How To Install Windows Vista Ultimate With RAID

[Apoptosis]

Everyone wants to see Vista information and today Legit Reviews completes our installation of Windows Vista Ultimate on one of our personal machines that is running a RAID Array. Follow through as we have over 19 pictures that will walk you through installation of the 32-bit version of Vista Ultimate! This is a must for anyone that is thinking of installing Windows Vista.



Article Title: How To Install Windows Vista Ultimate With RAID
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/454/1/

[pastorjay]

Sweet! Let the Vista fun begin!

[KnightRid]

Damn nice article!

i would have been too stupid to do the drivers thing for RAID ( never had a raid config YET ) and I would not have known about the Intel NCQ thingy either

Thanx again!

Mike

[zparker]

DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT

Now i have to buy it so it can go on my resume. Blah

[Illuminati]

Did you have the option to install the 64-bit version? or did that Ultimate DVD only have the 32-bit versions?

[Apoptosis]

Did you have the option to install the 64-bit version? or did that Ultimate DVD only have the 32-bit versions?

Only has 32-bit on the DVD... Will do an article on 64-bit when I get a copy in the future.

[DMB2000uk]

Has RAID got to the point where backup (if the RAID breaks) isn't really needed, or do you still keep all your important stuff on separate non RAIDed drives?

Dan

[Dragon_Cooler]

Excellent review, and you did it....killed 2 birds with one stone, i sure enough wanted to see a vista install and a vista install on raid!! FREAKING SWEEEEEEET!!!


Raid is teh win!! I dont see why people dont really care for it. With the cost of hard drives these days its the best way to go!!

[Baddad53]

Sweet! Let the Vista fun begin!

Define fun Once again MicroStup screws the pooch
Not good news for us gamers. And as a hardcore gamer - please tell me why I should install this beast now Innovation

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=354&type=expert&pid=5


Good article though. The good news is with every Vista, MicroSoft will buy you dinner and flowers prior to the act. Sorry but gadgets are for me a means to an end - fun gaming experience period - that maybe a different viewpoint than most of your readers.

With my current PC purchase last summer I went RAID with the onboard Asus A8N RAID card. Don't have to backup my personal media files anymore !

[Dandruff]

No offense, but this statement

"Performance Tip: Use the F6 floppy at this point in the Vista installation and then install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility after the base OS installation has completed. The Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility will enable NCQ and optimizes I/O requests, so it is important to install it after the base OS installation. If you don't, you will not have the level of performance that you should! "

is bull**** IMO. The driver handles NCQ and all that SATA stuff. The Utility is just for managing the raid and maybe as a monitor for these stuff.

[Apoptosis]

No offense, but this statement

"Performance Tip: Use the F6 floppy at this point in the Vista installation and then install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility after the base OS installation has completed. The Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility will enable NCQ and optimizes I/O requests, so it is important to install it after the base OS installation. If you don't, you will not have the level of performance that you should! "

is bull**** IMO. The driver handles NCQ and all that SATA stuff. The Utility is just for managing the raid and maybe as a monitor for these stuff.

confirmed by Intel... as I asked them before the article was published

[Dandruff]

Really? Can't believe this! What about AHCI operation and NCQ?

[kenc51]

AFAIK the F6 install / driver is for native AHCI OS support.
This will allow for NCQ / Plug & Play support etc.
You can install the driver afterwards, but it will only enable the above features for the non-OS HDD's.
I could be wrong.......I am often

[Dandruff]

There's no need to install the driver twice. Ff you install it with F6 during windows-setup its installed for the controller (thus all connected harddisks are "driven" over this). NCQ also is enabled even without installing the console (Matrix Storage Manager graphical user interface) afterwards! 100%! This applies to AHCI and also RAID. If not, they would copy/install/enable all that stuff during the F6-routine!

[Dandruff]

From the Intel website and also the Matrix Manager manual:

In order to take advantage of NCQ, you need:

* Intel® Matrix Storage Technology software
* Hard drive(s) that supports NCQ
* Intel® chipsets using a controller hub that supports AHCI


The "Intel® Matrix Storage Technology software" doesn't mean you need to install all the fuzz again under Windows. F6 driver installation IS installation of Intel® Matrix Storage Technology software (although you don't get the graphical user interface with it)!

[pcrobot]

Fantastic review as usual!

[p645n]

Great article -- it's the first I've read from this site. I've been thinking about doing something like you've done -- Ultimate & two 74G Raptors. I have two questions I could really use some help with though. I currently partition one Raptor into a C Drive & a D Drive. XP sits on C my personal files sit on D. (photo's, video,s music etc sit on four additional 300 & 500 gig drives.).

First question: Can I again partition each Raptor in half running the first half of each in a Raid 0 array and the other half of each as seperate drives -- I'll have something like a 74 gig Raid 0 C Drive along with a 37 gig D drive & 37 gig E Drive.

Second question concerns Drive Imaging. I currently use Acronis True Image to back up my C & D Drives. Can you back up your Raid 0 array with something like True Image?

Thanks!

[Apoptosis]

There's no need to install the driver twice. Ff you install it with F6 during windows-setup its installed for the controller (thus all connected harddisks are "driven" over this). NCQ also is enabled even without installing the console (Matrix Storage Manager graphical user interface) afterwards! 100%! This applies to AHCI and also RAID. If not, they would copy/install/enable all that stuff during the F6-routine!

Dandruff,

you are 100% correct as Intel just got back to me and stated this:

"You just need to install the driver. After checking with the storage guys, they stated GUI app part of it is not needed to get the benefit. The GUI pretty much just tells you the driver is installed and working properly..."

That goes against what they said here in their Vista Reviewers Guide:

"Try this link: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts ... bmit=Go%21

It has the download for the latest F6 floppy and the Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility.

Use the F6 floppy at the Vista install and then install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager utility after the base OS installation has completed. The Intel Matrix Storage Manager utililty will enable NCQ and optimizes I/O requests, so it is important to install it after the base OS installation. "

Cheers and thanks for catching that... Looks like Intel made a mistake and I passed it along to you guys. I have removed that part from the article as I don't want to mislead anyone.

[cadams]

Apoptosis - Thank you for the tutorial, I have just built a new system with the Intel d975xbx2 and vista ultra oem. I cannot get past the last screen prior to loading vista that your tutorial shows.
I have loaded the latest matrix storage as you have shown - the vista still does not recognize my hard drives to load windows.
I have a WD Raptor 150gb and 2 WD caviar 500gb and a plextor sata dvd on my 4 black sata ports. I have them set as non-raid as I am not ready to go Raid yet. Sooo I have a new system and cannot load vista.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Dandruff]

There's no need to install the driver twice. Ff you install it with F6 during windows-setup its installed for the controller (thus all connected harddisks are "driven" over this). NCQ also is enabled even without installing the console (Matrix Storage Manager graphical user interface) afterwards! 100%! This applies to AHCI and also RAID. If not, they would copy/install/enable all that stuff during the F6-routine!

Dandruff,

you are 100% correct as Intel just got back to me and stated this:

"You just need to install the driver. After checking with the storage guys, they stated GUI app part of it is not needed to get the benefit. The GUI pretty much just tells you the driver is installed and working properly..."

nice! i knew it ;)