Running RAID 0 and RAID 1 on 2 volumes simultaneously

Hi everyone,

First post here! I've been reading the board lately and I'm hoping you can give me some insight and advice on this.

I recently built my first custom computer. Here are the specs:

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASUS P7P55-M LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Graphics: XFX HD487AZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1 GB DDR5 PCI-E 2.0
Storage: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
OS: Windows 7 x64

So here are the chain of events:

A buddy recommended using a RAID 0 array with my two 1.5TB hard drives. I tried this, and apparently there is a 2TB limit for installing Windows 7, so I couldn't install Windows using a single RAID 0 volume.

I did some research and found this thread, http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=595660, which mentioned creating two separate RAID volumes: a smaller RAID 0 for the system and a larger RAID 1 for storing files. This sounded perfect for what I want so I went with it. I set it up with a 750GB RAID 0 volume and a 1TB RAID 1 volume, and was able to install Windows 7 without a problem. Within a few hours, after I tried transferring files from my external HD to my new computer, I came back to the box and it had reset. The black screen during startup said that the RAID 1 was "Degraded". I had to restart a couple times and the RAID 1 then switched to "Rebuild" during startup. When I got into Windows, the Intel Matrix Storage Console said a hard drive had failed. Since I hadn't really spent much time installing programs and my hard drives were still pretty much empty, I decided to reinstall Windows 7 using a different RAID configuration.

For my 2nd attempt, I tried a 600GB RAID 0 with a roughly 1TB RAID 1. Windows 7 installed fine again. This time the box seemed to be running flawlessly for several hours. I was able to install most of my programs and move my files over without a problem. At this point it was late at night so I decided to finish up the next day. I had a few more programs to install so I spent all day yesterday installing and patching those. I decided to make a backup and about 90% through the backup, I got the dreaded blue screen and the computer restarted. During startup, once again it said "Rebuild" for the RAID 1 volume, and it got hungup at a black screen. I turned off the comp for about 10 mins and restarted. I was then able to get into Windows and the Intel Matrix Storage Console began rebuilding the RAID 1 volume (albeit very slowly - at about 4% every 12 minutes). I was pretty upset at this point and I went into the event logs, and the blue screen came up again and the comp restarted. Again it wouldn't go into Windows and I turned it off for 10 mins before being able to get back into windows. The Matrix Console again started rebuilding the RAID 1 and after about 15 minutes, it said a drive in the RAID 0 was failing now. At this point I shut down and called it a night.

Today I started the computer up and the RAID 1 said "Degraded" on startup. Once I got into Windows, I backed up all my programs to my external HD first thing. The Matrix Console is now saying that "A drive in a RAID 0 volume is failing. Try to back up data immediately". My RAID 1 says "Degraded" under Status. Under Port 2 its also saying "Error occurred" under Status and has a big red X. My RAID 1 is not rebuilding.

ANYWAY, that has been my last few days. Sorry if I was a bit too detailed. Now I'm wondering what to do next. I have a feeling a reinstall and reconfiguration of my hard drives will be necessary.

Here are my questions:

1. Based on my configuration, what is most likely the issue here? Does this sound like a hardware issue or drivers/BIOS? Or something else? All hardware I'm using is brand new.
2. Are there known issues with configuring two different RAID volumes as I did (RAID 1 and RAID 0 simultaneously on 2 different drives)?
3. What RAID configuration would you recommend trying for my setup? Should I scrap the RAID thing all together? I'm thinking maybe two separate RAID 0s would be better...?
4. Is there a way to salvage my current setup without having to reinstall everything?

I hope you guys can help out! Thank you in advance.

Dave

You need to format using GPT for volumes larger than 2TB.

Questions for you.

1. Did you make the first volume using the Matrix RAID BIOS? How big?
2. Did you create both RAID arrays at the same time?
3. Did you turn in write back cache on?
4. What version of the driver are you using?

Joeteck said:

You need to format using GPT for volumes larger than 2TB.

Questions for you.

1. Did you make the first volume using the Matrix RAID BIOS? How big?
2. Did you create both RAID arrays at the same time?
3. Did you turn in write back cache on?
4. What version of the driver are you using?

Click to expand...

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the response. Here are the answers:

1. Yes, I created the first volume as a RAID 0 in the RAID BIOS (Ctrl+I), named it "System". The first volume during my most recent Windows install was 600GB.
2. Yes, I created both RAIDs at the same time. First I created the RAID 0 (600GB), named "System" and next I created the RAID 1 (1TB), named "Storage".
3. As far as I can remember, I didn't turn this on. Is this done in the RAID BIOS or within Windows?
4. I downloaded and installed the most recent SATA driver from the ASUS website, Version 8.9.0.1023.

dheaven said:

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the response. Here are the answers:

1. Yes, I created the first volume as a RAID 0 in the RAID BIOS (Ctrl+I), named it "System". The first volume during my most recent Windows install was 600GB.
2. Yes, I created both RAIDs at the same time. First I created the RAID 0 (600GB), named "System" and next I created the RAID 1 (1TB), named "Storage".
3. As far as I can remember, I didn't turn this on. Is this done in the RAID BIOS or within Windows?
4. I downloaded and installed the most recent SATA driver from the ASUS website, Version 8.9.0.1023.

Click to expand...

Both drives are the same?

Joeteck said:

Both drives are the same?

Click to expand...

Yes both drives are identical

Did your friend tell you the down sides of running raid 0, i see no reason you need 3T of storage on a volatile system

Mr.Guvernment said:

Did your friend tell you the down sides of running raid 0, i see no reason you need 3T of storage on a volatile system

Click to expand...

No he didn't, what are the down sides? What would you recommend doing?

If one harddrive dies you loose everything, Raid 0 is only useful for moving large files, it doesn't really help smaller programs like windows and %90 of other program you will use run any faster, since they load many small files, not larger files.

Mr.Guvernment said:

If one harddrive dies you loose everything, Raid 0 is only useful for moving large files, it doesn't really help smaller programs like windows and %90 of other program you will use run any faster, since they load many small files, not larger files.

Click to expand...

Ok, I did know that. I was hoping for a good performance increase. What configuration would you recommend?

where did you want to see the performance, if you want faster loading programs SSD is where it is at really, but the cost isnt worth it for many, really with windows 7 and a new HD, things are pretty quick, to me at least.