Hot swap functionality in Intel Rapid Storage Technology

[fre_82]

Hello,

How you do hot swap an internal hard drive that is part of a RAID array with Intel RAID?

I have RAID array set up on a H67 chipset motherboard using the on board Intel RAID functionality. All the 4 internal drives are directly connected to the SATA ports of the motherboard (no eSATA). However I can't seem to find how to eject a drive from the array while the pc is running.

The help function of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program says it should be under 'advanced' if I click on one of the drives shown in the right size of the program. But that function doesn't show on my install.

I've updated to the newest driver version 10.6.0.1002.

Could it be that this function only appears if you have a hard drive enclosure with a backplane that supports hot swap?

Thanks for your help

 

[tokencode]

I personally would not recommend attemping what you are doing. Power the machine down and swap the drive. If it is not in a hot-swap designed enclousure, even though it may be possible, do not attempt it. If the machine is important enough not to want to take it offline, it is definitely not something you want to have go terribly wrong (and what you're attemping to definitely could).

 

[fre_82]

I'm just testing the function out before getting a case with hot swap enclosures. There is no point in getting such a case if I have to power down anyway...

 

[tokencode]

I'm not sure if it has the capability. If it is in a hotswap enclosure, if you pull the drive the RAID controller would mark it bad and when insert the new one it should rebuild to it. Ideally you'd like to be able to tell the RAID controller what you're about to do, but I think should work either way. Its no different than a drive dying.

 

[rozz]

agreed with token. If you raid supports hot swapping, you should be fine with just unplugging it. Raid controller will recognize as bad, and will rebuild the next drive that get put back in it's place.

Be sure to unplug the SATA cable first, then pull the power on your drive.