Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
Post Reply
Message
Author
Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#1 Post by Marin85 » Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:32 pm

Since W700 has a built-in RAID controller, I was wondering if this controller can be configured with a third HD in the ultrabay for a RAID 5. Also, does anyone know what kind of controller it is, is it soldered to the mobo or just attached to some specific interface?

Thanks

Marin
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

barrywohl
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 445
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 8:01 am
Location: Sheridan, WY
Contact:

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#2 Post by barrywohl » Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:48 pm

Marin85 wrote:Since W700 has a built-in RAID controller, I was wondering if this controller can be configured with a third HD in the ultrabay for a RAID 5. Also, does anyone know what kind of controller it is, is it soldered to the mobo or just attached to some specific interface?

Thanks

Marin
Marin, I know that RAID 5 is supported. The computer has four eSATA ports: 0 and 1 built in to the main body of the laptop, port 2 on the ultrabay slim and port 3 on the back. I have not tried it but the documentation specifically says,

"Intel Matrix RAID Technology supports the following RAID level combinations as long as the same number of hard drives is used for both volumes:
2-drive RAID 1 and RAID 0
3-6 drive RAID 0 and RAID 5
4-drive RAID 0 and RAID 10
4-drive RAID 5 and RAID 10
"

By the way, I've been using my replacement W700 with RAID 1 for a month now with no problems using the Seagate 7200 rpm 320GB drives with self parking head.
First Thinkpad 755CX in 1995. First IBM: PC 1982 8088 w 64K RAM, dual floppy. Currently in use:
X230T with Win8Pro x64, i7, 500gb ssd; W700 WUXGA RAID 1 Blu-Ray W7Pro x64, occasionally a T61p with Win7Pro x64

Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#3 Post by Marin85 » Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:05 pm

I´m glad you don´t experience any more problems with your W700. It really seems to be powerful machine :) Thanks for the reply, I didn´t know that, it actually sounds great...

Marin
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

tinkererguy
Sophomore Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:37 pm
Location: Connecticut

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#4 Post by tinkererguy » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:48 pm

I had tried RAID0 with one of the internal bays combined with an identical drive in the Ultrabay, and the integrated Intel RAID controller on the W700 wouldn't let me, saying something to the effect that one of the bays is external.

So I would guess that RAID5 also wouldn't not be allowed. But that was back in October, and not sure if firmware updates since then could have changed this behavior..
2757CTO Lenovo W700 with 17"1920x1200, NVIDIA Quadro FX3700M
C: UltraBay Intel X25-M 80GB SSD, Windows 7 x64 SP1
D: ST9500420ASG Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GBx2 Software RAID0
http://tinkertry.com/thinkpadw520saga

Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#5 Post by Marin85 » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:56 pm

Well, then that would be definitely something interesting to check out. Thanks for pointing this out!

Marin
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

whakojacko
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:44 pm
Location: San Jose, CA / Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#6 Post by whakojacko » Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:12 pm

tinkererguy wrote:I had tried RAID0 with one of the internal bays combined with an identical drive in the Ultrabay, and the integrated Intel RAID controller on the W700 wouldn't let me, saying something to the effect that one of the bays is external.

So I would guess that RAID5 also wouldn't not be allowed. But that was back in October, and not sure if firmware updates since then could have changed this behavior..
or you could just use an actual software raid controller. The integrated controller is essentially software as well (it uses cpu), but is just invisible to the OS
T60p 2007-93U (S-IPS UXGA lovers forever)

Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#7 Post by Marin85 » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:58 pm

whakojacko wrote:or you could just use an actual software raid controller. The integrated controller is essentially software as well (it uses cpu), but is just invisible to the OS
I thought it´s an actual hardware RAID... I have never tried this, but theoretically I can set up software RAID even on a T60 using the ultrabay... (though the difference will be certainly noticeable due to the absence of a dedicated controller).
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

whakojacko
Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:44 pm
Location: San Jose, CA / Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#8 Post by whakojacko » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:16 am

Marin85 wrote:I thought it´s an actual hardware RAID... I have never tried this, but theoretically I can set up software RAID even on a T60 using the ultrabay... (though the difference will be certainly noticeable due to the absence of a dedicated controller).
Thats what I was saying (to get around the ultrabay limitation). I HIGHLY doubt the t60 mobo has a real dedicated raid controller. Pretty much every mobo-raid implementation (except for high end server boards) is essentially software raid, just made invisible to the OS.
T60p 2007-93U (S-IPS UXGA lovers forever)

Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: RAID 5 possible on W700 with 3 HDDs?

#9 Post by Marin85 » Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:09 am

Ah, ok, I got your point. And no, T60 doesn´t have a dedicated RAID controller. The only doable thing on a T60 is pure software RAID with only 2 HDs (no RAID 5).

Thanks,

Marin
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 57 guests