Migrating to RAID 1

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Why Read This Document

This document reflects my personal experiences in migrating the hard drive on my PC to RAID 1 (mirroring) without reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows and everything else. Your mileage may vary.

First some details

Dell Inspiron 530
500G SATA HD
Windows XP SP3

Procedure

Purchase 2nd hard drive, with specs as close as possible to 1st hard drive (identical is best, but not necessary)
Assuming the BIOS is currently set to IDE (not RAID)
Disconnect 2nd hard drive (if you have already installed it)
Boot machine
Download Intel driver for Matrix Storage Manager from Dell's website (v7.5.0.1017) and install it, which unpacks files into C:\dell\drivers\R158515
- Move iastor.inf to C:\windows\inf
- Move iastor.sys to C:\windows\system32\drivers
Apply these registry entries (for convenience, a file called ICH9R-RAID.reg with these is located here)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_8086&dev_2822&cc_0104]
"Service"="iaStor"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"Group"="SCSI miniport"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\iaStor.sys"
"tag"=dword:00000019
"DisplayName"="Intel RAID Controller"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters]
"queuePriorityEnable"=dword:00000000
"BusType"=dword:00000008

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\PnpInterface]
"5"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\Port0]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\Port1]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\Port2]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\Port3]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\Port4]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Parameters\Port5]
"AN"=dword:00000000
"LPM"=dword:00000000
"LPMSTATE"=dword:00000000
"LPMDSTATE"=dword:00000001
"GTF"=dword:00000000
"DIPM"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iastor\Enum]
"0"="PCI\\VEN_8086&DEV_2822&SUBSYS_02111028&REV_02\\3&172e68dd&0&FA"
"Count"=dword:00000001
"NextInstance"=dword:00000001

Reboot, changing the BIOS setting from IDE to RAID
Plug and play will want you to (re-)install the driver for Matrix Storage Manager. Go ahead and (re-)install the same driver again
Download and install the Matrix Storage Manager application from Dell's website (v7.5.0.1017)
Shutdown PC
Physically install/hook-up the 2nd (new, blank) hard drive
Boot PC, but do *not* do anything at the BIOS screen to configure RAID (The drives will come up as non-raid drives)
Launch the Matrix Storage Manager application
- Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive

Performance

I took simple benchmarks before and after I RAIDed my drives using HD Tune (website).

At a glance: The throughput rate on the RAID volume is the same as my slowest drive, with a slightly slower burst rate on the RAID volume, although there is a slight improvment in access time (compared to my slowest drive).

Notes

Do *not* enable "Volume Write-Back Cache" for the RAID Volume. This is documented as valid only for RAID 5. When enabled on my system, I observed a (roughly) 20% degredation in transfer rate. Both my drives do have "Hard drive write cache" enabled.