Data safe if temporarily remove all drives from RAID 5 array on Asus mobo?

[MarkBerrill]

First my apologies if this is in the wrong forum, wasn't sure whether to go for storage or motherboards - bit of both!!

I am using an Asus P9X79 mobo with 1 SSD connected to the intel SATA controller (C:\), 1 spindle drive connected to the second intel sata controller (D:\) and 4 drives connected to the non intel sata controller in RAID 5 (E:\).
I need to replace the SSD and want to temporarily disconnect all drives apart form the new SSD whilst re-installing Win7 Pro.

Is it safe to disconnect all the RAID drives and then reconnect them once I have installed win7 on the SSD? I would also reconnect the single spindle drive, before reconnecting the RAID drives.

Should I disconnect power and SATA cables, or would just disconnecting the SATA cables be enough? I would label all cables carefully to make sure that they were correctly re-connected.

I really appreciate some experienced input on this as i don't want to muck the RAID 5 up!!

Many thanks in advance,

Mark

 

[James Mason]

As long as the SSD isn't part of the raid there really shouldn't be any issue.
But why are you disconnecting things you dont NEED to disconnect?

 

[MarkBerrill]

Many thanks for your quick reply. The SSD isn't part of the RAID.

I tend to disconnect any drives apart from the SSD, to make sure that Windows 7 Installation doesn't install the windows 7 boot partition on another drive, and installs on the correct drive. I have seen some odd things happen over the years, and I think it was Jaquith from this forum who wrote a very detailed and interesting installation guide, which I have often referred to along with one by a guy called Sean which also offers a lot of ideas and tips. (http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds)

Maybe I am being overcautious!!