Dell Inspiron 17R SE 7720 RAID setup?

My Inspiron 17R has no RAID option in the BIOS. I believe to access the Intel RAID settings it is necessary to have a mSATA drive installed (which I do not have installed at this time). Β When a mSATA drive is installed it seems that the acceleration option (mSATA SSD caching) may be enabled in the BIOS, after which you can also do some RAID stuff.

I ordered a nice mSATA drive to install in my 17R to see if this enables the options I am looking for… I would have liked to just use the mSATA drive out of my Lenovo X220 but I don’t care to disassemble it again to remove it. Thankfully the Dell has EASY access to the mSATA port πŸ™‚

Once my mSATA drive arrives on Wednesday I hope to be able to RAID-0 stripe my two 480GB Vertex 3 SSDs into one gargantuan volume πŸ™‚ I understand the failure risks inherent to RAID0 but for my purposes this in not particularly an issue.

Will post more once the new mSATA drive arrives, until then here are some helpful posts and forum threads on the topic!

Inspiron 17R SE - Anyway to enter RAID config?

Inspiron 17R SE – Anyway to enter RAID config?http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-inspiron-dell-studio/677856-inspiron-17r-se-anyway-enter-raid-config.htmlInspiron 17R SE – Anyway to enter RAID config? Anyone know a way to get in the raid controller config… to setup the 2 HD in Raid? I saw only once that window, and i taught i…
Dell 17R Special Edition - Notebooks

Dell 17R Special Edition – Notebookshttp://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1928443So, Dell has managed to get my attention with this bad boy.Offering a ridiculously good value laptop for under $1500.Note: $1379 with code.
How to enable Intel RST on Inspiron 17r 7720? - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

How to enable Intel RST on Inspiron 17r 7720? – Laptop General Hardware Forum – Laptop – Dell Communityhttp://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19460551.aspxTo enable Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) on my Inspiron 17R SE (7720) I have to enable RAID in the bios. But I have only 2 options in the bios voor SATA operation, ATA and…

 

4 comments

  • MrS

    Hi there,

    Have you managed to workout how to enable raid on 17r SE?

    Much appreciated!

    • Hi MrS,
      Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately, I sold my 17R SE before putting the mSATA card in and trying to enable RAID πŸ™

      However, if I hear any other news about this I will let you know! πŸ™‚

      Have a great week,
      -JD

  • LG

    Hi JD,

    Why did you sell & what did you get as a replacement? I’m also interested in your insight as why you picked this as replacement and if you have any regrets?

    thank for your time,

    LG

    • Hi LG,
      Thank you for your comment. I sold it because I needed a smaller machine for traveling/work and I was also not going to be doing much gaming in the near future :-(.

      I replaced it with a Dell Latitude E6430. The main benefits over the 17R were: dock capabilities, lighter traveling weight/size. The main drawbacks versus the 17R: screen is not quite as good, GPU is much less powerful.

      Overall I still really like the 17R SE model I just could not justify keeping it since it was just sitting around. πŸ™‚

      Thank you again for your question LG and please let me know if you have any other questions!

      Best regards,
      -JD

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