msi Intel 600 RAID Motherboard User Guide

: June 4, 2024
: MSI

Table of Contents

RAID Configuration
Enabling Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
Creating RAID Volume
Removing a RAID Volume
Rebuilding RAID Array
Installing RAID Driver
Installing Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Software
Notices
Copyright
Revision History
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msi Intel 600 RAID Motherboard User Guide

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

Power on and press Delete key to enter BIOS Setup menu.
Press F7 to switch to Advanced mode from EZ mode.
Go to BIOS > SETTINGS > Advanced > Integrated Peripherals > RAID Configuration (Intel VMD) > Enable RAID/Optane Function and change setting to Enabled.
Press F10 to save the configuration and exit, and then reboot and press Delete key to enter BIOS Setup menu.
Go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology submenu.

Creating RAID Volume

To enable Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology, Enter Create RAID Volume screen.
Specify a Name for RAID volume.
Select RAID Level best suited to your usage model in RAID Level.
In Select Disks field, press Space key or press Enter key and use ↑↓ arrow keys to select the option X to the disks you want to create for the RAID volume.
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.
Select the capacity of the volume in Capacity (MB) field. The default value is the maximum volume capacity of the selected disks.
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.

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.

Go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology.
Select the RAID volume from Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen to enter RAID VOLUME INFO screen.
Select Delete option and press Enter key to delete the selected RAID volume.
Select Yes option and press Enter key to accept the volume deletion.

Resetting Disks to Non-RAID

Go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology.
Select the RAID volume from Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen to enter RAID VOLUME INFO screen.
Select the disk and press Enter to enter PHYSICAL DISK INFO screen.
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:
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.

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 reestablish data mirroring and restore data redundancy, refer to the procedure below that corresponds to the current situation.

Power off your computer.
Replace the failed hard drive with a new one that is of equal or greater capacity.
Reboot the system and go to BIOS > SETTING > Advanced > Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology.
Select the Degraded RAID volume from Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology screen to enter RAID VOLUME INFO screen.
Select Rebuild option and press Enter key to rebuild the new hard drive.

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.

After selecting the location to install Windows, click on Load driver button to install a third party RAID driver.
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\
Navigate to the directory containing the saved Intel RAID drivers, then click OK.
Select the (iaStorAC.inf) driver, click Next.
You have successfully installed the RAID driver, and Windows setup should continue.
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.

Insert the MSI Drive disc/ USB Drive into the optical drive/ USB port.
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 Drive disc/ USB Drive.
Under Drivers/Software tab, check Intel RAID Drivers check-box.
Click the Install button.
When prompted to restart, click OK button.
Restart your computer and enter the Windows operating system.
Double-click the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology icon to open the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology software.

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.