[EtheAv8r]

OK here are my experiences last night of setting up Intel Matrix Raid on my QuadGT for the first time, which seems to have been successfully achieved thanks to the help from the initial post guide by gLk*zaP and additional help and advice from Supershanks.

Environment: Windows XP Pro 32bit installed on a ‘standard’ 320 SATA II hard drive connected to SATA1 of the ICH8R.

Configuration: I moved the existing 320Gb drive to SATA5, and installed two new Samsung HD501LJ 500 Gb SATA II drives and connected them to SATA1 and SATA2 on the ICH8R (actually I installed four, but only connected two for starters).

I followed gLk*zaP guide – section 3 “Activating AHCI/RAID mode on mainboards with ICH8(R) southbridge”

I downloaded:-

Intel Storage Manager Software (iata621_enu.exe) - This is an English only version of the installer – at ¼ of the size of the International version it is quite a lot smaller). All versions are available from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filt...bmit=Go%21 including appropriate F6 floppy drive installer diskette creation utilities for each version.

I also downloaded the 7.5.0.1015 version, and the Registry fix for ICH8(R): http://www.jzelectronic.de/jz2/Download2/ICH8R-RAID.reg

1. I ran iata621_enu.exe -a –a “This will appear to run as normal setup, but will actually just extract the needed files to \Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\Driver” and then copied iaStor.sys from there to \Windows\System32\Drivers\.

2. Double-clicked the downloaded ICH8R-RAID.reg file and updated the Registry.

3. Rebooted the system. Go directly into the BIOS menu, change SATA controller mode from IDE to RAID. Exit & Save changes.

4. Boot into windows….. . well it didn’t – it instead displayed “No Boot Device Available, Insert Boot Media and press Any Key to Continue” type message…..

5. Soo…… I powered down…. And powered on again and then hit Ctrl/I during POST to load the Intel Storage Manager Option ROM. Here I Created a RAID Volume by selecting the two new 500Gb Drives and specifying that I wanted it to be RAID 0 and 300Gb in size (this leaves the rest to be configured as the RAID 1 Volume later and is all clearly explained on screen). Intel actually provide an excellent guide on how to do this, and how to use the GUI Matrix Storage Manager Console here: http://www.intel.com/support/chipset.../CS-020670.htm. I then found that the system went on to boot OK from the original Windows drive (the RAID disks are of course empty).

6. It detected new hardware, so as per gLk*zaP’s guide I cancelled that wizard.

7. I then decided to install the 7.5 full installation of the Intel Matrix Manager, rather than the 6.2.1 version, and this will have updated the drivers also – I figured that if it did not work I could revert to 621, but as Supershanks had reported he is using 7.5 without issues, I thought I would give it a try. Having run the installer and following the subsequent reboot….. It all seems to work!

8. I created a RAID 1 Volume on the remaining space and am now playing – checking performance with HD-Tune etc. it is so easy to re-configure with different Volume sizes and quickly test, that I am going to dabble to get the best size for optimum RAID 0 performance across the entire volume (thanks for that tip Supershanks) before committing to build my operational system.

So gLk*zaP if you just add the step in your guide to create a RAID volume during POST following installation of the full Intel Matrix Storage Manager, in order to be able to boot to Windows on the original non RAID drive connected to the ICH8R – you have a perfect guide.

gLk*zaP and Supershanks - Thanks again guys!