RAID enabled in the BIOS?

OK, another question. If you have an Optiplex system, did Dell ship it
with RAID enabled in the BIOS, or not?

According to Intel, unless RAID is enabled in the BIOS when you
install the OS, you will have to re-install the OS if you enable RAID.

Re-installing the OS is not a thrilling prospect, particularly since
Dell apparently does not provide the media.

Making a backup of the system with RAID not enabled, and restoring it
on a system with RAID enabled seems unlikely to be successful; I
assume that it will fail for the same reason that just turning on RAID
in the BIOS fails.

Bob S

On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 12:09:32 -0400, Bob S wrote:

OK, another question. If you have an Optiplex system, did Dell ship it
with RAID enabled in the BIOS, or not?

According to Intel, unless RAID is enabled in the BIOS when you
install the OS, you will have to re-install the OS if you enable RAID.

Re-installing the OS is not a thrilling prospect, particularly since
Dell apparently does not provide the media.

Making a backup of the system with RAID not enabled, and restoring it
on a system with RAID enabled seems unlikely to be successful; I
assume that it will fail for the same reason that just turning on RAID
in the BIOS fails.

Bob S


I guess nobody knows.


In the meantime, my friend Mr. Google turned up Microsoft KB article
922976 from September 2013.

It seems that in order to speed up the boot process, Windows 7 does
not load the drivers at boot time for device access methods that are
not needed. The minor side effect is that if you change the device
access method for the boot drive then the boot will fail.

Apparently the drivers loaded for booting are controlled by three
registry keys for IDE, AHCI, and Intel Raid respectively:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Pciide

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Msahci

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\IastorV

If the value in the key is 0 the driver will load for booting, and if
it is 3 the driver will not load for booting.

It does not say what happens if the value is 1, 2, or 5. It might (or
might not) be the case that the values in these keys correspond
somehow to the Manual, Automatic, Disabled settings for Windows
Services.

So the idea is that BEFORE you change the setting in the BIOS to
enable RAID (or AHCI or IDE, I suppose), you first edit the registry
to enable the desired method. A cautious person might set all three of
them to 0. Then you reboot and go into the BIOS and change the RAID or
other setting.

This registry modification supposedly keeps the boot from failing
after you enable RAID.

The article does not mention whether Windows changes the values back
again at some point.

Apparently neither Intel nor Dell have discovered this article.

Bob S

On Sunday, July 13, 2014 12:09:32 PM UTC-4, Bob S wrote:
OK, another question. If you have an Optiplex system, did Dell ship it

with RAID enabled in the BIOS, or not?



According to Intel, unless RAID is enabled in the BIOS when you

install the OS, you will have to re-install the OS if you enable RAID.



Re-installing the OS is not a thrilling prospect, particularly since

Dell apparently does not provide the media.



Making a backup of the system with RAID not enabled, and restoring it

on a system with RAID enabled seems unlikely to be successful; I

assume that it will fail for the same reason that just turning on RAID

in the BIOS fails.



Bob S

Gee, what do you want? It's Microsoft and they have their secrets. I continue to marvel at the simplicity and flexibility of Linux, as a work with it more and more. With Linux, you change the motherboard and everything still works. Change the hard drive parameters in the BIOS and the system boots up anyway. Microsoft just keeps putting up obstacles to protect their precious license fees.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 12:09:32 -0400, Bob S wrote:

OK, another question. If you have an Optiplex system, did Dell ship it
with RAID enabled in the BIOS, or not?

According to Intel, unless RAID is enabled in the BIOS when you
install the OS, you will have to re-install the OS if you enable RAID.

Re-installing the OS is not a thrilling prospect, particularly since
Dell apparently does not provide the media.

Making a backup of the system with RAID not enabled, and restoring it
on a system with RAID enabled seems unlikely to be successful; I
assume that it will fail for the same reason that just turning on RAID
in the BIOS fails.

Bob S

Based on a sample of one Optiplex 9020, the answer is; Yes, RAID is
enabled in the BIOS.

The system arrived with a 500 GB disk. I bought two 4 TB disks and a
SATA cable from Amazon.

I added a 4TB disk in the second slot and told the Intel software to
make a mirror RAID set; a few hours later it had finished copying
everything across.

Then I removed the original disk, installed a second 4 TB disk,
booted, and told the Intel software to fix the broken RAID set using
the new disk. A few hours later it finished copying everything.

Then I told the Intel software to use the other 3.5 TB worth of space
to make another mirror volume, and it did it.

It all went very smoothly.


Can anyone suggest a good PAR2 program that will work on Windows 7?
The old QuickPar program loads, but it apparently can't get attached
to the right-click menu for PAR2 files.

Bob S

On Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:27:57 -0400, Bob S wrote:


Can anyone suggest a good PAR2 program that will work on Windows 7?
The old QuickPar program loads, but it apparently can't get attached
to the right-click menu for PAR2 files.

Never mind; I installed it again and this time it "took".

Bob S

On 10/08/2014 14:30, Bob S wrote:
On Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:27:57 -0400, Bob S wrote:


Can anyone suggest a good PAR2 program that will work on Windows 7?
The old QuickPar program loads, but it apparently can't get attached
to the right-click menu for PAR2 files.

Never mind; I installed it again and this time it "took".

Bob S


I was wondering what a PAR2 program does?

Steve

On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:41:35 +0100, Steve wrote:

On 10/08/2014 14:30, Bob S wrote:
On Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:27:57 -0400, Bob S wrote:


Can anyone suggest a good PAR2 program that will work on Windows 7?
The old QuickPar program loads, but it apparently can't get attached
to the right-click menu for PAR2 files.

Never mind; I installed it again and this time it "took".

Bob S


I was wondering what a PAR2 program does?

Steve
Quickpar reads the base PAR2 file and compares against the files listed for
errors. If you have the additional par2 volume files, you may be able to
repair the damaged files

On 10/08/2014 17:53, Steve Urbach wrote:
On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:41:35 +0100, Steve wrote:

On 10/08/2014 14:30, Bob S wrote:
On Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:27:57 -0400, Bob S wrote:


Can anyone suggest a good PAR2 program that will work on Windows 7?
The old QuickPar program loads, but it apparently can't get attached
to the right-click menu for PAR2 files.

Never mind; I installed it again and this time it "took".

Bob S


I was wondering what a PAR2 program does?

Steve
Quickpar reads the base PAR2 file and compares against the files listed for
errors. If you have the additional par2 volume files, you may be able to
repair the damaged files


I'd never heard of it. Sounds really useful.
More info here for anyone that wants it:
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/index.htm

Thanks,
Steve