About my Raid hard drives.

[Croesfaen]

I have a Dell computer, had it about three weeks.
I have two hard drives in a serial ATA Raid 0 stripe 500GB each.
They are controlled by Intel matrix storage manager software.
I want to have the two hard drives separate, like drive C and Drive D
In the Bios I have two choices ATA or Raid, I have tried both ways to have them separate, however still can't.

Anyone know how I can do it?

I have to say that I found this forum by chance, by goodness I am glad I did with drivers for my scanner and printer.

Thanks Ralph.

 

[stormy13]

Croesfaen, welcome to the forums.

Before you go too far trying to break the RAID array, do you have recovery disks that will allow you to install Vista, or an actual Vista disk? Reason for asking is because if you don't and you break the array, you will lose everything and be up the creek. Also I have a feeling that Dell in their infinite stupidity would set the computer up as a single disk with a recovery partition, which again would be lost if you break the array.

Now with that out of the way and if you do have a way to install Vista, then it is pretty much just a matter of accessing the RAID controller on the bios and disabling it. If you can post up the exact model number of your Dell, we can look up the manual for it (give it a good read, and you should be able to find the info in it) and help with pointing you in the right direction.

 

[bruce2]

Hi Croesfaen, welcome to the board.

Are these two HDDs the only HDDs in this computer? If yes, what is indicated in stomy13 post is true.

If I were you I wouldn't mess with it. If you like to have a D: drive, the best thing to do is add another one considering the very affordable HDD pricing now a day.

Hope this helps.

Bruce

 

[rive0108]

At boot screen you will see a RAID BIOS Utility option, boot into that <Tab?> and click "Delete Array". this will allow you to have two seperate drives in Windows-
Warning!! destroying the RAID 0 array will result in loss of data across the stripped drives, and you will have to re-install Vista; You may also have to load SATA driver at Installation unless they are slipstreamed onto your Dell Recovery/Install Disk or Recovery Partition.

note-Dell may use <Ctrl><A> for BIOS Utility at startup: (If you look close at bootup, The system will tell you what keys to hit to access RAID Utility (not to be confused with BIOS Utility)-restart, and hit the keys)

To run the utility, press <Ctrl><A> when prompted by the following message during system startup:
Press <Ctrl><A> for BIOS RAID Configuration Utility






To delete an existing array:

1. From the Array Configuration Utility menu, select Manage Arrays. Select the array you wish to delete, then press Delete.
2. From the Array Properties dialog box, press Delete again, then press <Enter>.

A warning message is displayed regarding data loss.

1. Select Yes to delete the array, or No to return to the previous menu. At the Array Properties dialog box, select Delete again, then press <Enter>.
2. Press Esc to return to the previous menu.

 

[MilesAhead]

@ rive0108 I just got a new HP PC and it says some stuff about RAID but I'm pretty sure there's only one physical HD in the system. On bootup I get a msg onscreen about it, but it flashes past too fast to read. Boot logging doesn't show the msg, only drivers loaded. What's the best way to be able to read the RAID info at system start?

 

[rive0108]

@ rive0108 I just got a new HP PC and it says some stuff about RAID but I'm pretty sure there's only one physical HD in the system. On bootup I get a msg onscreen about it, but it flashes past too fast to read. Boot logging doesn't show the msg, only drivers loaded. What's the best way to be able to read the RAID info at system start?

While your motherboard has 2 slots for sata hdd, and clearly supports RAID 0/RAID 1, I cannot find in the system specs access to a RAID Utility. You may have to contact HP to find out how to set up RAID if the below doesnt work for you- you may need a BIOS update.
Go into the BIOS, find disk settings. HP shipped this machine in IDE config, There are 2 more choices there AHCI and RAID. Choose RAID, save and reboot. 3. Hit "Ctrl I"(?) upon boot to enter RAID config
Motherboard Specifications, MSI MS-7548 (Aspen)*
Add or Replace Hard drive
HP Pavilion Elite m9515y Desktop PC Specs

 

[Croesfaen]

Thanks all. The model number is Studio XPS 435MT. There are two Hitachi drives in there.

I have a Vista install disc, as a matter of fact I have already reinstalled the system trying to get rid of the Raid and getting rid of the junk put on the drive by Dell.

About booting up, I have two options F2 to enter the bios and F12 for boot up options. I have not been able to find any way of braking the Raid, and I really did look hard while I reinstalled the OS.
In the bios I have two options Raid and ATA I tried the two.

On the motherboard there are about 4 or 5 places to plug the hard drives into and wonder if I will need to plug into two others to achieve what I want.

Thanks Ralph.

 

[MilesAhead]

@rive0108 I'm not really looking to change anything. If it ain't broke don't fix it. But I'm curious since I suspect the DVD burner is also running under this controller. There's an AMD raid configuration service. I just leave it set to manual. Just wondering what it says at bootup. Maybe I can read it if I turn off Gui boot or something.

@Croesfaen sorry to hijack your thread. I'll leave you guys work on your problem.

 

[rive0108]

Thanks all. The model number is Studio XPS 435MT. There are two Hitachi drives in there.

I have a Vista install disc, as a matter of fact I have already reinstalled the system trying to get rid of the Raid and getting rid of the junk put on the drive by Dell.

About booting up, I have two options F2 to enter the bios and F12 for boot up options. I have not been able to find any way of braking the Raid, and I really did look hard while I reinstalled the OS.
In the bios I have two options Raid and ATA I tried the two.

On the motherboard there are about 4 or 5 places to plug the hard drives into and wonder if I will need to plug into two others to achieve what I want.

Thanks Ralph.

Posted from source: How to disable RAID-0 on Dell XPS Studio 435MT Desktop Computer with Windows Vista « MrTextminer’s Weblog

"There are two main steps.

• Reset disks to Non-RAID via RAID Bios.
• Change SATA mode from RAID to ATA through the normal Bios.

Reset disks to Non-RAID via RAID Bios

1. Restart the system.
2. After the DELL logo, I pressed <Ctrl><i> to enter the RAID Bios.
3. In the RAID Bios, there are five options to choose: (i) Create RAID Volume, (ii) Delete RAID Volume, (iii) Reset disks to Non-RAID, (iv) ….don’t remember… and (v) Exit.
4. Since I wanted to reset disks to Non-RAID, instead of deleting RAID Volume, I selected the 3rd option.
5. In the “Reset disks to Non-RAID”, I saw two drives. I selected each drive using a space bar, reset it to Non-RAID, and then press <Enter>.
6. After resetting both drives to Non-RAID, I pressed <ESC> to exit.

Turn off RAID mode in SATA through the normal Bios.

1. Restart the system.
2. I pressed <F2> to enter the Bios setup after the DELL log shew up.
3. I selected the ”Advanced chipset features” in the Bios setup.
4. Then, in the SATA option, I changed mode of the SATA from [RAID] to [ATA].
5. Then, I pressed <F10> to save, and then exited the Bios."

 

[Croesfaen]

Thank you rive0108.

I will have a go at that in a few days time, I have work to do at present, I will let you know how I got on.

Thanks Ralph.

 

[Croesfaen]

Re: About my Raid hard drives. done it

Well I changed my mind about waiting until I have finished some work I have to do. And have broke up the raid and I now have drive C and three more.

Your instructions worked a treat, however there was one fly in the ointment. The Dell installation disc wanted to install striate no offer to make a partition or to format. So what I done is booted with my XP disc, and used that to format and partition the drive, it worked and is now as I want it.

Thanks all, again what a forum. Ralph.

 

[Croesfaen]

Re: About my Raid hard drives.solved

Well I changed my mind about waiting until I have finished some work I have to do. And have broke up the raid and I now have drive C and three more.

Your instructions worked a treat, however there was one fly in the ointment. The Dell installation disc wanted to install striate no offer to make a partition or to format. So what I done is booted with my XP disc, and used that to format and partition the drive, it worked and is now as I want it.

I have posted this again as I never wrote solved. I thought that was the way to put a tick in this thread.

Thanks all, again what a forum. Ralph.

 

[MilesAhead]

Motherboard Specifications, MSI MS-7548 (Aspen)*
Add or Replace Hard drive
HP Pavilion Elite m9515y Desktop PC Specs

btw thanks for the links. Some interesting info.