RAID questions

[cmcgehee02]

I purchased a new computer that was suupposed to be set up with RAID 1-(2) 750 GB drives. How can I tell on my computer if this was actually set up? In "my computer", it shows (1) C Drive only. I cannot find anything that shows (2) drives or any reference to RAID 1.

Am new to RAID so would appreciate any help. It seems that somewhere both drives would show up. In "device manager" it does show an Intel (R) ICH8R/ICH9R/DO SATA RAID Controller.

My motherbord is a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

You'll have to go into your BIOS to see this info. Windows is not going to see it.

 

[pjkenned]

Another thought, do you have two physical 750GB drives present in the case? If not, you can rule out raid 1.

 

[mv2devnull]

You'll have to go into your BIOS to see this info. Windows is not going to see it.

Yes and no.

GA-P55A-UD4P seems to have both ICH and a Marvell SATA-3 chips, both supporting RAID-1. ICH is for certain so called "fakeRAID", because all the RAID operations are executed in CPU. Marvell is most likely similar.

If the drives have been connected to the ICH (which I would recommend), and ICH is configured in RAID mode (which is it judging by OP device manager), then Intel's AHCI BIOS should show device enumeration during boot, and list found arrays and drives. (It might be that there is some quick boot logo hiding such text mode output.)

But Windows does most certainly see the physical drives. It's driver (by Intel) does. They just are not shown to the user.

There is a separate ICH management program from Intel. Previous version was called Intel Matrix Storage Manager, but latest is Intel Rapid Storage Technology. That application will show the RAID arrays, their state, and the component devices.


Only a true hardware RAID controller hides the physical drives from the OS, but even then there tend to be management applications that can communicate with the controller to reach that info.

 

[onza]

RAID 1 = two mirrored copies of each other

So the best way to tell is if you see 750gigs under properties, also open the case up and check to see if you see two drives.