Adding another HDD to smart response technology

[SAkba]

Hi,

I have been enjoying the acceleration provided by Smart Response Technology for a while now.

I have a DZ68DB board, SSD311 and a 3TB HDD paired with it. The SSD and 3TB HDD is already in acceleration mode, and running without any issues. I'm running Windows 7 Professional.

I have just got another 3TB HDD, and I would like to hook it up so that I use the 2 HDDs as a 6TB drive and accelerate that combined pool with the SSD311. I think my only option is setting up the 2 HDDs as a RAID0 and then add the SSD311 with IRST software and set to accelerate. During the process, I don't want to reisntall OS, or clean the old 3TB drive. I don't have time to transfer everything to an external drive and copy back afterwards. I know many of you will point out that I should have a backup anyway, and I do, it's just not the whole disk, just the important stuff.

Here comes the questions:

1. Is this even possible with this chipset? That is: 2HDDs set up as 6TB drive and SSD311 accelerating it. Or do I need a dedicated RAID controller card?
2. Is what I described above my only option? That is: set 2HDDs as a RAID0, and then add the SSD311 with Intel Rapid Storage Technology software and set to accelerate? I'm open to software RAID-like solutions, as long as Win7 treats the 2 HDDs as one big continuous 6TB drive, and SSD311 can accelerate it.
3. Can I pull this off without re-installing OS or transfering data in and out of an external disk?
4. If the answer to all 3 questions above is yes, then what are the steps to do it? I can always try my best guess and see if that works, but given my initial experience with SRT (setting up SSD+HDD the first time with OS install) I know it's not gonna be smooth. I'm listing my best guess below step by step, I woudl appreciate input/corrections/alternatives/better way to do it:

• Disable acceleration from IRST.
• Shut down computer
• Install the new HDD to an internal SATA port
• Enter BIOS, check if I can see the new drive (the SATA mode should already be set to RAID since I've done it with the original SRT install, but check it while I'm there)
• While booting up, enter RAID controller (was that Cntrl-I?)
• Set the new drive and the old drive to RAID0. I've never done this before, will this delete everthing on the old drive? (which I'm trying to avoid at all costs)
• Let the RAID0 rebuild (is this done in the RAID controller?)
• Boot windows up
• Check new drive configuration from storage management, I guess it should show RAID drive with ~6TB
• Go to Intel Rapid Storage Technology Software and enable SSD acceleration
• Cross fingers and hope it works?

What I'm thinking is that there may be a way to add the new HDD to the old one to create the RAID w/o going into BIOS RAID controller, but rather using Intel Rapid Storage Technology Software, which will be more user friendly and more clear about losing data during the process.

I would appreciate any help before I get going by myself (I'm running extensive diagnostic tests on the new HDD so I won't be getting to installing it with RAID any time soon, I have trust issues with the HDD since it was delivered from Amazon and left on my door step for a few hours )

[idata]

Hello sermet,

In regards to your inquires, you can use the Solid-State Drive to accelerate the RAID of the 3 TB hard drives.

If you need to reinstall the operating system then the answer is no as you installed the operating system in RAID mode ( required to run Intel® Smart Response Technology ).

Your steps are quite right at the beginning so I will copy and modify them.

• Disable acceleration from IRST.
• Shut down computer
• Install the new HDD to an internal SATA port
• Enter BIOS, check if I can see the new drive (the SATA mode should already be set to RAID since I've done it with the original SRT install, but check it while I'm there)
• Boot windows up
• Enter the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology console and look for the hard drives, you will have the create tab there.
• In the create tab, create a new array and look for the option to keep the information on the system hard drive.
• Wait until it finishes the migration. ( this is called RAID migration from RAID ready to RAID )
• Go to Intel Rapid Storage Technology Software and enable SSD acceleration
• Cross fingers and hope it works? It should work, but keep in mind that RAID 0 is very delicate, if you have such large hard drives I guess that you have lots of information that you don't want to loose. On RAID level 0 if there is any corruption on the structure of one of the hard drives or a damage in one of the hard drives, the information on both of them will be lost. You could be facing loosing 6 TB of information.

Regards.

PV