Compaq dc7800 - Convertible Minitower PC User manual

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Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) and Redundant
Array of Independent Disks (RAID) on HP Compaq dc7800
Business PCs
Using Intel Matrix Storage Manager
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Single Drive AHCI Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Basic RAID Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
RAID 1 with two hard drives (Mirror) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
RAID 5 with three hard drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Intel Matrix Storage Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Recommended configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
HP Backup and Recovery interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Other supported configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Unsupported configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Configuring RAID on non-factory preinstalled configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Enabling RAID through F10 System BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Configuring RAID Option ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Configuring RAID Volume using the Option ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Notes for operating system installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Intel Matrix Storage Manager software installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Console Software Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Using the Intel Matrix Storage Console interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

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RAID migrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Migration to RAID 1 from two non-RAID hard drives using
Intel Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Migration to RAID 0 from two non-RAID hard drives using
Intel Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Migration to RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives using
Intel Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Migration to RAID 5 from three non-RAID hard drives using
Intel Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Migration to Matrix RAID 5 and RAID 0 from three non-RAID hard drives using
Intel Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Migration to RAID Matrix Mode (0 + 1) from two non-RAID hard drives using
Matrix Storage Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Language support table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

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Introduction
This whitepaper covers two drive technologies that are provided on the HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC
products, AHCI and RAID. This whitepaper provides a basic overview of AHCI and RAID technology, sup-
ported factory configurations of HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs, other supported RAID configurations,
and basic instructions on how to migrate non-RAID to RAID configurations in the field. HP also provides a
Smart IV Hard Drive technical whitepaper for HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products on HP.com.
Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) functionality provides customer benefits such as NCQ, which
is intended to increase the performance of the hard disk drive. HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products
provide support for AHCI in single and multiple drive configurations.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a category of hard drives that employ two or more drives
in combination for fault tolerance and performance. Initially used with servers, desktop PCs are increas-
ingly using RAID by adding a RAID controller and extra IDE or SCSI disks. Newer system boards often
have RAID controllers.
RAID technology takes advantage of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and the integration
of RAID into the Intel Q35/ICH9-D0 chipset. This white paper provides a basic overview of RAID technol-
ogy, supported factory configurations of HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs, other supported RAID config-
urations, and basic instructions on how to migrate non-RAID to RAID configurations in the field.
Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology
Definitions
Table 1 Basic AHCI and RAID Definitions
AHCI Advanced Host Controller Interface, a specification for hardware and software, is a regis-
ter interface for SATA, intended to add higher speed, NCQ and other features
ATA Advanced Technology Attachment.
BIOS Basic Input/Output System, also known as system ROM.
Chipset Term used to define a collection of integrated components required to make a PC function.
HDD Hard disk drive.
ICH Intel Input/Output Controller Hub, inside this component resides the mass storage controller.
ICH is part of the Intel Q35 chipset.
IDE Integrated Drive Electronics.
INF Information file (.inf) used by Microsoft operating systems that support the Plug & Play feature.
When installing a driver, this file provides the operating system needed information about driver
filenames, driver components, and supported hardware.

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Single Drive AHCI Configuration
To take advantage of single drive AHCI support, a change is required in F10 setup. To run a single drive
configuration on HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs in AHCI mode:
1. Turn on or restart the computer by clicking Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer.
2. Press F10 as soon as the monitor light turns green.
If you do not press F10 at the appropriate time, you must restart the computer, and then press F10
again to access the utility.
3. Select your language from the list, and then press Enter.
4. Use the arrow keys to select Storage.
5. Use the down arrow key to select Storage Options, and then press Enter.
6. Change SATA Emulation from IDE to RAID.
NOTE: Make sure the Intel Matrix Storage driver is loaded in the SW image prior to making the F10
setup change. The operating system will not boot without this driver. The dc7800 factory SW image
already contains this driver. This driver is also provided as a softpaq at www.hp.com.
Single Drive AHCI Configurations are supported on the dc7800 SFF and dc7800 CMT products.
Migration Term used to describe the movement of data from one configuration or usage model to another.
NCQ Native Command Queuing.
Option ROM Piece or software module inside the System BIOS which provides extended support for a partic-
ular piece of hardware. The RAID Option ROM provides boot support for RAID volumes as well
as a user interface for managing and configuring the systems RAID volumes.
PCI Peripheral Components Interface.
PCIe PCI express. A serial version of PCI.
PnP Plug and Play.
RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
ROM Read Only Memory.
SATA Serial ATA.
Strip Set of data on a single hard drive in a RAID volume.
Stripe Group of all strips going horizontally across all the hard drive members of a RAID volume.

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Basic RAID Types
This section provides a brief explanation of the supported RAID configurations for HP Compaq dc7800 Busi-
ness PCs.
RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped)
Even though HP supports RAID 0, it is not the recommended configuration for business PC users. Lack of
redundancy causes less than half the reliability of a single hard drive system since the Mean Time
Between Failure (MTBF) of RAID 0 is equal to the MTBF of an individual drive, divided by the number of
drives.
Table 2 RAID 0 with two hard drives (Striped)
In the previous table, each “Data Segment n” represents a group of data, known as a strip. In this case,
each row represents a stripe. RAID 0 represented in the table above shows how information is segmented,
made into chunks or strips, and stored across the stripes of the hard drive members of this RAID volume.
To better illustrate the concept of RAID 0 and striping, the following graphic shows how a sequence of
data “ABCD...” is stored in a RAID 0 mode. In this example, each letter represents a segment or strip. The
graphic shows how the various pieces of the information go to different hard drives. If any segment of
RAID 0 fails, all information from all members is lost.
First Disk Second Disk
Data Segment 1 Data Segment 2
Data Segment 3 Data Segment 4
Data Segment 5 Data Segment 6
Data Segment 7 Data Segment 8
Data Segment 9 Data Segment 10
Data Segment 11 Data Segment 12
Data Segment 13 Data Segment 14
Data Segment 15 Data Segment 16

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Figure 1 Performance - RAID 0 with two hard drives
At a higher reliability cost with faster performance, the HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC Convertible
Minitower also allows for RAID 0 with three hard drives. RAID 0 with two or three hard drives is a sup-
ported configuration.
RAID 0 with three hard drives is shown in the following figure:
Figure 2 RAID 0 - Three hard drives

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RAID 1 with two hard drives (Mirror)
Because it is a very cost-effective way to increase system storage reliability and a great value proposition,
RAID 1 is the only RAID configuration that HP preconfigures for HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs. RAID
1 provides high availability with minimal performance impact, as well as greater reliability compared to
a single hard drive configuration.
RAID 1 has redundancy and hence is a true RAID. It more than doubles reliability because the MTBF of
RAID 1 is equal to the MTBF of an individual drive multiplied by the number of drives (2). In other words,
the probability of one hard drive failure on a given day is the square root of that same probability. Hypo-
thetically, if the chances that a single hard drive fails is 1:2000, with RAID 1 the chance that both of your
hard drives fail is 1:4,000,000.
Mirroring, segmentation, and striping have no real meaning in RAID 1. In the table and graphic, the data
is arranged in rows for representation of different pieces of data.
Table 3 RAID 1 with two hard drives (Mirror)
In the previous table, each “Data Segment n” represents a group of data, known as a strip. In this case,
each rows represent a stripe. This table shows how information is duplicated in both hard drives. The size
of the strips is mostly irrelevant and not a configurable option.
To better illustrate the concept of RAID 1 and mirroring, the following figure shows how a sequence of
data “ABCD...” is stored in a RAID 1 volume. In this example, each letter represents a data segment. The
graphic shows how the various pieces are replicated for both of the hard drives; hence, if any one mem-
ber of the RAID 1 volume fails, the information is kept in the surviving members. After a hard drive failure,
the user interface sends a notification so the failed hard drive can be replaced. No user information is lost
in this scenario.
First Disk Second Disk
Data Segment 1 Data Segment 1
Data Segment 2 Data Segment 2
Data Segment 3 Data Segment 3
Data Segment 4 Data Segment 4
Data Segment 5 Data Segment 5
Data Segment 6 Data Segment 6
Data Segment 7 Data Segment 7
Data Segment 8 Data Segment 8

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Figure 3 Reliability: RAID 1 - Mirroring
RAID 5 with three hard drives
RAID 5 has been used in servers for many years and is one of the most common types of RAID. RAID 5
uses striping with parity data in distributed blocks across all member disks. Therefore, the mass storage
controller can simultaneously write new information to two hard drives and parity information to the third
hard drive, so if one hard drive fails, the RAID controller can rebuild all the information after the volume
degradation occurred. Hence, RAID 5 with three hard drives has similar performance to RAID 0 with two
hard drives, and the reliability of RAID 1 with a minimum of three hard drives.

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Table 4 RAID 5 with 3 hard drives (Parity)
In the previous table, each “Data Segment x” represents a strip. A stripe is made with strip “Data Segment
x”, “Data Segment y” and strip “Parity for x and y.” Notice that the strip “Parity for x and y” is used to
store the required information to recreate the data if any one of the RAID volume members is compro-
mised.
To better illustrate the concept of RAID 5 (parity based RAID), the following figure shows how a sequence
of data “ABCD...” is stored in a RAID 5. In this example, each letter represents a segment or strip. The fig-
ure shows how the various pieces of the information go to different hard drives, hence if any one member
of the RAID 5 fails, the information from all members is not lost.
Figure 4 RAID 5 with three hard drives
First Disk Second Disk Third Disk
Data Segment 1 Data Segment 2 Parity for 1 and 2
Data Segment 3 Parity for 3 and 4 Data Segment 4
Parity for 5 and 6 Data Segment 5 Data Segment 6
Data Segment 7 Data Segment 8 Parity for 7 and 8
Data Segment 9 Parity for 9 and 10 Data Segment 10
Parity for 11 and 12 Data Segment 11 Data Segment 12
Data Segment 13 Data Segment 14 Parity for 13 and 14
Data Segment 15 Parity for 15 and 16 Data Segment 16
Parity for 17 and 18 Data Segment 17 Data Segment 18

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Intel Matrix Storage Technology
This technology provides protection against data loss from a hard drive failure and faster access to digital
photo, video, and music files by supporting NCQ as well as RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. Matrix RAID enables
two RAID levels to be combined for data loss protection plus performance. Intel Matrix Storage Technol-
ogy was previously known as Intel Application Accelerator 4.x and Intel Application Accelerator RAID
Edition 3.x.
Figure 5 Matrix RAID combining reliability and performance with the same two hard drives
Using Intel Matrix Storage technology, you can configure the HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC Convert-
ible Minitower with two RAID volumes using three hard drives - a RAID 0 volume for ultimate perfor-
mance, and a second volume as RAID 5 with reliability and performance improvements.

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Figure 6 Matrix RAID combining reliability and performance with same three hard drives
Configurations
Recommended configurations
HP recommends factory configurations of the preinstalled RAID offerings for HP Compaq dc7800 Busi-
ness PCs.
The preinstalled RAID offering is a RAID 1 volume of two identical SATA hard drives with the following
customer choices:
•Two SATA 80GB 7200RPM drives
•Two SATA 250GB 7200RPM drives
•Two SATA 500GB 7200RPM drives
•Two SATA 80GB 10000RPM drives
•Two SATA 160GB 10000RPM drives

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Hardware and firmware support is present to take advantage of the future Microsoft Vista operating sys-
tem. Intel Matrix Storage Technology RAID software support for Microsoft Vista will be available at a later
date.
HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs are based on the Intel Q35/ICH9-DO RAID chipset, which is a com-
bined hardware and software RAID solution. The Intel ICH9-DO SATA mass storage controller allows all
drives to operate in IDE or RAID SATA modes. Each mode of the controller means a different PCI control-
ler, with different device ID, class code, and driver support.
NOTE: HP recommends and only supports Microsoft’s IDE driver stack based on the ATAPI.SYS driver for
HP Compaq Business PC products including all supported RAID configurations.
WARNING: The PCI Device ID of the mass storage controller changes after changing IDE mode. Chang-
ing the BIOS from IDE mode to RAID mode is the equivalent of connecting the hard drives to a new add-
on RAID storage controller. The installed operating system on the hard drive is unaware of this new mass
storage controller. If the operating system does not have the RAID drivers enumerated and PnP for the
RAID controller, the operating system will fail to boot (blue screens) when Microsoft XP or Microsoft Vista
attempts to boot.
Table 5 RAID Drives
Mode Purpose Minimal HDD Required
RAID 0 Striped for Performance. 2
RAID 1 Mirrored for Protection. 2
RAID 5 Parity for Accuracy. 3
RAID 0 + 1 Mirrored and Striped. 4*
Intel’s Matrix Technology 4 logical drives on 2 physical disks,
to emulate RAID 0 and 1.
2
* Not supported on HP Compaq dc7800 Business PCs.

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NOTES: The following notes are important for RAID configuration:
• RAID 1 is the only RAID configuration that HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products offer
as factory configurations.
• The preconfigured systems:
- Are complete RAID systems.
- Have both drives installed.
- Have the necessary Option ROM configuration.
- Are preloaded and preinstalled with all required Intel software.
- Include a preinstalled operating system that is mirrored mode out of the box.
HP Backup and Recovery interactions
After enabling and configuring RAID, restore the system using backup CDs. After completing the restore,
reinstall HP Backup and Recovery. These steps are necessary for the F11 restore to function properly.
HP also recommends keeping the default options in the RAID Option ROM and in the Windows RAID
application. Options like “chunk” size for changing the size “stripe” size have more history in their
defaults settings.
Additional technical information will be provided in the future for customers who want to add RAID soft-
ware image deployment capabilities.
Other supported configurations
HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products support two other RAID configurations:
•Two hard drive configuration.
• Two equal size/type SATA hard drive RAID configurations in RAID 0 or RAID 1 or Matrix
Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 1.
• Maximum of two SATA optical drives (on HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC Convertible Mini-
towers).
•Three hard drive configuration (only on HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC Convertible Minitowers).
• Three equal size/type SATA hard drive RAID configurations in RAID 0 or RAID 5 or Matrix
Mode of RAID and RAID 5.
• Maximum of one SATA optical drives.
Unsupported configurations
HP Compaq dc7800 Business Desktop PC products only support the best user experience and highest
possible reliability. As a result, HP does not support the following combinations of RAID hard drives:
•Different sizes
•Different speeds (5400 rpm, 7200 rpm, etc)
•Old and new technologies (SATA 1.5 GB and SATA 3.0 GB)
•NCQ hard drives and non-NCQ drives

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•Different cache size
•RAID combinations of hard drives with any operating system other than Microsoft XP Pro (SP2) using
Microsoft’s IDE driver stack based on ATAPI.SYS
Configuring RAID on non-factory preinstalled configurations
The remaining sections of this white paper describe steps to set up supported RAID configurations where
customers have not purchased factory preinstalled RAID configurations.
Enabling RAID through F10 System BIOS
1. Turn on or restart the computer by clicking Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer.
2. Press F10 as soon as the monitor light turns green.
If you do not press F10 at the appropriate time, you must restart the computer, and then press F10
again to access the utility.
3. Select your language from the list, and then press Enter.
4. Use the arrow keys to select Storage.
5. Use the down arrow key to select Storage Options, and then press Enter.
6. On the Storage Options menu, use the down arrow key to select SATA Emulation.
7. Press the right arrow key until RAID displays, and then press Enter.
8. To apply and save changes, select File > Save Changes and Exit.
• If you do not want to apply your changes, select Ignore Changes and Exit.
• To reset to factory settings, select Set Defaults and Exit. This option restores the original
factory defaults.

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CAUTION: Do NOT turn the computer power off while the ROM is saving the F10 Computer Setup
changes as the CMOS could become corrupted. Only turn the computer off after exiting the F10 Setup
screen.
Configuring RAID Option ROM
You can only access Computer Setup at system startup. To access the Computer Setup Utilities menu and
enable RAID:
1. Turn on or restart the computer by clicking Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer.
2. Press Ctrl + I repeatedly as soon as the monitor light turns green to enter the RAID configuration util-
ity. If you do not press Ctrl + I at the appropriate time, you must restart the computer, and then press
Ctrl + I again to access the utility.
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager screen (RAID Option ROM) displays briefly during boot up. The
RAID configuration utility is English only. To configure RAID in other languages, use the Windows-
based RAID configuration utility.

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Configuring RAID Volume using the Option ROM
1. Once you are in the Option ROM, if there are no previous RAID member hard drives, press Ctrl + I
to enter the RAID configuration utility.

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2. With Create RAID Volume selected, press Enter to access the Create Volume screen.
3. Select or enter the desired RAID Level. Use the information on the bottom half of the screen if neces-
sary.

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4. Use the arrow keys to scroll to Create Volume, and press Enter. The following screen appears.
CAUTION: All data on the selected disk will be deleted.
Notes for operating system installation
•After creating a RAID disk volume in the option ROM, you can install the operating system.
•HP provides a download for the required F6 disk for Windows XP CD installation.
•Customer-created images MUST account for the RAID controller.
•Failure to install and enumerate the RAID driver after enabling the RAID controller (with or without cre-
ating a volume) will result in a Windows boot failure (blue screen) for inaccessible boot device.
WARNING: The PCI Device ID of the mass storage controller changes after changing IDE mode. Chang-
ing the BIOS from IDE mode to RAID mode is the equivalent of connecting the hard drives to a new add-
on RAID storage controller. The installed operating system on the hard drive is unaware of this new mass
storage controller. If the drivers are not available, enumerated, and PnP for this new controller, the operat-
ing system blue screens in Microsoft XP and Microsoft Vista.
Additional technical information will be provided in the future for customers who want to add RAID SW
image deployment capabilities.

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Intel Matrix Storage Manager software installation
This section of the paper focuses on how to configure RAID using Intel Matrix Storage Manager software.
The configuration steps are for application usage and supported RAID migrations.
Console Software Installation
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager Software is preloaded in all HP Compaq dc7800 Business desktops at
“C:\Intel\Intel MSM”. To execute the software, run the setup.exe file. You can also get this software from
the HP and Intel Web sites.
1. Select Start > All Programs > Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console.
2. Click Next.
3. Read the driver agreement. If you agree, click Next.
4. Read the License Agreement. If you agree, click Yes.
5. Select or browse to a destination folder, and then click Next.
6. The Select Program Folder window suggests a program folder with Intel Matrix Storage Man-
ager highlighted to add the program icons.
7. Click Next to finish the installation.
8. Click Finish to close the setup.
9. Restart the computer.

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Using the Intel Matrix Storage Console interface
1. Click Start > All Programs > Intel Matrix Storage Manager/Intel Matrix Storage
Console to open the Intel Matrix Storage Console application. The Intel Matrix Storage Console
starts in basic mode by default and has three main menus.
NOTE: The report the applications generate is very comprehensive. You can view the report at
View/System Report. The reports contains information about the driver, operating system,
language, and hard drive.
2. Select View hard drive and volume Status.
3. For a more detailed view of the RAID controller, click View > Advanced Mode.
In Advanced Mode, the Intel Matrix Storage Console also includes the Actions menu.Use this menu to
access the advanced features of the RAID solution.
RAID migrations
Migration to RAID 1 from two non-RAID hard drives using Intel Matrix Stor-
age Console
NOTE: HP Compaq dc7800 Business PC products only support RAID based on two identical SATA hard
drives in either RAID 0 or RAID 1 or Matrix Mode of RAID 0 and RAID 1.