This section provides information about how to manage your physical hard drives, arrays, and volumes.
Managing Your Disks and Volumes
Managing the disks and volumes depends on the storage configuration of your system. You use either Dell OpenManage™ Array Manager or the Microsoft® Windows® Disk Management tool to manage disks and volumes.
Software-RAID Configuration
To manage both disks and volumes, use the Windows Disk Management tool. See "Disk Management."
NOTE: For instructions on how to determine if you have a software-RAID or a hardware-RAID NAS
system, see "Determining a NAS System's Configuration" in "NAS Manager."
Software-RAID NAS System Drive Configuration
The NAS system in a software RAID configuration contains four SATA hard drives. Each drive contains both a copy of the operating system and one or more data partitions. See Table 3-1 and Figure 3-1. Working copies of the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 operating system and boot sectors are installed on two hard drives that are in a RAID 1 mirrored configuration. An additional copy of the operating system is placed on the other two drives in RAID 1 partitions. Data can be stored on all four SATA hard drives in partitions that are configured as RAID 5 by default.
Each hard drive has front-panel LEDs that provide information about the drive and RAID volume(s). See "Front-Panel Indicators" in the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for the location of the LEDs. Table 3-2 provides the front-panel RAID volume LED codes.
Table 3-2. Front-Panel RAID Volume LED Codes
Volume Condition
LED Status Indicator Pattern
The drive bay is empty.
Off
The RAID volume is online.
Steady green
The RAID volume is rebuilding.
Blinking green
The drive has failed.
Blinking amber
Hardware-RAID NAS System Drive Configuration
A NAS system with hardware RAID configuration contains four SATA hard drives that are connected to a CERC SATA RAID controller. Unlike the software-RAID NAS system where Windows Storage Server 2003 controls the hard drives, the drives in the hardware-RAID NAS system are controlled by a RAID controller card installed in a PCI expansion slot. All four CERC-SATA hard drives appear as only two virtual disks to the operating system. See Table 3-3 and Figure 3-2. The operating system and boot sectors are installed on one RAID 5 volume that is spanned across the four CERC-SATA hard drives. Data can be stored on the other RAID 5 volume that is also spanned across the four CERC-SATA hard drives.
NOTE: RAID 1 hard-drive configurations are not supported on hardware-RAID NAS systems.
Each hard drive has front-panel LEDs that provide information about the drive and RAID volume(s). See "Front-Panel Indicators" in the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for the location of the LEDs. Table 3-4 provides the hard-drive LED codes.
Table 3-4. Front Panel Hard-Drive LED Codes
Hard Drive Condition
LED Status Indicator Pattern
The drive bay is empty.
Off
The hard drive is online and prepared for operation.
Steady green
The virtual disk is rebuilding.
Blinking green
The hard drive has failed.
Blinking amber
External Storage NAS System Drive Configuration
The NAS system in an external storage configuration uses software RAID with two internal SATA hard drives for its operating system. See Table 3-5 and Figure 3-3. The working copies of the Windows Storage Server 2003 operating system and boot sectors are installed on the two hard drives in partitions that are in a RAID 1 mirrored configuration. Data can be stored only on external storage drives attached to the system through a RAID controller.
Each hard drive has front-panel LEDs that provide information about its RAID volume. See "Front-Panel Indicators" in the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for the location of the LEDs.
NOTE: These LED status indicators only apply to the internal operating system hard drives and volumes.
For information about the external hard drive LED status indicator patterns and definitions, see your
external enclosure documentation.
Table 3-6 provides the hard drive and RAID volume LED codes.
Table 3-6. Front-Panel RAID Volume LED Codes
Volume Condition
LED Status Indicator Pattern
The drive bay is empty.
Off
The RAID volume is online.
Steady green
The RAID volume is rebuilding.
Blinking green
The drive has failed.
Blinking amber
Using Array Manager to Manage Disk Arrays
Array Manager allows you to configure your storage devices, arrays, and disks contained in your system.
NOTE: Array Manager is used for both Hardware RAID and external storage configurations.
Launching Array Manager From the NAS Manager
To manage disks, perform the following procedure:
Log into NAS Manager as an administrator.
Click the Disks tab.
Click Disks to manage disks.
When the Remote Desktop session launches, log in as an administrator.
NOTE: The NAS Manager default administrator user name is administrator and the default
password is powervault.
On hardware-RAID and external storage configuration NAS systems when the Computer
Management screen displays, click on Disk Management (Dell OpenManage Array
Manager) to manage internal and external disks and RAID groups.
The Array Manager console display uses a tree view to display storage objects in the left pane of the window and tabbed views in the right pane to display additional information about storage objects.
Managing Disk Arrays
This section describes how to use Array Manager to configure and manage arrays with the Dell™ PowerEdge™ Expandable RAID Controller 4/Dual Channel (PERC 4/DC), PERC 4/SC, and CERC-SATA controllers that are supported on your NAS system.
Creating Virtual Disks
The first step in configuring your system for improved system management is creating virtual disks.
NOTE: Virtual disks created using a supported PERC controller card cannot be created from array disks
with an aggregate size greater than 2 terabytes (TB). This limitation is a standard SCSI limitation. For
example, you cannot select more than 30 array disks that contain 73 gigabytes (GB), regardless of the
size of the resulting virtual disk. When you attempt to select more than 30 disks of this size, a message
indicates that the 2-TB limit has been reached and that you should select a smaller number of array
disks.
To create a virtual disk, perform the following steps:
Right-click an array group.
Click Create Virtual Disk to display the Create Virtual Disk Express Mode window.
NOTE: Using Express Mode to create a virtual disk selects the maximum number of disks for the
selected RAID type. To manually select the number of disks, use Advanced Mode.
Select the RAID level that you want to use for the virtual disk.
Type the name of the disk in Name and click Finish.
The virtual disk is displayed in the Array Manager console.
Deleting Virtual Disks
NOTICE: Deleting a virtual disk permanently deletes all information contained on that disk.
NOTICE: You must delete all shares and shadow copies from your volume before deleting it. If a volume
is removed before all shares of that volume have been removed, the NAS Manager might not display the
shares correctly.
Right-click the virtual disk.
Click Delete.
A confirmation dialog box appears.
Click OK to continue.
The virtual disk disappears from the right pane.
Reboot your system after deleting a virtual disk and before creating new virtual disks.
Reconfiguring and Managing Virtual Disks
This section summarizes how you can change the virtual disk configuration through the NAS Manager.
NOTE: The PERC 4/DC controller does not detect a drive status change until you attempt to read from or
write to the drive. For example, when an unconfigured drive is removed, the controller does not detect
the change until a you perform a manual rescan or read/write to the drive.
Reconfiguring a Virtual Disk
Perform the following steps to add array disks to a virtual disk or to change the virtual disk's RAID level.
NOTE: The NAS system supports RAID 1 to RAID 0 and RAID 5 to RAID 0 migrations.
Right-click a virtual disk.
Click Reconfigure.
The Virtual Disk Reconfiguration dialog box appears. The available disks are listed in the left pane. You can choose appropriate disks to add by selecting them and using Add Disk to move them to the right pane.
Select the RAID level in the Type drop-down menu.
Click OK to continue or Cancel to cancel the operation.
To view your progress, click the parent of the virtual disk.
The status of the virtual disk will be Reconstructing, and progress information displays until the Add Member operation is finished. At the end of the operation, the Type category shows the changed RAID level.
Using Change Policy
NOTE: You cannot change the Write Cache settings on a Hardware-RAID virtual disk after the arrays
have been created.
To change the cache policies of a virtual disk, perform the following steps:
Right-click a virtual disk.
Click Change Policy.
The Virtual Disk Change Policy dialog box displays.
From the pull-down menu, choose the policies you want.
You can enable or disable the write-cache or enable or disable the read-cache.
NOTE: The write-cache is enabled by default. Disabling write-cache may negatively impact your
system's performance.
Click OK to continue or Cancel to quit the operation.
When you are finished, click Properties to verify if the policy changes occurred.
Using Check Consistency
If your disk is in a degraded state, using Check Consistency might restore your disk to Ready status.
To check mirror synchronization and rebuild parity if necessary, perform the following steps:
Right-click the virtual disk to be checked.
Click Check Consistency.
The Check Consistency operation displays progress information in the right pane.
To view progress, click the parent of the virtual disk.
The status of the virtual disk is Resynching, and progress information displays until the operation is finished.
Properties
This command displays a window that shows the properties associated with the virtual disk.
Blink Virtual Disk
This command allows you to locate the array disks included in a virtual disk by blinking the LEDs on the array disks. This command automatically cancels after a short duration such as 30 or 60 seconds.
NOTE: This procedure only applies to drives on an external SCSI enclosure.
Unblink Virtual Disk
This command allows you to cancel the Blink Virtual Disk command before the 30- or 60-second time limit has been reached.
NOTE: This procedure only applies to drives on an external SCSI enclosure connected to an external
storage configuration system.
Disk Commands
Initialize
Initialize any array disk before you use it.
Perform the following procedure on any array disk on a supported RAID controller.
NOTICE: All data on the virtual disk is lost when the disk is initialized.
Right-click the array disk that you want to initialize.
Click Initialize.
The status of the disk displays Initializing in the right pane until the operation is finished.
Format
The Format command performs a low-level formatting of the array disk. To format the array disk, perform the following steps:
Right-click the disk that you want to format.
Click Format.
The right pane shows the status of the format. The status displays Formatting until the operation is finished.
Rebuild
The Rebuild command is enabled only when a disk has failed. You can rebuild only on failed disks in redundant arrays (RAID 1 or RAID 5) by performing the following steps:
Right-click the failed disk that you want to rebuild.
Click Rebuild.
In the right pane, the status of the disk is Rebuilding and a progress bar shows the percentage of completion.
NOTE: This process may take several hours.
Assign Global Hot Spare
NOTE: This procedure applies to the external storage configuration only.
A hot spare is an unused backup disk that is part of the array group. Hot spares remain in standby mode. When an array disk in a virtual disk fails, the assigned hot spare will be activated to replace the failed array disk without interrupting the system or requiring your intervention.
You can change the hot-spare disk assignment by unassigning a disk and choosing another disk to assign, as needed.
To assign a global hot spare, perform the following steps:
Right-click the array disk that you want to use as a hot spare.
Click Assign Global Hot Spare.
The Assign Hot Spare dialog box appears.
Confirm the successful completion of the operation by checking the properties displayed in
the right pane.
The status of the array disk must be Ready and the type must be Spare Array Disk.
Unassign Global Hot Spare
NOTE: This procedure applies to the external storage configuration only.
The Unassign Global Hot Spare command unassigns the hot-spare disk. To unassign the hot-spare disk, perform the following steps:
Right-click the disk that is assigned as a hot spare.
Click Unassign Global Hot Spare.
Confirm the successful completion of the operation by checking the properties displayed in
the right pane.
The status of the array disk must be Ready and the type must be Array Disk.
Prepare to Remove
Use this procedure to prepare for removing an array disk from a controller.
NOTE: This procedure only applies to drives on an external SCSI enclosure.
NOTICE: To prevent data loss, Dell recommends that you perform this operation before you remove any
physical disk from an enclosure.
Right-click the disk that you want to remove.
Click Prepare to Remove, and then click OK to continue.
When the lights on the disk you have prepared to remove stop blinking, the disk is ready to be physically removed. The disk will not be listed in the array group.
Properties
Use this command to display the array disk properties.
General Controller Commands
This section describes the general controller operations.
Rescan Controller
The Rescan Controller command can be used to check whether any new disks were attached after a configuration was set. To rescan the controller, perform the following steps:
Right-click the controller you want to rescan.
Click Rescan Controller.
After the operation is finished, the console is refreshed and the newly attached disks (if there are any) will appear under the Array Disk Group object and under the controller object.
Flush
The Flush command forces the PERC 4/DC and 4/SC controllers to write the contents of cache memory onto the virtual disks. You might want to use this option if you find your application or disks in an unstable condition.
Enable Alarm
The Enable Alarm command enables the controller alarm setting. When enabled, the alarm sounds in the event of a device failure.
To enable the alarm sound, perform the following steps:
Right-click a controller.
Click Enable Alarm.
Disable Alarm
The Disable Alarm command disables the alarm. If disabled, the alarm does not sound in the event of a device failure.
To disable the alarm sound, perform the following steps:
Right-click a controller.
Click Disable Alarm.
Rebuild Rate
The Rebuild Rate command changes the rebuild rate settings. The rebuild rate is the fraction of the compute cycles dedicated to rebuilding failed drives. A rebuild rate of 100 percent means the system is totally dedicated to rebuilding the failed drive.
During a rebuild, the complete contents of an array disk are reconstructed. A rebuild operation can occur during normal operation; however, it will degrade performance. You can reduce the rebuild rate to maintain system performance during the rebuild operation; however, a reduced rebuild rate extends the rebuild time.
NOTICE: The default rebuild rate is 30 percent. System performance might be degraded if you change
the rebuild rate to a higher value than the default.
Properties
The Properties command displays controller attributes.
To view properties, perform the following steps:
Right-click the appropriate controller.
Click Properties.
A Controller Properties dialog box appears displaying Name, Vendor, Status, Type, Firmware Version, and Cache Size of the controller.
Enclosure Management
The PERC 4/DC and 4/SC controllers and Array Manager support storage enclosure management. Array Manager displays the properties of the enclosure's fans, power supply, and temperature probes. Array Manager also notifies you of enclosure status changes through events that are displayed on the Events tab and logged in the Windows Event Log.
NOTE: This section applies only to external storage configurations.
NOTE: PowerVault™ NAS systems support only PowerVault22xS storage enclosures attached to PERC
4/SC and 4/DC RAID controllers. No other RAID controllers or storage enclosures are supported.
Enclosure Components in the Tree View
When you expand a storage subsystem in the Array Manager tree view in the left pane, you see the controllers that are attached to the storage subsystem. You can expand the controller to display the controller's channels. Expanding an enclosure channel displays the enclosure's fans, power supply, and temperature probes. Each of these objects expands to display the individual fans, power supplies, and temperature probes within the enclosure.
Thermal Shutdown
Enclosure management provides a feature that automatically shuts down the operating system, the server, and the enclosure when the enclosure's temperature reaches dangerous temperature extremes. The temperature when shutdown occurs is determined by the enclosure temperature probe's Minimum Error Threshold and the Maximum Error Threshold. These thresholds are default settings that cannot be changed.
Enclosure Fans
The fans that are installed in the enclosure are displayed under Fans in the tree view in the left pane. You can select and expand Fans to display the individual fans and their status information in the right pane. You can also expand Fans to display the individual fans in the left page.
If you right-click the Fans object or an individual fan, a context menu is displayed with a Properties option.
Enclosure Power Supplies
The power supplies that are installed in the enclosure are displayed under Power Supplies in the tree view. Select Power Supplies in the left pane to display the individual power supplies and their status information in the right pane. You can also expand Power Supplies to display the individual power supplies in the left page.
If you right-click Power Supplies or an individual power supply, a context menu displays with a Properties option.
Enclosure Temperature Probes
The temperature probes that are installed in the enclosure are displayed under Temperature Probes in the tree view. You can select Temperature Probes to display the individual temperature probes and their status information in the right pane. The status information includes the current temperature in Celsius and the warning and error thresholds for the temperature probe. The error threshold has a default value that cannot be changed. However, you can set the warning threshold. See the Set Thresholds for Temperature command in "Enclosure Commands" for information on setting the warning threshold.
Right-clicking Temperature Probes in the left pane displays a context menu with a Properties option. You can also expand Temperature Probe to display the individual temperature probes in the tree view. Right-clicking an individual temperature probe also displays a context menu with a Properties option. This option enables you to set the minimum and maximum warning threshold for the selected temperature probe.
Enclosure Commands
This section describes the commands associated with the enclosure and its fans, power supplies, and temperature probes. For the commands associated with the array disks in an enclosure, see "Disk Commands."
Right-clicking an enclosure object in the tree view displays a context menu with the enclosure commands. Right-clicking the enclosure's fans, power supplies, and temperature probes also displays a context menu for each of these components.
The enclosure's context menu items can vary depending on the model of the enclosure. The enclosure context menu might include any of the following commands:
Rescan — Checks whether any new array disks and other components such as fans or temperature probes have been added to the enclosure.
Enable Alarm — Enables an audible alarm that sounds whenever the fault LED lights.
Disable Alarm — Turns off the audible alarm settings. If the alarm is already sounding, you can turn it off with this command.
Set Tag Data — Allows you to enter or change asset information for the enclosure.
Download Firmware — Allows you to download firmware to the enclosure.
NOTE: The Download Firmware command is only available on the PowerVault 220S and
PowerVault 221S enclosures.
Set Thresholds for Temperature — Sets the minimum and maximum values for the temperature warning threshold. This command is located on the context menu for the individual temperature probes, not on the main context menu.
Disk Management
This section describes conceptual and procedural information about how to implement basic and dynamic disks using Array Manager.
Monitoring Disk Reliability
Array Manager supports Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) on array disks that are SMART enabled.
SMART performs predictive failure analysis on each hard drive and sends an alert if a hard disk failure is predicted. The RAID controllers check the array disks for failure predictions. If the RAID controller predicts a failure, it passes the information to the Array Manager. Array Manager immediately displays an alert icon for the hard drive, raises an alert under the Events tab, and puts an alert message in the Windows Storage Server 2003 Event Log.
NOTE: The supported PERC controllers do not report SMART alerts for unassigned or hot-spare hard
drives. Also, when you pause controller I/O, the controller does not send SMART alerts or events.
Managing Volumes Using Disk Management
This section describes how to use the Windows Disk Management tool to manage basic and dynamic volumes.
Accessing the Disk Management Tool
Log in to the NAS Manager as an administrator.
Click the Disks tab.
Click Disks to manage disks.
When the Remote Desktop session launches, log in as an administrator.
NOTE: The NAS Manager default administrator user name is administrator and the default
password is powervault.
When the Computer Management screen displays, click on Disk Management to manage
disks.
Initializing a Disk
When you create a virtual disk and perform a rescan in a hardware-RAID or external storage configuration or when a new disk is discovered on a system with a software-RAID configuration, the disk appears with a Disk Type of Unsigned Disk. The unsigned disk cannot be used until it is initialized.
To initialize a disk, right-click the unsigned disk. A menu displays showing the Initialize Disk command. (The Initialize Disk command appears only if a disk does not have a signature on it.) Select this command to write a signature on the disk.
After a signature is written on a disk, the disk displays as a Basic Disk. You can create partitions on the basic disk, or you can upgrade the disk to dynamic to create volumes on it.
NOTICE: In hardware-RAID configurations, the operating system disk must remain a basic disk.
However, you can upgrade all data disks to dynamic during creation by using the Windows Disk
Management tool.
Upgrading a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
Because only dynamic disks can be used for online volume extension, it is recommended that you use the Disk Management tool to upgrade all data disks on your system to dynamic. The upgrade includes new disks, which are added to the system as basic disks.
NOTICE: In hardware-RAID configurations, the operating system disk must remain a basic disk.
To upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk, perform the following steps:
Right-click the disk you want to upgrade, and then click Convert to Dynamic Disk.
When the Convert to Dynamic Disk window appears, select the disks to upgrade and
click OK.
When the Disks to Convert window appears, select the disks that you want to convert to
dynamic and click Convert.
NOTE: After a disk is upgraded to dynamic it cannot be reverted back to basic unless all volumes on that
disk are removed. Dell strongly recommends that you do not revert a disk back to basic after data
volumes are present.
Reactivating Dynamic Disks
A dynamic disk might appear as a missing disk when it is corrupted, powered down, or disconnected. You can reactivate a dynamic disk to bring it back online by performing the following steps:
Right-click the disk marked Missing or Offline dynamic disk.
Click Reactivate Disk on the menu.
Mark the disk as Online after the disk is reactivated.
Merging Foreign Disks
Dynamic disks with a foreign status are disks that have been moved from another system. You cannot reactivate a foreign disk; you must merge the disk to the system. To change the status of a foreign disk and enable it to be seen as a part of the current system, use the command Merge Foreign Disk.
Perform the following steps to merge foreign disks:
Right-click a foreign disk, and then click Import Foreign Disks.
The Import Foreign Disk Wizard is displayed.
Select the foreign disks that you would like to merge to the system.
By default all foreign disks are selected to be merged.
Click Next.
Click Next again to validate the volume status of each foreign disk.
Click Finish.
Volume Overview
A volume is a logical entity that consists of portions of one or more physical disks. A volume can be formatted with a file system and can be accessed by a drive letter.
Like disks, volumes can be basic or dynamic. Basic volumes refer to all volumes that are not on dynamic disks. Dynamic volumes are logical volumes created from dynamic disks.
It is recommended that you create all data volumes on dynamic disks. On a hardware-RAID system, only the operating system disk should remain basic.
Checking Partition or Volume Properties
Right-click the partition or volume to be checked.
Select Properties from the context menu.
The Properties window displays.
Check the properties for your volume.
Formatting a Partition or Volume
Right-click the volume or partition you want to format, and then click Format.
When a message warns that all data on the partition will be lost and asks if you want to
format the disk, click Yes.
Select NTFS as the file system type.
NOTE: Your NAS system supports only NTFS partitions. Formatting all partitions as NTFS allows for
advanced features only available under that file system.
Enter a label for the volume.
The label appears on the Array Manager console. If a name has been selected, this name appears in the Name field. You can change the name by typing a different name.
Enter an allocation size or use the default, which is automatically selected.
NOTE: If you use NTFS file system file compression on the source volume, you cannot use an
allocation unit size larger than 4 KB. Defragmenting a source volume with shadow copies causes
the difference file, which contains all changed data, to grow. If the difference file grows beyond the
allocated space, you might lose previous versions of some files. Having a large NTFS file cluster
size decreases the growth of the difference file.
Select the file system type and formatting options:
Perform a quick format — This option formats the volume or partition without scanning for bad sectors in the volume or partition. Check this box to use this format method.
NOTE: To decrease the time it takes to format your disk, use the Quick Format option.
Enable file and folder compression — This option can be used only if you selected NTFS format. Check this box to use this format method.
Click OK to begin formatting.
A progress bar displays in the list view.
Deleting a Partition or Volume
NOTICE: You must delete all shares and shadow copies from your volume before deleting it. If a volume
is removed before all shares of that volume have been removed, the NAS Manager might not display
shares correctly.
Right-click the designated volume, and then click Delete Volume.
Click Yes to delete or No to cancel.
The volume is removed immediately if you click Yes.
Working With Dynamic Volumes
Dynamic volumes are volumes created on dynamic disks using the Disk Management tool. This section discusses how to create and extend dynamic volumes.
Creating a Dynamic Volume
NOTICE: It is recommended to format the source volume where you want to enable Shadow Copies with
an allocation unit size of 16 KB or larger if you plan to defragment the volume. If you do not create this
allocation, previous versions of files may be deleted. If you require NTFS compression on the source
volume, however, you cannot create an allocation larger than 4 KB. If you defragment a volume that is
very fragmented, you may lose older versions of files.
In the bottom half of the window, right click on the basic disk that you want to make dynamic
and click Convert to Dynamic Disk.
In the Convert to Dynamic Disk window, click to select the disk(s) that you want to convert
and then click OK.
When the Disks to Convert window appears, click Convert.
Extending a Dynamic Simple or Spanned Volume
You can extend a volume only if the following are true:
The volume is formatted as NTFS.
The volume was originally created on a dynamic disk.
Unallocated space exists on a dynamic disk onto which the volume will be extended.
You cannot extend a volume if any of the following are true:
The volume is formatted as FAT or FAT32.
The volume is using software RAID (striped, mirrored, or RAID 5 volume).
Unallocated space is not available on a dynamic disk.
You can extend simple and spanned volumes on dynamic disks onto a maximum of 32 dynamic disks. However, after a volume is extended, it cannot be mirrored or striped using software RAID. Also, no portion of a spanned volume can be deleted without deleting the entire spanned volume.
Right-click the simple or spanned volume you want to extend, and then click Extend Volume.
The selected volume appears in the dialog box along with its current size.
Enter the amount to extend the volume, and then click OK.
Click OK.
The volume now shows the size of the extended volume.
For more information about extending volumes, see the context-sensitive online help.
Enabling and Disabling Hard Disk Write Cache on Software RAID NAS Systems.
Log in to the NAS Manager.
Click Maintenance→ Remote Desktop, and log in to your NAS system
NOTE: The NAS Manager default administrator user name is administrator and the default
password is powervault.
On the system desktop, right click on My Appliance and select Manage.
From the Computer Management MMC, select Device Manager from the left frame.
In the right panel, expand Disk Drives by clicking +.
A list of the hard drives attached to the integrated SATA controller is displayed.
Right click the hard drive for which you wish to enable or disable write cache, and click
Properties.
On Disk Device Properties, click the Policies tab.
Enable or disable write cache on the hard drive by checking or unchecking the box next to
Enable Write Caching on Disk.
NOTICE: Enabling write cache, which causes data to be cached by the drive before it is written to
disk, may lead to data loss if the system loses power. To prevent data loss, Dell recommends using a UPS
with your system if write cache is enabled.
If enabling write cache, select Enable Advanced Performance.
This option causes application requests to bypass disk write caching to be ignored.
