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How to Config SSD and 2 WD Caviar Blacks
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25. September 2009 @ 01:50 |
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I'm dieing to play with RAID1, so I have contrived to obtain one Intel X25 80GB SSD drive and two WD 500GB Caviar Blacks. My plan is to use the SSD for OS/Paging/Scratch and use the two Caviar Blacks in a RAID1 configuration for applications, data and backups.
What is the conventional wisdom for using the X25 SSD for OS and putting two Caviar Blacks into RAID1? I heard a comment from a non-confirmed source that the Caviar Blacks should not be used as RAIDS, but I have not been able to verify that statement.
What say you, Wizards and Daemons of the dark world of disks?
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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28. September 2009 @ 08:07 |
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Pretty simple to set RAID1 up on a drive that doesn't store your OS, sort out the drivers once you're in windows. Your idea is pretty sound. There are sources that say you can't use WD drives in RAID, but it's a bit of a sneak from WD to get you to buy their RAID edition drives, which you don't need to do. Use the drives in RAID, and if you get any drop-out issues there is a patch you can apply to make the drives 'look' like they're RAID editions. Most people will never get any problems unless a drive is faulty, however, which wouldn't help regardless...
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Member
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28. September 2009 @ 11:41 |
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Do you feel the Intel or Kingston SSD drives are ready for Prime Time? I run a 24/7/365 operation and the idea looks great on paper, but I'm curious about their ability to handle the real world.
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. September 2009 @ 12:36 |
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The Intel ones certainly. Personally Intel's is the only MLC SSD I'm willing to suffer, the random performance of the others is pretty dire at the moment due to the controllers.
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Member
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28. September 2009 @ 20:10 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Use the drives in RAID, and if you get any drop-out issues there is a patch you can apply to make the drives 'look' like they're RAID editions.
Can you point me to the patch? I have searched for it to no avail.
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. September 2009 @ 20:35 |
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28. September 2009 @ 21:24 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Officially (as far as WD are concerned), you're not allowed to have it...
Thank you. Having worked for computer companies for the majority of my life, I understand how these kinds of marketing schemes work. I can see it from both sides, but I appreciate having the choice.
Dick
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Member
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20. October 2009 @ 23:47 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
http://rs11.rapidshare.com/files/2821776/WDTLER.zip
Officially (as far as WD are concerned), you're not allowed to have it, you're meant to purchase a RAID drive, but I hear of no issues using this to enable TLER on drives that don't have it.
This patch worked on my Intel P45 mobo, but it didn't recognize the controllers on my GB P55 board. Are you aware of a patch that will work for GB P55 boards?
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. October 2009 @ 06:04 |
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As far as I was aware the patch worked for all controllers. Is the S-ATA mode set correctly in the BIOS for that board, and do the drives show up in the system?
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21. October 2009 @ 14:51 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
As far as I was aware the patch worked for all controllers. Is the S-ATA mode set correctly in the BIOS for that board, and do the drives show up in the system?
As far as I know. I will give it a third try later this evening and try to document the configuration.
Dick
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21. October 2009 @ 21:03 |
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Originally posted by k7vc:
I will give it a third try later this evening and try to document the configuration.
Problem continues. I downloaded and installed the latest BIOS and Intel SATA drivers from the GB web site. The POST display lists all three WD drives: one non-RAID Raptor and two Caviar Blacks in RAID-1. The mobo is a GP P55-UD5 with BIOS V.F4
The WDTLER utility which I ran from a boot floppy reports "No disk drives found. The controller may not be supported."
Is it possible the GB BIOS is so paranoid it is somehow keeping the SATA controller from view as a protective measure??
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. October 2009 @ 21:13 |
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I've not tried the procedure myself, but I suspect there may be something you have to do to stop the TLER program from 'hiding' the non-RAID edition drives. I have only seen the result of this program for Green drives, not Blacks. In all honesty, you'll almost certainly be fine using blacks in RAID without the TLER utility.
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Member
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21. October 2009 @ 21:37 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
I've not tried the procedure myself, but I suspect there may be something you have to do to stop the TLER program from 'hiding' the non-RAID edition drives.
I used the utility successfully on an almost identical set of non-RAID drives (Raptor and two Caviar Blacks), but it was on an Intel DP45SG mobo with Intel BIOS and the usual P45 chipset. This is my first GB mobo and BIOS (and of course the newer P55).
If you have any contacts at WD it would be interesting to know if they have updated the utility lately.
Thanks for the ideas and good info.
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. October 2009 @ 21:43 |
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Unfortunately, I have no affiliation with WD. All I can perhaps suggest is have a look around some other forums - the utility isn't exactly 'freely available'.
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21. October 2009 @ 22:15 |
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OK. I'll let you know if I run across anything.
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. October 2009 @ 23:04 |
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If you are using onboard RAID anyway, you might as well just use windows to mirror them...it will be a lot less trouble, and will not require any special utilities to void your much-needed WD warantee.
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Xplorer4
Senior Member
4 product reviews
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22. October 2009 @ 03:21 |
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AfterDawn Addict
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22. October 2009 @ 08:22 |
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Originally posted by KillerBug:
will not require any special utilities to void your much-needed WD warantee.
If you're going to slag off a brand that hasn't had reliability problems for years, at least get the spelling right :P
Also, I can pretty much sum up the SSD with one expression:
Intel X25-M Gen2.
There really is no need to buy anything else.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22. October 2009 @ 08:24
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22. October 2009 @ 16:30 |
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24. October 2009 @ 01:00 |
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Originally posted by k7vc:
This patch worked on my Intel P45 mobo, but it didn't recognize the controllers on my GB P55 board.
Problem solved. WDTLER must be run before the drives are configured as RAID. Once they are under the control of the RAID controller WDTLER won't find them.
Dick
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AfterDawn Addict
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24. October 2009 @ 03:30 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Originally posted by KillerBug:
will not require any special utilities to void your much-needed WD warantee.
If you're going to slag off a brand that hasn't had reliability problems for years, at least get the spelling right :P
Also, I can pretty much sum up the SSD with one expression:
Intel X25-M Gen2.
There really is no need to buy anything else.
I gave WD a chance based on your recomendations. The first one kept disconnecting, the second was DOA (it was like I didn't even plug it in), and the third one had the same random disconnect issue as the first. After all the cross shipping, I ended up getting a refund...but I had to pay a restocking fee, orriginal shipping, and return shipping three times. I could have bought a nice 1TB Seagate for all the money I pissed away giving WD three chances in a row. You say they have not had any issues in years, yet even you will remember that these random disconnect issues have existed since they released their first 1.5TB, and it is still there. It is theoreticaly possible that I just have the worst luck in the world when it comes to WD drives, but I'm not about to spend another $90 and 6 weeks on giving them another chance...all to be left with nothing but the knowledge to avoid this terrible company.
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AfterDawn Addict
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24. October 2009 @ 09:37 |
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A 1.5TB drive is running in my fileserver right now perfectly well. I have read about the issues the 1.5TB drives are meant to have (and indeed the 1TB drives as well) but have never experienced them. Out of curiosity, when did you buy the drives? All the bad reviews of them are bunched together on newegg, clearly indicating newegg received a dodgy batch.
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AfterDawn Addict
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24. October 2009 @ 12:09 |
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I bought the first one about 2 months ago...around the time of all those "I have $10,000 to spend" threads. I recieved it about a week later, then the second one 2 weeks later, and the third 2 more weeks later. By the time I had shipped back the third one, I had waisted 6 weeks.
If 3 drives seperated by over a month were all part of the same bad batch (the middle one with a different problem), then WD must have made a mountain of bad drives without sample testing any of them. Either that, or they did some kind of quick-test that does not detect the random disconnect issue that they know they have, and have had since launch. Either way, it is not acceptable when none of my Seagate drives have had such issues, and they cost the same with higher speeds. WD is back on my s**t list for at least 2 years, and there is nothing anyone can say that will change that now. At this point, I would not even trust them in RAID5...if 3 out of 3 were bad, then 2 out of 4 failing at once would not be a suprise.
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AfterDawn Addict
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24. October 2009 @ 13:03 |
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What S-ATA controller did you hook them up to?
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AfterDawn Addict
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27. October 2009 @ 05:36 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
What S-ATA controller did you hook them up to?
I tried them with the onboard controler on a nVidia 570SLI based board, on the onboard controler of a AMD 790FX based board, and attached to my 3ware 9690SA. One was just plain dead, and didn't work with any controler at all. The other two would randomly disconnect for about 0.1 seconds every 3-25 minutes. This was not a big deal with onboard, as there was no errorchecking or rebuilding to do...the only way to see the problem without a utility was when copying files, the whole system would freeze for about 2 seconds, and then go back to how it was before. This leads me to believe that most (if not all) of these drives have this issue, and users just don't realize that the occasional freezing is not windows or spyware, but their hard drive. When I hooked them up to my RAID card to tried to add them to my RAID5 array, I was unable to do so because I was never able to get past 5% of "clearing" before the drive reset and the process reset with it. This is probably the main reason that WD recomends against using their drives with hardware RAID...hardware RAID wants working drives.
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