AHCI Or RAID?

[Nasty7]

HP Pavilion Media Center m8150n

This is a bit of a Funky Old Vista Computer resurrected with Kubuntu. This thing seems to have a funky way of booting, and it's not critical but I love things when they work as expected, efficient and without drama.

I Installed in AHCI Mode but it has some funky text when booting and then goes on to boot. If I set as RAID it seems to boot normally, which goes against all other computers I've installed too.

One important question I have is: Can AHCI be switched to RAID like I did here, and not loose boot performance?
I ask because I installed in AHCI because that seems to be the preferred method, but this pc doesn't seem to like it. I switched over to RAID and it boots more normal, without the funky text screen, but does take like Two Minutes to boot. So I'm wondering if anyone thinks it is a waste of time to reinstall?

And, there is no BIOS Update, nor any drivers on the official page, well there is not official page for drivers at all.

claydoh did answer some of these questions HERE but I wanted it in a dedicated thread in case others need it and to keep it more focused for me. I think it is just a weird old HP pc that was not very popular, used lot's of components from other OEM's and they gave up on it. I would guess they did not sell lot's of these.

Thanks, Nasty7

I wonder if this has anything to do with the second storage device controller. This pc came with a second drive as some kind of entertainment center gimmick, and was set as RAID From Factory, and is Default for the BIOS also.
"STORAGE CONTROLLER (2ND) Type 1 x IDE - integrated"
HP Pavilion Media Center m8150n

[oshunluvr]

Without knowing exactly what you're solving, I generally advise to not use hardware RAID ever. When this old PC dies, so does your ability to read the drives. If it's just a single drive and a sloppy BIOS setting that's not really creating a hardware RAID setup, what's the possible harm?

[jglen490]

Without knowing exactly what you're solving, I generally advise to not use hardware RAID ever. When this old PC dies, so does your ability to read the drives. If it's just a single drive and a sloppy BIOS setting that's not really creating a hardware RAID setup, what's the possible harm?

The only valid use of RAID is for the purpose of preserving data. A two drive array of any sort of RAID configuration, whether it follows a standard RAID or someone's idea of RAID expressed with internal striping on partitions, does not preserve data in the even of a partial failure.

I've never gotten the point of a "RAID" that is solely for booting fast, because it's usually a motherboard manufacturer's gimmick that won't work on another MB when trying to access the data that was on paired drives attached to a failed MB. Booting fast is no comparison to protecting your data.

What I'm saying is that "proprietary" RAID setups which is what hardware (motherboard) solutions are based on is not appropriate for keeping your data safe, recoverable, and reliable. Especially one or two disk solutions. At least three disks in a standard RAID 5 or higher will protect your data and allow for data recovery in the event of a disk failure.