How to Configure Intel Based RAID on a Dell Computer

Table of contents

1. Are you looking to configure RAID on your Dell computer?
2. Can your computer support a RAID Configuration?
3. How to configure RAID on your device
4. Use this method when you reinstall the Operating system
5. This method is when you want to migrate your existing operating system

Configuring RAID correctly is important to ensure that the computer can identify the hard drives in the RAID pool and boot into the operating system.

RAID-related issues can occur if the computer does not support the RAID feature, incorrect RAID configuration, and hard drive failure.

Are you looking to configure RAID on your Dell computer?

Here are some steps that enable you to identify if a RAID solution is possible on your computer. Here are some steps taking you through how to accomplish setting RAID up, if your computer supports it.

Follow the guides below.

Can your computer support a RAID Configuration?

Most desktops and some laptops can support a RAID configuration.

For optimal experience, you must have two hard drives of equal size and capacity that are installed in your computer.

This type of RAID does not involve a hardware RAID card. Instead it uses the BIOS along with the Intel Chipset and matrix storage software on older computers. Intel Rapid Storage Technology is used on our newer models. It creates a type of Software-controlled RAID. This type of RAID configuration only supports RAID 0 and RAID 1.

Mirrored and Striped

1. Is your computer capable of having more than 1 Hard Drive installed?

   • No, then I am afraid RAID is not going to be possible on your computer?

   • Yes, then go to the next step.

2. In your BIOS is RAID an option against the SATA Operation Mode?

   You can get to the BIOS on a Dell computer by tapping the F2 key at the Dell splash screen.

   • No, then I am afraid RAID is not going to be possible on your computer without purchasing additional hardware.

   • Yes, then go to the next step.

3. Go to the Dell Support Site and enter you Service Tag. Go to the Drivers & Downloads for your computer. (On older computers you can see the Intel Matrix Storage software under the Chipset category. On Computers, it is under the Serial ATA or Storage category that you can see the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software listed.)

   • No, then I am afraid RAID is not going to be possible on your computer without purchasing additional hardware.

   • Yes, then go to the next step to be taken through the configuration process.

How to configure RAID on your Device

You must have two Hard Drives of equal size and capacity. You must have decided if you want to use RAID 0 or RAID 1. We recommend RAID 1.

RAID 0

Striped Disk Array with no Fault Tolerance - Provides data striping - spreading out blocks of each file across multiple disks, but no redundancy. This improves performance but puts all data at risk if you suffer a disk failure. The drawback to this method is that if one drive fails, then all data in the array - both disks are lost. The only benefit to this method is that it speeds up write times to the drive. This makes your computer run quicker, and it keeps the full size of the disks.

RAID 1

Mirrored Disk Array - Provides redundancy in case one of the two drives fails. This allows for all data to be duplicated, but is not as fast as a RAID 0. If a disk fails, the data can be recovered from the second disk. The drawback is you half the size of your total capacity, and it is slower to write and it does it to both drives. The benefit is that if one disk fails you still have all your data and can rebuild from the surviving disk.

	RAID 0 (Striping)	RAID 1 (Data Mirror)
Description:	It offers performance benefits over a single hard drive configuration. This is ideal for people who work with large files or require fast data access.	It offers backup integrity by having the same data on two drives. If one drive fails, the data is still intact on the other hard drive. This is ideal for applications where data integrity is of utmost importance. The identical data is housed on both drives. That means that the storage capacity for the entire array is equivalent to the size of the smallest drive in the array.
System:
Computer Sees:	2 x 320 GB = 640 GB	320 GB
Characteristics:	RAID controller breaks the data into blocks and distributes the pieces to both drives simultaneously.	RAID controller writes the same data to both drives.
Customer Benefit:	RAID 0 offers performance benefits over a single hard drive configuration. This bundle is ideal for early adopters and power users that manipulate large files or require fast data access.	RAID 1 offers data integrity by having the same data on two drives. If one drive fails, the data is still intact on the other hard drive. This bundle is ideal for applications where the data integrity is of utmost importance. This should not be considered a data backup however.
Benefits:	High performance and capacity for storage-intensive applications: Digital Video and Audio Photoshop and photo-editing applications Publishing and graphics Gaming applications Multitasking Gets the most out of the computer's performance.	Create fail-safe storage for important data: Secure Data Easiest computer recovery Any application where data is important and the storage system is at risk of failure. Data Protection Protect the data that is important such as financial records, small business records, or medical files. This is the easiest means of providing data redundancy.

Computers that are sold with Windows 10 and 11 installed on UEFI

Enter System Setup or BIOS by tapping the F2 key at the Dell splash screen.

• Go to the System Configuration.

• Select the SATA Operation Mode.

• Change the mode to RAID On if it was not already set and apply.

  

• Select Exit, to exit System Setup and resume the boot process.

• When the SATA Operation field in System Setup has been set to RAID On, the computer displays a RAID BIOS message. This message is seen after the Dell splash screen shows during POST - but before Windows starts. The message below is what is displayed if no RAID volume is created.

Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology - option ROM - 10.5.0.1034
Copyright(C) 2003-11 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

RAID Volumes:
None defined.

Physical Disks:
Port    Drive Model         Serial #          Size        Type/Status(Vol ID)
2       WDC WD1600AAJS-7    WD-WMAP9D045721   149.0 GB    Non-RAID Disk
3       WDC WD1600AAJS-7    WD-WMAP9D046479   149.0 GB    Non-RAID Disk

Press CTRL + I to enter the Configuration Utility

Use this method when you reinstall the Operating system

Computers that are sold with Windows 10 and 11 installed on UEFI

1. Power on your computer and repeatedly press F12 at the Dell Logo to open the boot menu

2. Select the device configuration using the arrow keys.

   

3. Select Create RAID in the Intel RAID menu.

   

4. Choose a Name for your RAID volume. Select the next entry with the arrow keys.

   

5. Select the RAID Level that you want to create.

   

6. You can select a disk for your RAID volume by highlighting it and pressing the spacebar or enter and selecting X.

   

7. Choose the volume and stripe size and select Create Volume to finish. The RAID Volume is now shown in the Main screen.

   Note: For RAID 0, select the stripe size closest to the size of the average file to be stored on the RAID volume. If this is not known, then choose 128 KB as the default stripe size.

   

8. You can now install the operating system

This method is when you want to migrate your existing operating system

Intel Matrix Storage Manager

The computer has already got one hard drive with the operating system installed on it, and you want to fit a second drive. You want to configure them both as RAID without losing the existing data. You can use the migrating option in the Intel Matrix Storage Manager in your Operating System.

1. Click the Start button and go to All Programs\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Intel Matrix Storage Console to launch the Intel Storage Console.

2. On the Actions menu, you want to select Create RAID Volume From Existing Hard Drive to launch the Migration Wizard.

   Note: If an Actions menu option is not displayed, the computer is not set to RAID-enabled mode.

3. Click Next on the Migration Wizard screen.

4. Enter a RAID volume name or accept the default.

5. Choose from the following options:

   • For RAID 0, select RAID 0 as the RAID level from the drop-down box, select the appropriate stripe size from the drop-down box and click Next.

   • For RAID 1, select RAID 1 as the RAID level from the drop-down box, go on to the next step.

6. On the Select Source Hard Drive screen, double-click the hard drive from which to migrate your data and click Next.

   Note: Select the hard drive that is to be used as the source drive. (it should be the hard drive containing the data or operating system files that are to be migrated to the RAID volume)

7. On the Select Member Hard Drive screen, double-click the hard drive to select the member drive on which to span the array and click Next.

   • For RAID 0, on the Specify Volume Size screen, select the wanted volume size, and click Next.

   • For RAID 1, go on to the next step.

   Note: In the following step, all data that is contained on the member drive is lost.

8. Click Finish to start migrating or click Back to make changes.

The computer can be used during the migration process.

If you are having any issues with this, I would recommend contacting your Technical Support. If you already have RAID configured, learn more on this Dell Knowledge Base Article: How to Troubleshoot a RAID Hard Drive issue on a Dell Computer.

Intel Rapid Storage Technology

The computer has already got one hard drive that already has the operating system installed on it and you want to fit a second drive. You want to configure them both as RAID without losing the existing data. Use the migrating option in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology in your Operating System.

1. Click the Start button and go to All Programs\Intel Rapid Storage Technology\Intel Rapid Storage Console to launch the Intel Rapid Storage Console.

2. Select the Create button from the top menu.

3. Click Select and choose from the following options then click Next:

   • For RAID 1, select Real-time data protection (RAID 1).

   • For RAID 0, select Optimized disk performance (RAID 0).

4. Click Configure and:

   1. Enter a Volume Name.

   2. Select the disks to create RAID on.

   3. Select the drive that you want to migrate the operating system from.

   4. Then click Next.

   Note: The hard drive marked (system) is the drive to be used as the source drive. (That is the hard drive containing the data or operating system files that are to be migrated to the RAID volume)

5. Click Confirm and if everything checks correct select Create Volume.

   Note: It advises you at this stage that this may take some time and you can continue working while this works in the background. I would recommend you wait until it is finished instead.

6. A message box appears to say that the volume was created successfully. Click OK to continue.

7. A status screen shows the status of your new volume.

If you are having any issues with this, I would recommend contacting your Technical Support. If you already have RAID configured, learn more on this Dell Knowledge Base Article: How to Troubleshoot a RAID Hard Drive issue on a Dell computer.

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Recommended Articles

Here are some recommended articles related to this topic that might be of interest to you.

• How to access the RAID controller setup in UEFI configured computers
• How to Troubleshoot a RAID Hard Drive Issue on a Dell Computer
• RAID Configuration for Dell Precision Mobile Workstations
• How to Resolve Hard Drive or solid state drive Issues on your Dell Computer
• Understanding and Troubleshooting the Hard Drive or solid state drive on a Dell Computer

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