Sony VGX XL100 Raid ?

[TD4]

Hi all

Recently purchased the XL100 and am having a few teething problems:smileycry:

In addition to the 250gb HD installled by Sony, I've added 2 x SATA 400gb Drives on SATA ports 2 & 4

(the troubleshooting manual states do not use port 3 for RAID!)

I've tried to setup the drives as a RAID to no avail using the following

I've used the Intel Matrix Raid storage program in windows (via programs)
and this states that there are no drives to raid

I've used backup disc no 1, as stated in the troubleshooting guide, at startup. Here the only option available was to restore Windows. No raid option as stated in the guide...

I will state that the 2 x additional SATA discs a viewable in MY Computer as seperate drives (J & K )and I've successfully formatted them.

However I'd like to have them as one RAID drive not two seperate drives!!

Any ideas?

[Blencogo]

Hi TD4,

Have you got an entry in Device Manager for 'SCSI & RAID Controllers'?

Is "Intel(R) 82801 GR/GH SATA RAID Controller" listed as an installed device and if so, is it working properly?

Have you got C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\aanotif.exe set to run at Startup?

I'll have a look in the documentation for my RC Series later and if I find anything of use, I'll come back.

[Blencogo]

Hi TD4,

As expected, Sony documentation is useless - so we won't go there!

If XP MCE supports Dynamic Disc, then the solution is simple. XP Pro supports DD and can configure RAID relatively simply in software. XP Home does not support DD and requires a hardware RAID Controller (hence my question about do you have a hardware RAID Controller in Device Manager).

I haven't a clue if XP MCE supports DD but try the XP Pro solution anyway!

Right-Click 'My Computer'>Manage>Disc Management. You should see your 3 discs as 'Basic Discs'. Right-Click on one of your NEW HDs and select "Convert to Dynamic Disc". Follow the Wizard (I'm not sure if it allows you to select both discs at once or if you must repeat the wizard for the second disc). 'Confirm' and 'Convert'.

You should now see your two new drives as Dynamic Discs (rather than Basic Discs) in Disc Management.

Select one of the new ones and Right-Click in the unallocated disc space at the bottom. Select 'Create Volume' and folllow the wizard. Select "Striped Volume" as the Volume Type and select BOTH new discs to be included in the Volume. You can also allocate a Drive Letter and Volume Name to your new 1TB Volume.

That's it. Your two new discs will show as a single drive letter and will be configured as RAID(0).

[lowedb]

On one of my machines where I have set up raid, you first have to set up the bios to say you want to use two drives as raid. Then when you startup, the bios utility starts and you do the setup from there. The raid part of the bios then deals with everything, and windows hasn't a clue that it is running raid it merely sees one disc.

My guess is the XL100 is the same, although I havn't fitted raid drives to that.

[TD4]

Blencogo

Thanks for checking. I'll give the Dynamic disc a try. Hopefully MS MCE supports it as it's only an extension of XP Pro.

lowedb

I've entered the bios using F2 at startup. There does not seem to be a option for RAID eg nothing in the chipset to enable RAID settings for hard drives.

TD4

[Blencogo]

Hi TD4,

If MCE doesn't support Dynamic Disc AND you have the Intel Hardware Raid Controller on your motherboard, you will have to go back to using the Intel Matrix RAID Console.

lowedb is right if this is the configuration Sony have put into your XL 100. You need to enable RAID in the BIOS: -

1. Enter the BIOS Setup program by pressing the key after the Power-On-Self-Test
2. Select the Advanced menu, then the Drive Configuration menu.
3. Switch the Drive Mode option from Legacy to Enhanced.
4. Enable Intel(R) RAID Technology.
5. Press to save the BIOS settings and exit the BIOS Setup program.

Good Luck - we are all anxious to hear how you get on!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TD4]

Hi guys

In the end I had to use Dynamic Disk.

There are no options available in the advanced section of the Bios menu for RAID.

I'll have to contact Sony support about this as it is listed part of the XL100 features. I don't think they've implemented it onboard or the MotherBoard supplied does offer the RAID feature

Thank you to both blencogo & lowedb for your advice

I'll post their reply.

TD4:smileydevil:

[Blencogo]

Does it work OK with Dynamic Disc TD4?

Useful to know MCE has most XP Pro features!

Good idea to take it up with Sony. Why include the Intel Matrix Raid storage program if you don't have the Intel RAID ROM?

[TD4]

Sorry

It's been a while since I've posed this question about the xl100raid and have since found the answer.

Apparently you have to reset the BIOS to default and VIOLA!! the Intel Raid is recognised.

I don't know what else defaulting the BIOS does but I've had very few problems since!!

TD4

I hope this helps someone else in future

[Blencogo]

Hi TD4 - nice to hear from you again.

Thanks for posting an update. I'm really pleased you have sorted the problem. How are you getting on with the XL100 in general? Is it what you expected?

I'm sure others would value your opinion.

:smileygrin: