MSI Intel RAID User manual

Intel® RAID
USER GUIDE
Motherboard

Contents
RAID Configuration................................................................................................ 3
Enabling Intel® Rapid Storage Technology ............................................................ 3
Creating RAID Volume ........................................................................................... 4
Removing a RAID Volume ...................................................................................... 5
Resetting Disks to Non-RAID ................................................................................. 6
Rebuilding RAID Array............................................................................................ 7
Installing RAID Driver............................................................................................. 8
Installing Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Software............................................ 8
Notices ................................................................................................................... 9
Copyright................................................................................................................. 9
Revision History...................................................................................................... 9
2Contents

RAID Configuration
The introduction of RAID levels and types are as below:
RAID 0 breaks the data into blocks which are written to separate hard drives.
Spreading the hard drive I/O load across independent channels greatly
improves I/O performance.
RAID 1 provides data redundancy by mirroring data between the hard drives and
provides enhanced read performance.
RAID 5 provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction
information. This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance.
RAID 10 uses four hard drives to create a combination of RAID 0 and 1 by forming a
RAID 0 array from two RAID 1 arrays.
RAID level comparison
RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 10
Minimum # drives 2 2 3 4
Data protection None Excellent Excellent Excellent
Read performance Excellent OK Good OK
Write performance Excellent Good OK Good
Capacity utilization 100% 50% 67%~(1-1/n) 50%
⚠
Important
All the information/ volumes/ pictures listed in your system might differ from the
illustrations in this appendix.
Enabling Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
1. Power on and press Delete key to enter BIOS Setup menu.
2. Press F7 to switch to Advanced mode from EZ mode.
3. Go to BIOS > SETTINGS > Advanced > Integrated Peripherals > SATA Mode and
change setting to RAID/ Optane Mode.
4. Skip this step If you are only using SATA storage devices. If you are using NVMe
PCIe SSDs, go to BIOS > SETTINGS > Advanced > Integrated Peripherals > M2_x
Pcie Storage Remapping and change setting to Enabled.
5. Press F10 to save the configuration and exit, and then reboot and press Delete key
to enter BIOS Setup menu.
6. Go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology sub-
menu.
3
RAID Configuration

Creating RAID Volume
1. To enable Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology, Enter Create RAID Volume screen.
2. Specify a Name for RAID volume.
3. Select RAID Level best suited to your usage model in RAID Level.
4. In Select Disks field, press Space key or press Enter key and use ↑↓ arrow keys
to select the option Xto the disks you want to create for the RAID volume.
5. Select Strip Size for the RAID array. The available values range from 4KB to
128 KB in power of 2 increments. The strip size should be chosen based on the
planned drive usage. Here are some typical values:
RAID0 -128KB / RAID10 - 64KB / RAID5 - 64KB.
6. Select the capacity of the volume in Capacity (MB) field. The default value is the
maximum volume capacity of the selected disks.
7. Go to Create Volume field and press Enter to create the RAID volume. Upon
completion you are returned to the Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology menu.
4RAID Configuration

Removing a RAID Volume
Here you can delete the RAID volume, but please note that all data on RAID drives will
be lost.
⚠
Important
If your system currently boots to RAID and you delete the RAID volume, your system
will become unbootable.
1. Go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology.
2. Select the RAID volume from Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen to enter
RAID VOLUME INFO screen.
3. Select Delete option and press Enter key to delete the selected RAID volume.
4. Select Yes option and press Enter key to accept the volume deletion.
5
RAID Configuration

Resetting Disks to Non-RAID
1. Go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology.
2. Select the RAID volume from Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen to enter
RAID VOLUME INFO screen.
3. Select the disk and press Enter to enter PHYSICAL DISK INFO screen.
4. Select Reset to non-RAID option and press Enter to delete the RAID volume and
remove any RAID structures from the drives. The following screen will appear:
5. Select Yes option and press Enter key to accept the disk resetting.
⚠
Important
∙ You will lose all data on the RAID drives and any internal RAID structures when you
perform this operation.
∙ Issues such as incompatible RAID configurations, a failed volume or a failed disk
could possibly require you to Reset Disks to Non-RAID.
6RAID Configuration

Rebuilding RAID Array
A RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10 volume is reported as Degraded when one of its hard
drive members fails or is temporarily disconnected, and data mirroring is lost. As a
result, the system can only utilize the remaining functional hard drive member. To re-
establish data mirroring and restore data redundancy, refer to the procedure below
that corresponds to the current situation.
1. Power off your computer.
2. Replace the failed hard drive with a new one that is of equal or greater capacity.
3. Reboot the system and go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage
Technology.
4. Select the Degraded RAID volume from Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen
to enter RAID VOLUME INFO screen.
5. Select Rebuild option and press Enter key to rebuild the new hard drive.
7
RAID Configuration

Installing RAID Driver
New Operating System Installation
The following details the installation of the drivers while installing Windows 10 64-bit
or newer versions of operating system.
1. After selecting the location to install Windows, click on Load driver button to
install a third party RAID driver.
2. When prompted, insert the USB flash drive with Intel RAID Drivers and then click
Browse.
▪To create an Intel RAID Drivers USB flash drive. Insert the MSI USB Drive into
the optical drive. Copy all the contents in \\Storage\Intel\
3. Navigate to the directory containing the saved Intel RAID drivers, then click OK.
4. Select the (iaStorAC.inf) driver, click Next.
5. You have successfully installed the RAID driver, and Windows setup should
continue.
6. Leave the disk/ USB drive in the computer until the system reboots itself.
Windows setup will need to copy the files after the RAID volume is formatted.
Installing Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Software
The following details how to enable Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology in BIOS.
1. Insert the MSI USB Drive into the optical drive.
2. Click Select to choose what happens with this disc pop-up notification, then
select Run DVDSetup.exe to open the installer. If you turn off the AutoPlay feature
from the Windows Control Panel, you can still manually execute the DVDSetup.
exe from the root path of the MSI USB Drive.
3. Under Drivers/Software tab, check Intel RAID Drivers check-box.
4. Click the Install button.
5. When prompted to restart, click OK button.
6. Restart your computer and enter the Windows operating system.
7. Double-click the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology icon to open the Intel® Rapid
Storage Technology software.
8RAID Configuration

Notices
Micro-Star Int’l Co.,Ltd.
The MSI logo used is a registered trademark of Micro-Star Int’l Co., Ltd. All other
marks and names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners. No
warranty as to accuracy or completeness is expressed or implied. MSI reserves the
right to make changes to this document without prior notice.
Copyright
© Micro-Star Int’l Co.,Ltd. 2021 All rights reserved.
Revision History
Version 1.0, 2020/10, First release
9
Notices