks storing error checking and correcting (ECC) information. It has no advantage over RAID-3 and has generally been superseded.

RAID-3 (non-consumer): This type uses striping (RAID 0) but dedicates another drive to storing parity information. The embedded error checking (ECC) information is used to detect errors. Data recovery is accomplished by calculating the exclusive OR (XOR) of the information recorded on the other drives. Since an I/O operation addresses all drives at the same time, RAID-3 cannot overlap I/O, and performance is limited by the single parity disk. For this reason, RAID-3 is best for single-user systems and uses three or more drives.
RAID-4 (non-consumer): This type uses large stripes, which means you can read records from any single drive. This allows you to take advantage of overlapped I/O for read operations. However since all write operations have to update the parity drive, no write I/O overlapping is possible. Thus, RAID-4 is not much different to RAID-3 and offers no advantage over the more common RAID-5.



RAID-5: This type includes a rotating parity array, thus addressing the write limitation in RAID-4. That means all read and write operations can be overlapped. RAID-5 stores parity information but not redundant data (but parity information can be used to reconstruct data if a single drive fails). RAID-5 requires at least three and usually five disks for the array. It’s best for systems in which performance is not so critical or which do few write operations.
RAID-6 (non-consumer): This type is similar to RAID-5 but includes a second parity scheme that is distributed across different drives and thus offers higher fault- and drive-failure tolerance (up to two drives can fail simultaneously).
RAID-7 (non-consumer): This type includes a real-time embedded operating system as a controller, caching via a high-speed bus, and other characteristics of a stand-alone computer. Currently only one vendor offers this specialist and expensive system.

RAID-10: Combining RAID-0 and RAID-1 is often referred to as RAID-10, which offers higher performance than RAID-1 but at much higher cost as it requires a minimum of four disks. There are two subtypes: In RAID-0+1, data is organized as stripes across multiple disks, and then the striped disk sets are mirrored. In RAID-1+0, the data is mirrored and the mirrors are striped.



RAID-50 (or RAID-5+0) (non-consumer): This type consists of a series of RAID-5 groups and striped in RAID-0 fashion to improve RAID-5 performance without reducing data protection.

RAID-53 (or RAID-5+3) (non-consumer): This type uses striping (in RAID-0 style) for RAID-3′s virtual disk blocks. This offers higher performance than RAID-3 but at much higher cost.

What can I use to build a RAID array?
Today we are spoilt for choice. More commonly used we have SSD drives:



And mechanical (hard disk) drives:



While there is also occasionally ‘hybrid’ combo drives, like the Seagate Momentus XT:



SSD PCIe drives are more exclusively reserved for enterprise and business applications, and often have their own internal RAID construct:



And I have even built a RAID array using RAM, with Acard Technology Solid State units:



Capacity is similarly as varied depending on the type of product you choose: it can range from tens of GB (RAM drives) to 4TB per disk with HDD. The storage industry is moving at such a fast rate, that its innovation continually churns out bigger (HDD) and faster (SSD) drives. However let us return to the question at hand, in short we can use any storage medium that we can connect to our motherboards SATA (or PCIe) ports. Most commonly used are SSD and mechanical hard drives.

For purposes of this article we are going to be using two ADATA 60GB S511 drives. RAID requires that at least two drives be used but the upper limit is dependent on the type of RAID and your hardware’s functional limitations.

[MarshallR@ASUS]

Setting Up RAID

1. Download Intel’s Latest Rapid Storage Technology Drivers and save the install package to external media such as a USB flash storage device. The RST version you use will make a difference to your overall performance. I like to have the latest chipset drivers on hand too. You can read about how I prepare for a new OS install here.

2. Prepare your new system and ensure that you have written down or printed out the instructions if you do not have a notebook or tablet at hand.

3. Start the PC and go into BIOS by pressing Del.



4. Navigate to your Storage Configuration, Configure SATA options.



5. Select RAID



6. Press F10, then Enter to reboot the PC.



7. The PC will restart, then as soon as the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Screen appears for a few seconds press Ctrl+I



8. Select Create RAID Volume.

9. You will then arrive at a screen, then take these four simple steps:

Select RAID Level (RAID0) or whichever RAID you wish to use.
Select Disks (Tab to Down and Press Enter To Select)
Select Stripe (Intel Recommends 16k for SSDs)
Select Capacity (At Max By default)
10. Enter and when asked at the conformation screen press Y for yes.

11. Escape to reboot.

12. Insert your OS medium - I use a USB stick for OS installation

13. As system reboots press F8 to select boot options, or go back into BIOS by pressing Del.

14. Navigate to the BOOT section and confirm that RAID volume is set as the primary boot device. I like to do my clean install with no other drives present. In other words I only have the RAID volumes available. If you have other drives present, the possibility of other drives being set by default as the boot disc is likely. Therefore you need to ensure the primary boot is set to the RAID volume.

15. Press F10 to Save and Exit

Install your OS



1. Follow all prompts the Windows installation offers as normal



2. During the Windows 7 installation you need to select the drive or partition for your OS to be installed: select your RAID array (shown as one drive) and install Windows onto it. Warning – if you have multiple disks in the system please select carefully as installing a OS can wipe all data from your hard drive if you get your selection wrong. For this reason, I prefer not to have any other drives present in the system during installation).

3. Direct the OS installer at your RAID drive, and let the OS (Windows 7) do the rest, you do not need to format the drive if you’re using SSD drives. The Windows installation will start and simply carry on as normal.

4. After the system has installed and rebooted itself a few times, you will have successfully set up your first RAID. Congratulations!

[MarshallR@ASUS]

Install your software drivers
1. Once in the Windows desktop, install the Intel chipset installer utility and reboot when required.



2. Install the latest Intel RST Package that you downloaded and stored on a USB flash drive.

3. Your system is running in RAID and your performance will be good! But we are not done yet.

4. Go to Programs and open the new folder called Intel.



5. Open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology application:



6. Click on ‘Manage



7. Click on Advanced



8. Click to enable Write Back Cache and select yes to continue.

[img]http://techinstyle.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2012-01-24_210620-545x287.png[

And that is all there is to it. Your RAID will be fully functioning and will work perfectly. All that is left is for you to enjoy your RAID array and new system setup!

[DaemonCantor]

Very Nice! Make it a Sticky! Please.

[UltraNEO*]

Awesome...

Finally people will understand more about SoftRAID, how it works, differences between them and why they should or shouldn't use them.
...even though it's not a new technology.

But MarshallR... It's all every well informing the kids how to use the features and setup their hardware but isn't it part and parcel to inform them why this isn't a suitable backup device/solution??? Atlease people can make an informed decision knowing it's advantages and disadvantages - we're talking about people's personal data and memories here...

[HiVizMan]

I like it

[NitroWare]

Good, Accurate writeup and not recommending users to prep F6 disk for no reason. For those unaware, Win7 includes v8 of Intel's RAID driver which is universally compatible with Intel RAID controllers.

Thanks for telling your readers to use the latest RST driver especially for SSD uses.

I strongly suggest you revise the comment about enabling writeback cache and suggesting that users enable that optionally ad their own risk.

The default settng is fine for most users. Those who know what they are doing will be aware of the extra options anyway.

The same applies for Intel Smart Response, safe mode versus performance mode both can corrupt the filesystem in performance mode if the system freezes or power is lost worst case.

[HiVizMan]

Thanks Nitro I will certainly do so. I guess I am pretty much focused on performance given my hobby. And what you say is quite true.

And Neo - yeah mate it is assumed that folks do understand that a RAID array does not mean having to make regular back ups. I will include that bit too.

Keep the comments coming lads all the feedback is good.

[DaemonCantor]

Yo! Please make this a STICKY! so we can find it easy! Like others at times I do need a handy reference and this is the best I've seen in a long TIME!...Geezzzzzz!

[Kipper]

Excellent article Rich, thanks

Oh yea, I just made the thread a sticky one so its not lost in the shuffle.