How to reset RAID 0 after clean reinstall of Windows 7??

[deltabugles]

Greetings all,

I have been reading these forums for a long time but now I am finally here needing help!

I have an MSI GT780DXR laptop in which I had a huge epic fail upon reformatting. I finally got Windows 7 reinstalled (somehow) and got my drivers installed but there is just one looming issue: my RAID 0 has failed. There is 2 500 GB internal drives in the laptop.

Here's what I get upon starting up the computer:

If you notice it still detects both drives but somehow and dor some reason the RAID stripe was broken.

Here are the options I get once getting into my BIOS (though I'm not sure if the problem can be resolved from within BIOS)


Here's what it looks like after I log in (which by the way, takes freakin forever since I restored) and open My Computer (When attempting to double click Drive E:, it prompts me to format the drive (don't think that's good))


Here's what it looks like when I open Intel Rapid Storage software:


Now when I go to open up Computer Management and see what the disk options are, I'm prompted with this message:

Would either of those 2 options help push me in the right directions if I format it that way?

Lastly, if I cancel that last message and go to look at just what is going on with the partitions and jazz, I get the Disk 0 which Windows is installed on and then Disk 1 thinks that it's 900+GB which is clearly not right (that's the total amount of avail storage, but remember I has 2 500GB internals):


Please anyone hear my plead!!!

PS, can anyone tell me why Windows takes forEVER to load ever since my restore and to as why it boots straight into PXE-2.1????:


Thank you!!!

 

[mavroxur]

You need to make the disk with serial # ending in ZX3 a RAID member disk. You select it in the Intel RAID setup and do it from there.

 

[deltabugles]

You need to make the disk with serial # ending in ZX3 a RAID member disk. You select it in the Intel RAID setup and do it from there.

How does one get to the Intel RAID setup? Is that the ctrl+I menu or is that the actual software? The thing is, when opening My Computer, Windows doesn't even recognize the second internal drive (Drive E: is not the second internal)

 

[mavroxur]

Ctrl+I is how you invoke the Intel RAID setup. It's a firmware based setup utility.

 

[deltabugles]

Ctrl+I is how you invoke the Intel RAID setup. It's a firmware based setup utility.

Thanks for your replies! So once in ctrl+I, which option do I choose? 1.) Create RAID Volume 2.) Delete RAID volume 3.) Reset Disks to non-RAID 4.) Recovery Volume Options?

 

[mavroxur]

I misunderstood your question initially. From what I can tell, it looks like you installed Windows on one of the 500GB drives, and other is part of a broken RAID volume which is offline now. Intel RAID won't let you migrate RAID levels from non-RAID to a stripe, however. More advanced RAID controllers will, but not this one.

You have a couple options -

1) Install the appropriate RAID drivers in Windows, back up the entire volume, delete and re-create the RAID array, restore the backup, and get windows working on the new volume. This may be out of the realm of most people's technical know-how, and can be done several different ways. Some people like to sysprep pre-backup, or various other means post-restore to get the install working again.

2) Back up all user data (if necessary), Delete the RAID array, create a new RAID 0 volume, reinstall windows. Easiest and most straight-forward method.

 

[deltabugles]

I misunderstood your question initially. From what I can tell, it looks like you installed Windows on one of the 500GB drives, and other is part of a broken RAID volume which is offline now. Intel RAID won't let you migrate RAID levels from non-RAID to a stripe, however. More advanced RAID controllers will, but not this one.

You have a couple options -

1) Install the appropriate RAID drivers in Windows, back up the entire volume, delete and re-create the RAID array, restore the backup, and get windows working on the new volume. This may be out of the realm of most people's technical know-how, and can be done several different ways. Some people like to sysprep pre-backup, or various other means post-restore to get the install working again.

2) Back up all user data (if necessary), Delete the RAID array, create a new RAID 0 volume, reinstall windows. Easiest and most straight-forward method.

Would deleting the RAID array eliminate Windows? Would I need to reformat the drive before deleting the RAID array or can I just jump straight into ctrl+I and delete array? My concern is, is that the 2nd 500GB drive isn't recognized (seen here: http://imgur.com/5WS9JGv), like you said, it's offline. So should I make any effort to somehow format the 2nd 500GB drive in windows, or "bring ONLINE" before deleting the RAID array?

 

[RetiredChief]

Re constructing the raid0 volume (Cntr I) will whpe everything from your disk, so yes You will need to reinstall windows.

 

[clarkjd]

If you had a working RAID-0 array, then re-installed Windows to ONE of the drives in the array(thus breaking the array) then you may have lost EVERYTHING that was stored on the Array.

I hope this is not the case, and you can recover.
Good Luck!

 

[deltabugles]

Re constructing the raid0 volume (Cntr I) will whpe everything from your disk, so yes You will need to reinstall windows.

Okay so say I delete the RAID and then recreate an array from ctrl+I, as far as I know, the only way to install windows on an internal drive is to have it in IDE mode... How do I install back onto the drive without breaking the array again?

 

[RetiredChief]

Your BIOS should be set for SATA, Raid - NOT IDE.

After creating the array and you boot o the Windows Installation disk, If it does NOT find the HDD you will need to download the "F6" driver. Putit on a thumbdrive and select custom install and check the Box that indicate you have a driver.

Alternative, is to NOT use raid0. In this case do the cntr I and delete any arrays. Then with the BIOS set to ahci do a clean windows install.

 

[deltabugles]

Your BIOS should be set for SATA, Raid - NOT IDE.

(A) After creating the array and you boot o the Windows Installation disk, If it does NOT find the HDD you will need to download the "F6" driver. Putit on a thumbdrive and select custom install and check the Box that indicate you have a driver.

(B) Alternative, is to NOT use raid0. In this case do the cntr I and delete any arrays. Then with the BIOS set to ahci do a clean windows install.

(A) Wow, that seems pretty intense. So should I download and install the F6 driver on a thumb drive before I resume to eliminate the RAID or is that hardwired into the BIOS? Would you happen to have a tutorial handy on this as it seems slightly delicate.

(B) Hm, so if I were to just delete the RAID, go ahead and clean install Windows, would I still be able to keep the 2nd 500MB as a data drive? Would that hit the computers performance very much?

 

[RetiredChief]

A) The F6 is not a hardware Bios, it is a driver that windows needs to communicate with the HDD. Windows 7 may have the driver built in and the F6 is not required.

On B) Yes once to have delete the raid0 Array, then you should be able to
1) Install windows on one of the HDD.
2) For the 2nd HDD, it will NOT show up as a drive in MY Computer. You will need Right click My Computer and select Manage, then select Disk management. You ill see a Drive 0 (your first HDD) and then Drive 1. You will need to initialize, partition and format the drive. This will then assign a drive letter and you will e able to access it form My computer.

Raid0 pretty much only improves accessing Large file structures, does very little to improve Boot time and program load times.
Raid0 will NOT: improve internet broozing, email downloads, Programs do NOT run faster, No increase in FPS for games (however Maps may load faster).

 

[deltabugles]

Best answer selected by deltabugles.

 

[deltabugles]

A) The F6 is not a hardware Bios, it is a driver that windows needs to communicate with the HDD. Windows 7 may have the driver built in and the F6 is not required.

On B) Yes once to have delete the raid0 Array, then you should be able to
1) Install windows on one of the HDD.
2) For the 2nd HDD, it will NOT show up as a drive in MY Computer. You will need Right click My Computer and select Manage, then select Disk management. You ill see a Drive 0 (your first HDD) and then Drive 1. You will need to initialize, partition and format the drive. This will then assign a drive letter and you will e able to access it form My computer.

Raid0 pretty much only improves accessing Large file structures, does very little to improve Boot time and program load times.
Raid0 will NOT: improve internet broozing, email downloads, Programs do NOT run faster, No increase in FPS for games (however Maps may load faster).

Wonderful!!!! If I could kiss you, I would! Worked like a charm. I managed to chop thru and get RAID 0 reinitialized. Thanks again!