No RAID option in Thinkpad W520 BIOS

[huberth]

There is no RAID option in my Thinkpad W520 BIOS

I only get the "ACHI" and "Compatibility" mode.

I intended to put two SSDs in RAID 0 and did not want to buy 2 mechanical HDDs.

It appears that you only get the "RAID" controller when you order the W520 with 2 mechanical HDDs and let Lenovo configure the RAID for you .

I may have to send my unit back. I am VERY disappointed that this was not made clear at the Point of Sale.

My UEFI BIOS Version  1.06  -  BIOS Date 2011-03-02

[ThorsHammer]

Do all W520's have RAID? 

I have three drives in mine.  RAID is not an option.

[Volker1]

The W520 has hardware raid only if you order it with raid enabled. 

[zaXXon]

I wonder if there is another SATA controller in the RAID enabled machines.

[erik Community SuperMod]

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ThorsHammer wrote:

Do all W520's have RAID? 

I have three drives in mine.  RAID is not an option.

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apparently not.   the HMM shows listings for both RAID and non-RAID planars.

[ThorsHammer]

Then someone needs to fix the lenovo.com buying site, again.  The current configurator is confusing people.  My interpretation of the current option showing in the configurator is that the machine will ship with RAID.  You can choose to have it arrive RAID capable but unconfigured, or buy two drives at the time of purchase and have it factory configured.

Apparently that isn't the case.

If the only way to get RAID is to buy two drives from Lenovo, a lot of people aren't going to like that option unless Lenovo lowers their drive prices to reasonable levels.

[hrana]

The lack of RAID on non-factory configured systems has been discussed on StorageReview and NotebookReview as well. I agree the configurator needs to be changed because I can also confirm that I can't enable RAID.

[pkincy]

I think the language has been changed.  It now says; Internal RAID: not enabled or Internal RAID: configured by Lenovo.

When I ordered it said something more like Internal RAID: user configured or Internal RAID: preconfigured by Lenovo.

I do forget the exact wording, but the old wording pretty clearly indicated you had it but it was just not yet configured.

My actual order however says: Internal RAID not configured.

Perry

[aofi]

I was told the W520 supports raid 1/0

What do I need to buy to implement this after buying the base model?

Moderator note; post merged to thread, subject edited

[aofi]

have you guys checked to see if it's just a different BIOS image? Seems silly to have two different motherboards, one with the raid chip and one without.