Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

[Lord Odin]

I currently have just 1 IDE hdd installed as my primary hdd but want to add a RAID 10 setup to it. Will I have to reformat my system to do this? Or can I simply add the array while keeping everything else the same? I've never made a RAID setup before, so this will be a learning experience.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Not knowing exactly what hardware you are working with its not a easy yes or no answer. But to answer your question yes you can add a raid array as a storage drive and it would not effect your current hard drive and Operating system.

Depending on which motherboard you have how you have it currently configure or you may have to add in a raid controller card or move some drives around to configure it properly.

If you could, could you please update your sig with your current hardware that your working with. The more details the better we can help you.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Sig updated with current rig specs.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Your z68 extreme4 is that the gen3 or not as they are different boards. It does not matter much for your question about raid as they look to have the same number of ports per controller.

From what I can tell with your board is it looks like it has 2 intel sata3 ports 2 marvel sata2 ports and 4 intel sata2 ports. According to asrock website they say the intel sata3 2 port controller can do raid0,1,5,10. I dont know how they can do raid5 or raid10 on a 2 port controller as you need 3 drives min for raid5 and 4 drives min for raid 10.

So from the looks of it you can do raid10 on the intel sata2 ports.

Now has for your first question, what port do you have your existing drive connected to? How is the bios configured ide, ahci, or raid? If your hdd/ssd is connected to the sata2 ports you would need to connected it to one of the sata3 ports. If windows is installed on that drive in ide mode and then moved to the other port in ahci mode you would need to make some registry changes before the move.

If you wanted raid10 on sata3 with 4 hdd's/ssd's then you would need to by a raid controller that will support 4 or more drives.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Your z68 extreme4 is that the gen3 or not as they are different boards. It does not matter much for your question about raid as they look to have the same number of ports per controller.

I have the original (non-Gen3) Extreme4.

From what I can tell with your board is it looks like it has 2 intel sata3 ports 2 marvel sata2 ports and 4 intel sata2 ports. According to asrock website they say the intel sata3 2 port controller can do raid0,1,5,10. I dont know how they can do raid5 or raid10 on a 2 port controller as you need 3 drives min for raid5 and 4 drives min for raid 10.

So from the looks of it you can do raid10 on the intel sata2 ports.

Now has for your first question, what port do you have your existing drive connected to? How is the bios configured ide, ahci, or raid? If your hdd/ssd is connected to the sata2 ports you would need to connected it to one of the sata3 ports. If windows is installed on that drive in ide mode and then moved to the other port in ahci mode you would need to make some registry changes before the move.

If you wanted raid10 on sata3 with 4 hdd's/ssd's then you would need to by a raid controller that will support 4 or more drives.

I currently have my Sata3 hdd installed on the Sata3_M1 port (top, right, gray port) because the manual states that port cannot be used in RAID. So my OS would be on that HDD and it is currently in IDE.

The RAID drives would only be for storage of files.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

I have the original (non-Gen3) Extreme4.


I currently have my Sata3 hdd installed on the Sata3_M1 port (top, right, gray port) because the manual states that port cannot be used in RAID. So my OS would be on that HDD and it is currently in IDE.

The RAID drives would only be for storage of files.

After further reading the manual you are correct as how you have your current hard drive, but it is suggested to use AHCI over IDE. This can be switch after doing some changes to the windows registry. Google search switching from ide to ahci after windows is installed.


As for the raid10 config you would be limited to the sata2 ports. WHich is fine and will not affect your current hdd with os installed.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

After further reading the manual you are correct as how you have your current hard drive, but it is suggested to use AHCI over IDE. This can be switch after doing some changes to the windows registry. Google search switching from ide to ahci after windows is installed.


As for the raid10 config you would be limited to the sata2 ports. WHich is fine and will not affect your current hdd with os installed.

Switching to AHCI was easy enough but what was the point of it? My performance seems to have dropped because of it.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Sorry I also forgot to mention after switching to AHCI you should install the IRST driver (Intel Rapid Storage technology). AHCI is supposed to help with hotswap, NcQ(helps a hard drive streamline its operation). AHCI does not affect the speed at which SATA drives operate but it exposes the advanced features that are available with SATA.

Read more: Difference Between AHCI and IDE | Difference Between | AHCI vs IDE Difference Between AHCI and IDE | Difference Between | AHCI vs IDE You should not see any performance drop or increase really.

What did you to test performance? I suggest ATTO benchmark.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Ok, installed IRST but according to ATTO and HD Tune, my numbers aren't as consistent as they used to be. Based on what I've been reading, unless you plan on hot swapping your drives or running a server, AHCI will drop your performance in most situations.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

hmmmm maybe someone else can comment on that, as I have always used AHCI or raid which uses AHCI for disks that are not in a raid array.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Ok, I got the HDD's and hooked up everything correctly. So how do I go about putting these 4 drives in RAID?

I tried changing my SATA mode from ACHI to RAID but it wants to load Windows on my primary HDD in RAID and not AHCI. I'm a bit confused.

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Ok correct me if I am wrong. You have 5 hdds? 1 for the OS and 4 for the Raid 10? You entered the raid bios and created the raid 10 array on the 4 hdds? All you should have to do is to back to the boards bios and change the hdd boot order to the drive that has windows installed.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

Ok correct me if I am wrong. You have 5 hdds? 1 for the OS and 4 for the Raid 10? You entered the raid bios and created the raid 10 array on the 4 hdds? All you should have to do is to back to the boards bios and change the hdd boot order to the drive that has windows installed.

Yes, I have 4 hdds (1 for OS and 4 for RAID 10). I did enter RAID and created an array for the drives and then had to switch back to ACHI in order to boot up. Keeping it in RAID wouldn't work for the primary unless it was in AHCI. I then entered disk management and created a new partition for the drive using GPT. According to HD Tune, the performance indicates its working fine.

Was this the correct procedure?

[Acebmxer]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

If you set the controller to raid then entered the raid bios to create the array then reboot back into the boards bios and switch back to ahci you should lose the raid array.

Why would the system not boot when left to raid? Was it BSOD on startup? If that is the case you need to make changes to the registry to allow switching between ahich/raid/ide.

I had to scroll back to your first post as I forgot your OS drive is attached to a IDE add in card? It is possible the add in card does not work when intel controller is set to ahci or it could just need the regedit.

If you could update your sig with more complete info on how your system is setup it would be easier then having to keep going back to the first post.

[Lord Odin]

Re: Z68 Extreme4: can I add RAID 10 to existing IDE system?

If you set the controller to raid then entered the raid bios to create the array then reboot back into the boards bios and switch back to ahci you should lose the raid array.

If it lost the array, shouldn't the total capacity have been reduced to the size of just 1 drive and its performance limited to that of a single drive? Right now, it has the capacity for 2 drives and is performing twice as fast. FYI, this is a RAID 10 setup.

Why would the system not boot when left to raid? Was it BSOD on startup? If that is the case you need to make changes to the registry to allow switching between ahich/raid/ide.

Yes, it did BSOD. What do I need to change in the registry?

I had to scroll back to your first post as I forgot your OS drive is attached to a IDE add in card? It is possible the add in card does not work when intel controller is set to ahci or it could just need the regedit.

If you could update your sig with more complete info on how your system is setup it would be easier then having to keep going back to the first post.

I have no add-in card; I just have all the drives connected to the SATA controllers on the Z68 motherboard. The RAID drives are connected to the SATAII ports and the OS drive is connected to the SATA3_M1 port.

In the BIOS, when its configured for RAID, my OS drive is also listed as RAID. I don't know if it wants to boot up as part of a RAID array or what is going on. I've tried changing the boot priorities or even to move it to the Marvel controller (built into mobo) to see if it would boot up at ACHI but no such luck.