Help! Which RAID mode should I use?

[Eggz]

Does it matter if I base my RAID 1 array on IRST or RSTe?

Motherboard: Asus Rampage Gene IV (Latest BIOS)
Drives: 2 x Segate Constellation Enterprise ES.3 ST4000NM0033
Existing HDD: 1x 2TB Segate Barracuda
Windows 8.1 Professional

My system's OS is on an SSD, but I'm building a RAID 1 array for redundant storage with these drives. I plan to replace the current single-drive storage solution with a new RAID 1 storage solution, but I have a very specific question about motherboard settings on the X79 chipset.

In the UEFI > SATA > RAID Mode, my choices for Intel's Rapid Storage Techonology are either the regular one (IRST) or the enterprise one (RSTe).

Normally, I wouldn't care about the choice so much, but the UEFI warns that I'll have to re-install the OS in order to make the switch between the two once I choose one. Not trying to go down that route!

Currently, SATA is in AHCI mode. The version of Inel's Rapid Store I have installed is the non-enterprise version, but I can easily switch to the enterprise version because I haven't built any RAID arrays yet. Is there any reason to pick one over the other?

My computer is basically a photo studio with gaming capability, so the storage is very important. Also, corrupting the OS install would take me at least an entire weekend to rebuild because I don't have it imaged. So unfortunately, the guess and check method isn't an option here.

Please advise.

Thanks!

 

[cin19]

If you still use the win8.1 pro, get the IRST https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23496&ProdId=2101&lang=eng&OSVersion=%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09%09%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09&DownloadType=

 

[USAFRet]

If you're considering a RAID array, you also need to generate a regular backup routine.

A RAID 1 (which it seems you are considering) only potentially helps in the case of a drive fail.
It is not a backup.

Any accidental deletions, malware, virus, corruption....is simply duplicated across two drives.

 

[Eggz]

Thanks for chiming in, guys. I'll quickly address the responses, and then explain what I did so that people with this problem on an X79 setup can see what to do.

As for the first comment,

If you still use the win8.1 pro, get the IRST https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23496&ProdId=2101&lang=eng&OSVersion=%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09%09%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09&DownloadType=

Thanks, but I already have that. It's in the OP:

The version of Inel's Rapid Store I have installed is the non-enterprise version

Now for the second comment,

If you're considering a RAID array, you also need to generate a regular backup routine.

A RAID 1 (which it seems you are considering) only potentially helps in the case of a drive fail.
It is not a backup.

Any accidental deletions, malware, virus, corruption....is simply duplicated across two drives.

Thanks for the reminder, but I am aware of what RAID 1 is and how it differs from backups, which I do periodically create. I was just trying to find out whether the distinction between IRST and RSTe matter for my use scenario.

Got it working, which posed a new set of problems that I also solved

. . . After researching it more last night and doing a little thinking, I concluded that the warning about having to reinstal the OS if I switch between IRST and RSTe will not apply to me. The SSD with my OS was setup in AHCI mode, which is part of all RIAD protocols I'm considering, and that same SSD will remain completely separate from the RAID 1 array.

Because it will remain independant from the RAID 1 array, the Rapid Storage Technology choice I apply to the array - whether it be IRST or RSTe - won't affect the OS drive. That meant that the guess and check method actually turned out to be an option.

After looking online, I found that the RSTe actually has a few more features than IRST, while also including all of the IRST features. So I tried RSTe. However, the RSTe interface requires a lot of back end intervention, which entailed a lot more clunky software tinkering than I wanted to do (i.e. more complicated than necessary). IRST, on the other hand, provides a very elegant GUI accessible from within Windows, but that GUI is unavailable at all while running in the RSTe mode. So I had to face the tradeoff of switching back to IRST from RSTe.

It turned out that the main benefit of RSTe over IRST was that the newest version of RSTe provides TRIM support for SSDs that are included in a RAID array. But since my array consists only of HDDs, that benefit is only on paper and will not affect my use scenario at all. So I switched over to the IRST mode in order to access the benefits from having the GUI in Windows. IRST's GUI made configuration a breeze! I didn't have to press CTRL+I at the boot prompt like in the old days, even though I could have.

But once I built the array, a new problem arose. I needed to transfer everything from my existing 2TB HDD to my new 4TB RAID 1 array, which posed a new challenge because the 2TB HDD was in use by Windows OS for a variety of things.

I had previously directed all user folders, media folders, etc. to the 2TB HDD in order to limit the deterioration associated with writing to an SSD. I wanted to preserve my SSD's performance, but that meant the 2TB HDD became a quasi system drive that you can't just unplug as simply as a non-system drive (e.g. USB thumb drive). The first step I took was copying everything over from the 2TB HDD to the new 4TB RAID 1 array, which took a few hours.

My original plan from there was to just remap the 2TB HDD to a drive letter other than E:\ and then map the new 4TB RAID 1 array to the drive letter E:\ - the drive letter that the 2TB drive used to use. Many OS paths were routed to somewhere on E:\, so that drive letter needed to be on line for Windows to function properly. When I tried to change the drive letter of the 2TB drive from E:\ to something else in Windows' Disk Management utility, Windows would not let me do it - whether I booted into regular mode or into safe mode.

So I decided to just take a leap of faith and boot the machine without the 2TB drive plugged in at all. Doing that caused Windows to prompt me with voluminous error messages upon start up, but once I ignored all of them, I simply mapped the RAID 1 array to drive path E:\ and restarted the computer.

Everything booted up perfectly! Remapping the drive path to E:\ totally tricked the PC into thinking nothing changed. I spot checked a few items from each directory to which I had linked a Windows operation (e.g Desktop, My Documents, Temp, Downloads, etc.). I also check the links for media through iTunes, Lightroom, and Windows Media Center. Everything works. Yay!

Hopefully this will help someone in the future. From looking around online myself, there really isn't much information on this specific topic, so here it is. Good luck to anyone reading this!