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SRCS16 Raid Controller The Intel company offers the SRCS16 raid controller with an "optional" backup battery (BBU = backup batterie unit). In case of a power black out all data in the cache memory of the controller would be lost and could not be written to hard disk any more. Intel wrote the controllers software in a way that it can be used in a production environment. The cache memory of the controller can only be activated, if the "optional" battery is connected to the device. From firmware version 713K/713N on, Intel consequently disabled even the cache memory inside the hard disk drives, because there memory chips would be affected by a power blackout too. As a result the SRCS16 without the "optional" battery is a 100% secure system which makes it up to something around 5 - 7 MB/s writing speed. Here are some hints for those who think this is a much too bad performance for a SATA RAID:

install BBU Who ever buys and mounts the battery can activate the 64MB cache in the controllers BIOS instantly.

Use Intel RAID web console The web console allows the adim to activate the cache without having the BBU installed. Works of course only if the operating system is already loaded and the console is up and running. Additionally the cache must be activated after each system start.

Switch on hard disk cache Intel offers a small program to download, with which you can reactivate the hard disks cache memory, that firmware versions 713K/N had deactivated. This is a completely free solution and gives you a huge performance advantage. However the drives can not be hot swapped any more. If you change a drives position you have to rerun the program first.