Results from a 3drive raid0 using my Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s which cost $45 a piece online I get the 4th drive tomorrow and I will post the resuts. I have the 2nd partition at a raid 5 but I have posted the raid5 results already w/ the 3 drives.
An odd thing... My intel D975XBX2 came with an install disk that contained Matrix Control Console 5.5 and I wasn't able to modify write back cache on my Raid0. I updated it to the matrix storage console version 7.6 and now I have the option and it even tells me about unused sata ports.
I am "if its not broken, don't fix it" type of guy, but when it comes to Intel Matrix driver and it's console program, I always upgrade it asap. Because on every new release, their change log looks very convincing, especially for bugs fixed.
Of course never use the un-official version, download it only from Intel Matrix Storage site.
Wishing they don't screw up by accidentally releasing buggy one.
Edit (OT) :
Wow ! I just realized that this thread is growing into 4 digits posts count, and it happened I'm the one who is sitting at the post #1000 !
Hey, Bing. As promised, here is my benchmark for my Matrix Raid setup.
Please note that I am NOT trying to compete with anybody or to set a record. I just want to have a poor man's performance rig. If there is anybody or anything that I am competing with, that would be my previous single Maxtor SATA II disk! The Matrix Raid sure beats that hands down!
I have a couple of 250GB Seagate Perp disks--Barracuda 7200.10, ST3250410AS. The Raid 0 volume is set at 90GB, but in HD Tune, it shows 96GB! Don't know why. Also the stripe size is set at 128kb.
Also, HD Tach does not run in Vista(32 bit) in a raid setup. It ran in Vista 32 bit single disk setup.
Thanks again for the wonderful idea you have seeded here in this thread. As I've said elsewhere, have learned a lot from you!
Edit: This is after a fresh Vista install and a whole load of Windows updates. I didn't defrag the system as yet. And I don't have a commerical defragger other than Vista's built-in one. Thanks!
My pleasure, its all about learning & sharing our knowledge & experience here !
Thanks for the update too, and imo that 90GB Raid 0 slice of yours performs pretty good at it's seek time, especially with that relatively big slice !
Anyway, since this is fresh installation, I suggest its time for your to try your drive imaging software, or at least save this freshly installed OS state.
Also if you have spare time, do practice to restore it too, should worst case happened like total failure to restore during the exercise, you just need to re-install the OS "only".
About freebie disk defragmenter, maybe you should take alook at this HERE. Don't ask me, never use it personally.
You call your that poor man rig ? That is lot better than mine !
Interesting... I haven't run 32-bit Vista at all (just 64-bit) and I have managed to run HD-Tach no prob's at all in Matrix Raid.
I'm travelling atm, but from memory, try right-clicking the executable and going to properties... select the 'Compatibility' tab, and choose to run in Windows-XP 32-bit mode and see if that sorts you out. Pretty sure that's all I did, and it worked fine.
Results from my new 4 drive raid0. If you look at my previous post you can compare the results from my 3 drive raid0. I ended up making the second partition a raid10 since it looks like I have more Hard Disk space than I think I could use up for a while.
Interesting... I haven't run 32-bit Vista at all (just 64-bit) and I have managed to run HD-Tach no prob's at all in Matrix Raid.
I'm travelling atm, but from memory, try right-clicking the executable and going to properties... select the 'Compatibility' tab, and choose to run in Windows-XP 32-bit mode and see if that sorts you out. Pretty sure that's all I did, and it worked fine.
Right! That's how I got HD Tach run in Vista 32 bit with a single disk setup. Today, I am so completely occupied with setting up the raid thing that I forgot how I got it working the previous time.
Hey, Bing. Ran into two "odd" things with my Matrix Raid. Since I am completely new(noob) with this raid thing, I'll have to ask you this. Others in the know can also chime in.
1. While I was formating Raid 1--Drive D, I was unable to do anything else! I wanted to launch Internet Explorer, but it took forever. I wanted to open a folder in Drive C, it took forever as well. Heck, when I attempted to launch Task Manager, it took forever as well! I looked at CPU usage and mem usage--I have that gadget on in my Vista, they were 7% and 30% respectively.
Is this normal? I've never experienced this in a non-raid, single disk setup!
2. When I was installing Vista(32 bit, Ultimate), Vista would NOT install the first time! It gave me the error message that I should make sure the drive(Raid 0) I was installing Vista to is made bootable in the BIOS! But it was made bootable in the BIOS!
So I aborted the install of Vista and tried for a second time. This time, for whatever reason, it installed!
Is this, once again, normal?
Many thanks in advance for the wonderful idea of Matrix Raid!
Other than the numbers in the benchmarking, subjectively, I've noticed the speed in the shutdown time as well as the speed in the installation of apps!
However, have not noticed that much difference in the boot up time or the speed in installing Vista!
In my next post, will include some more benchmarking results.
Once again, I am NOT trying to compete with anybody or trying to set a record. My goal is just to have a poor man's performance rig! And thanks to the low price of HD's, it has been possible to set up a raid without breaking a bank! The two disks cost me $150!
Hey Bing and everyone! My complete set of benchies! They are not the best #. I am just sharing my fun with the Matrix Raid with everyone! Thanks for viewing!
1. While I was formating Raid 1--Drive D, I was unable to do anything else! I wanted to launch Internet Explorer, but it took forever. I wanted to open a folder in Drive C, it took forever as well. Heck, when I attempted to launch Task Manager, it took forever as well! I looked at CPU usage and mem usage--I have that gadget on in my Vista, they were 7% and 30% respectively.
Is this normal? I've never experienced this in a non-raid, single disk setup!
Its perfectly normal, the reason that rig slowed down to crawling is because while it was formatting the Raid 1 (D: drive), when you did something at C: drive, the drive's heads actually keep jumping between the intense process of formatting D: drive at the lower part of the raid array and doing it's job at C: drive serving you at the upper part of the drive.
This is one of the weakness of Matrix Raid, if you do heavy activity on both volumes "simultaneously", cause it is not separated physical raid array, but once the formatting is finished, at normal activity this should be gone.
2. When I was installing Vista(32 bit, Ultimate), Vista would NOT install the first time! It gave me the error message that I should make sure the drive(Raid 0) I was installing Vista to is made bootable in the BIOS! But it was made bootable in the BIOS!
So I aborted the install of Vista and tried for a second time. This time, for whatever reason, it installed!
This is strange ? Since I'm on XP and never deal with Vista, maybe other Vista owners can share some experience here ?
Btw, your matrix raid 0 + 1 benchmark looks good !
Edit:
OT, I can see you've been through the pain with cropping your captured program screen shot there !
Click HERE and read my posts, you will be free from that kind of hassle & pain ... forever !
OT, I can see you've been through the pain with cropping your captured program screen shot there ! he..he..
Click HERE and read my posts, you will be free from cropping captured active program screen shot ... forever ! LOL
Thanks for the tip! Will definitely use it in the future. However, honestly, I did NOT crop my pics this time! HD Tune has a built-in screen capture functionality. I saved the screen shots directly to My Documents. With HD Tach, I just copy-pasted the screen capture into MS Paint and saved them! I didn't crop them this time. Previous times, yes.
But as I said, the tip you gave is a good one! I did not know it before. Now, after reading your tip, my MS Paint is set up correctly!
Also, I am in the process of building a BartPE Bootable CD ROM containing DiskImage XML backup and restore functionality. However, something at the bottom of this page caught my attention, and I am going to quote it in full here:
Notes
We do not endorse running our programs under WinPE or a boot CD-ROM created with PE Builder (BartPE). You assume all risks from the use of our software. Since WinPE is a very reduced version of Windows XP you should run our software only if special circumstances prohibit the use in a full Windows XP. Some features might not be available and our software might behave unpredictably. Due to limited resources on WinPE our software can close unexpectedly. When using our software under a boot CD-ROM the help system and foreign language modules are not available.
When you use our software or the plugins posted above beyond the restrictions of the shareware evaluation version you must have purchased a valid license key from Runtime Software, LLC. You are not allowed to give away boot CD-ROMs containing the full version of our software. You are not allowed to use a boot CD-ROM to circumvent license restrictions.
We do not provide support for creating a bootable CD-ROM or for the use of our software running from a bootable CD-ROM.
Once again, this part is at the very bottom of this page:
You have never run into problems with DiskImage XML mal-functioning in BartPE environment?
I did some checking on my own and find that the active@killdisk as well as Nero 7 can also do the backing up and restoring as well.
Still in the process of learning the Matrix Raid. Honestly, at this point, I still don't feel secure about saving important data on Raid 1. Am planning on buying a 500GB HD and settign it up as a non-raid disk for that purpose. In the meantime, I would like to save the image of Raid 0 to another spare HD I currently have!
So far, I am really having a lot of fun with this Matrix Raid thing!
That is strange, how come your HDTach pic has extra white space on the right and also the HDTune looks cropped at the upper part, look at the red X button with some of it's upper part gone.
That is strange, how come your HDTach pic has extra white space on the right and also the HDTune looks cropped at the upper part, look at the red X button with some of it's upper part gone.
In HD Tune, there is a Save Screenshot functionality. I clicked on the save icon; the screenshot is saved as a PNG file directly to My Documents!
With the screenshots in HD Tach, I just copy-pasted them to MS Paint and saved them as, once again, PNG files! I didn't do any cropping this time! But previous times, yes, I did!
But, as you said, this is not a big deal! The tip you gave in the link is an excellent one! I certainly did not know that before! And now my MS Pain is set up correctly!
PS: I just checked your public profile, and lo, just as I've guessed, you come from or have an electornic background!
I guess, maybe they put that statement is because simply "bare" BartPE it self with DriveImageXML is not enough especially for "complex' raided drives environment. Again, just a guess, they just don't want to take the blame such as certain raid driver can not work properly in BartPE which is a stripped down OS environment.
Just remember to embed the latest Intel Matrix driver in that CD, it should be fine.
Once you've updated your rig to the latest driver, you can find them at your drive, and use it for BartPE cd building, assuming you installed it using default directory, these are the locations of the driver :
For 32bit
C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Driver
For 64bit
C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Driver64
Anyone play the Highway Tampa map on BF2? I'd like to know how fast people are loading it. w/ my setup it takes about 17 seconds from what I have timed so far.
I burned the BartPE disk containing the DiskImage XML plugin from the latter's website, but it would not boot. Well, it sort of booted. It gave me the Windows XP graphics logo and then BSODed with an error message. It says something about hard disk being corrupted or something like that. Did not write that message down, sorry.
Now, I did NOT erase/format either of the two RAID 0 hard drives before I popped in the BartPE bootdisk. Could this be the reason?
Or could it be that BartPE bootdisk does NOT work with Vista? I have 32 bit, Ultimate.
Also, the DiskImage XML plugin for BartPE comes in a zipped format. I have WinRAR; the plugin shows in WinRAR's icon. I don't need to unzip it, right? Because after I unzip it, there are a bunch of files, and I don't know which one to choose!
Last question: in your last reply to me, you mentioned about embedding the latest intel Matrix Raid driver within BartPE bootdisk. But there are a bunch of files in that folder. See here:
Which one shoud I choose? BartPE Builder seems to be looking for cab files only!
Sorry for so many questions, but I really want to be prepared for any unforseen event.
So far, I have created two Raid 0 images. If I cannot get DIX work, will try Nero 7 or active@killdisk to see if they could image a raid 0 partition.
Many thanks in advance for the help!
EDIT: After this post, I have since done a bit research. I find that the reason why I was given a BSOD stop error was because I did NOT embed the Intel Matrix Raid driver in the BartPE boot disk. And honestly, at this point, despite some research I have done, I still do NOT know how to embed the Matrix driver into the BartPE boot disk.
See this page here about how to embed the storage driver--matrix raid driver falls into that category.
However, where do I find that category: drivers\SCSIAdapter? Under the tab or category of "Plugins"? But there is no such a thing there named "drivers"? If not under the tab or category of "Plugins," then where?
I have, in fact, already downloaded the trial version of Acronis Image, but I am NOT very much interested in using it. I would like to figure out how things are actually done, i.e., I would like to see DriveImage XML run on a BartPE bootable disk!
When you have time, would appreciate you giving me the direction on how to embed the Matrix Raid driver into the BartPE boot disk!
Would also like to know how to embed the Disk partitioning utility that you mentioned in the BartPE boot disk as well!
In the meantime, I had a look at the exchange between you and a guy called "JDNy" something. It was interesting. I kind of like his idea of creating a Raid 0 image onto his Raid 5 or 1 and then booting into that saved image in case of a failed Raid 0. The drawback to that approach is that the huge chunk of the Raid 5 or 1 would have been rendered useless--because it has been taken up by the saved raid 0 image!
Thanks again for the help!
And I am still in the process of learning, enjoying, and having control of the Matrix Raid!
Update: I have since resolved the problem, Bing! It turns out that the BSOD stop error was caused by me not having embedded(copy-pasted) the Matrix Raid driver into the BartPE builder. When I realized that(last night), I still did not know how to do that. I was stuck at the process of making the BartPE ISO image. In that process, there is only place that allows you to do some manipulation--the plugin tab. But you could not put in the Matrix Raid driver in the plugin place!
This morning I woke up and I did some further reserach on line. I found a clip on Youtube which instructs people about how to embed network driver in BartPE bootdisk. After watching that, it was just a piece of cake to embed(copy paste) the Intel Matrix Driver into the BartPE builder. It turns out that the "driver" folder in BartPE builder is located within the C Drive, assuming you have installed it to the default location. It is accessible via Windows Explorer!
Now, after I successfully booted into the BartPE environment with the Matrix Raid driver embedded in the BartPE builder, I still could NOT launch the DiskImage XML!!! So then I figure, could this have something to do with that fact that the DIX plugin is put in place BEFORE I had embedded the matrix raid driver into the BartPE builder? So I booted into Windows again, launched BartPE ISO image builder again, removed the DIX plugin, and then added it again into the ISO building process. Then I burnt a CD with that ISO. And then, I was good to go!
I was able to launch DiskImage XML, finally!!!!
I did a little mess around, just to see if I could possibly restore the Raid 0 image I have created onto Raid 0. And it looks like it could do the job!!!!! Hey!
Will play around a little more. But for now, I could say that I feel very happy, as I learned something!
Thanks once again for the wonderful idea of Matrix Raid that you have seeded here in this thread! And now a poor man is running a raid setup in his rig!
Yeah, embedding the drive is simply just copy the driver into the "driver" folder, for raid or storage related in the "SCSI Adapter" and network card in the "Net" folder.
Put this up again, hopefully it will be useful in the future for other people !
Here is the original Matrix Driver source location installed during the Intel Matrix Console installation, just grab that whole folder like this there :
Now here is how to embed the Matrix Driver, just copy above/all files in that "driver" folder into a new folder under SCSIAdapter folder, for example, I manually created the folder named "Intel Matrix Driver" instead of plain "driver" for more descriptive :
About the DiskPartitioner, since it came without the CAB file plugin style like DriveImageXML, you need to make a folder for it manually, and copy the DiskPartitioner.EXE and also put the supporting files (highlighted in red) so you can see it in the Plug-In screen at the BartPE in order to enable it in there.
Here are those 3 highlighted files required to enable the DiskParitioner plugin in the BartPE CD.
Note : I didn't include the actual program "DiskPartitioner.EXE" file in this attachment, too large to attach it here and also there is a chance there is a newer one, download it from the source at BartPE's forum.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
I get the 4th drive tomorrow and I will post the resuts. I have the 2nd partition at a raid 5 but I have posted the raid5 results already w/ the 3 drives.
