need help setting up raid with an asus a88x pro windows ultimate

[far_side2004]

I have spent some time trying to set up raid 10 using 4 1 tb hdd, all same manufacturer, w/o success. I have Windows 7 Ultimate already on a 120gb SSD and I followed the Asus A88X-PRO Manuel to set up raid, and it works until the OS starts to boot, the computer will reset and not boot the OS. It will only boot correctly if I change the bios setting back to AHCI (default) I just updated bios to latest update and now when i change the settings to raid from AHCI the computer wont even try and boot the OS from the SSD because it wont recognize the SSD, so i still have the change the settings in bios to AHCI in order to set the SSD to boot. I'm very new to raid setup's. Please help.

 

[Alec Mowat]

You need to configure the RAID, than install the OS on the RAID.

You are probably better off in a RAID 5 IMHO.
You will get better performance and better redundancy. (well, you'll get equal performance because the onboard RAID controller is not going to keep up with the speeds of the SSD's anyway)

 

[far_side2004]

SO I cant set up the RAID after the OS was installed? I want to keep all programs and OS on my SSD, then have a RAID 10 with 4 1tb HDD drives for games, and music etc.

 

[far_side2004]

You need to configure the RAID, than install the OS on the RAID.

You are probably better off in a RAID 5 IMHO.
You will get better performance and better redundancy. (well, you'll get equal performance because the onboard RAID controller is not going to keep up with the speeds of the SSD's anyway)

SO I cant set up the RAID after the OS was installed? I want to keep all programs and OS on my SSD, then have a RAID 10 with 4 1tb HDD drives for games, and music etc.

 

[Alec Mowat]

Of course not.

A RAID 0 is a stripped RAID, it writes over both disks at the same time. This will format both disks into 1 large disk
A RAID 1 is a mirror.
A RAID 10 is a mirror that is stripped across 2 disks.

You cannot create the RAID and keep your data. Once you boot from the RAID controller, your system will no longer recognize the disks.

A RAID 10 is only going to give you 2 TB of data on your hard disk, and 1 or 2 disk redundancy, depending on which disk fails. If 1 disk in the RAID 0 fails, it could very easily corrupt your data.

A RAID 5 will strip and create a parity across all 4 disks. This will give you closer to 3 TB of a DATA, and 1 disk redundancy.

If you are using a RAID, make sure you backup all of your important data. Motherboard RAID configurations are not the most stable.

 

[far_side2004]

Of course not.

A RAID 0 is a stripped RAID, it writes over both disks at the same time. This will format both disks into 1 large disk
A RAID 1 is a mirror.
A RAID 10 is a mirror that is stripped across 2 disks.

You cannot create the RAID and keep your data. Once you boot from the RAID controller, your system will no longer recognize the disks.

A RAID 10 is only going to give you 2 TB of data on your hard disk, and 1 or 2 disk redundancy, depending on which disk fails. If 1 disk in the RAID 0 fails, it could very easily corrupt your data.

A RAID 5 will strip and create a parity across all 4 disks. This will give you closer to 3 TB of a DATA, and 1 disk redundancy.

If you are using a RAID, make sure you backup all of your important data. Motherboard RAID configurations are not the most stable.

This is still new to me. So i don't want the SSD to be part of the raid setup, I want the OS , and various programs on the SSD for speed purposes. But I do want a raid 10 for the 4 1tb HDD, I don't mind loosing the 2 drives for the setup. So If I'm understanding you correctly, I cant have both? both the SSD for OS and a separate Raid set up with the other 4 drives?

 

[Alec Mowat]

Of course not.

A RAID 0 is a stripped RAID, it writes over both disks at the same time. This will format both disks into 1 large disk
A RAID 1 is a mirror.
A RAID 10 is a mirror that is stripped across 2 disks.

You cannot create the RAID and keep your data. Once you boot from the RAID controller, your system will no longer recognize the disks.

A RAID 10 is only going to give you 2 TB of data on your hard disk, and 1 or 2 disk redundancy, depending on which disk fails. If 1 disk in the RAID 0 fails, it could very easily corrupt your data.

A RAID 5 will strip and create a parity across all 4 disks. This will give you closer to 3 TB of a DATA, and 1 disk redundancy.

If you are using a RAID, make sure you backup all of your important data. Motherboard RAID configurations are not the most stable.

This is still new to me. So i don't want the SSD to be part of the raid setup, I want the OS , and various programs on the SSD for speed purposes. But I do want a raid 10 for the 4 1tb HDD, I don't mind loosing the 2 drives for the setup. So If I'm understanding you correctly, I cant have both? both the SSD for OS and a separate Raid set up with the other 4 drives?

Let's be honest. You're probably going to make a mistake and kill your OS. You should back up any files you want to keep before messing with the RAID controller.
Just in case.

So you have 1 SSD and 4 1TB HDD's?
I assume these are all the same HD, and not four separate HD's, correct?

First thing you need to do is connect all the drives go into the BIOS and change the SATA port from AHCI to RAID
Once that's done, reboot.

When it posts this time, the RAID controller data should appear and give a configuration option.

The RAID controller BIOS is a bit messy usually, but you'll need to select the four disks you want in the raid, and configure the RAID type. Just make sure you don't select the SSD.


If you REALLY want to save yourself a headache, you can actually create a software RAID in Windows. It will probably perform better than the motherboard's pseudo RAID controller.

You can do this by setting the 4 1 TB disks offline in the Disk manager (or computer manager, right click on My Computer, click manage, or right click on the "Start Button" in 8.1), right clicking on the disk name to create a new RAID5 or stripped partition.

 

[far_side2004]

Of course not.

A RAID 0 is a stripped RAID, it writes over both disks at the same time. This will format both disks into 1 large disk
A RAID 1 is a mirror.
A RAID 10 is a mirror that is stripped across 2 disks.

You cannot create the RAID and keep your data. Once you boot from the RAID controller, your system will no longer recognize the disks.

A RAID 10 is only going to give you 2 TB of data on your hard disk, and 1 or 2 disk redundancy, depending on which disk fails. If 1 disk in the RAID 0 fails, it could very easily corrupt your data.

A RAID 5 will strip and create a parity across all 4 disks. This will give you closer to 3 TB of a DATA, and 1 disk redundancy.

If you are using a RAID, make sure you backup all of your important data. Motherboard RAID configurations are not the most stable.

This is still new to me. So i don't want the SSD to be part of the raid setup, I want the OS , and various programs on the SSD for speed purposes. But I do want a raid 10 for the 4 1tb HDD, I don't mind loosing the 2 drives for the setup. So If I'm understanding you correctly, I cant have both? both the SSD for OS and a separate Raid set up with the other 4 drives?

Let's be honest. You're probably going to make a mistake and kill your OS. You should back up any files you want to keep before messing with the RAID controller.
Just in case.

So you have 1 SSD and 4 1TB HDD's?
I assume these are all the same HD, and not four separate HD's, correct?

First thing you need to do is connect all the drives go into the BIOS and change the SATA port from AHCI to RAID
Once that's done, reboot.

When it posts this time, the RAID controller data should appear and give a configuration option.

The RAID controller BIOS is a bit messy usually, but you'll need to select the four disks you want in the raid, and configure the RAID type. Just make sure you don't select the SSD.


If you REALLY want to save yourself a headache, you can actually create a software RAID in Windows. It will probably perform better than the motherboard's pseudo RAID controller.

You can do this by setting the 4 1 TB disks offline in the Disk manager (or computer manager, right click on My Computer, click manage, or right click on the "Start Button" in 8.1), right clicking on the disk name to create a new RAID5 or stripped partition.

"So you have 1 SSD and 4 1TB HDD's?" YES
I assume these are all the same HD, and not four separate HD's, correct?Yes all 1tb WD HDD.

"First thing you need to do is connect all the drives go into the BIOS and change the SATA port from AHCI to RAID
Once that's done, reboot.

When it posts this time, the RAID controller data should appear and give a configuration option.

The RAID controller BIOS is a bit messy usually, but you'll need to select the four disks you want in the raid, and configure the RAID type. Just make sure you don't select the SSD. "

I have done all of this, but the problem is that the OS wont boot (even when I change the boot priority to the SSD) in RAID mode. I'm thinking that I need to install updated drivers for the RAID controller in the MOBO, but don't know how to do that correctly.

It's a good sugestion to use the Windows emulation of RAID, I thought about using that before, but wasn't sure if it would be better than the MOBO raid.

 

[Alec Mowat]

It is better.

A. you can move it from one windows installation to another and it will repair
B. the headache you dealing with now
C. It's faster.

My OS is on a RAID0 from the hardware, and I have two disks in a RAID0 from Windows. I noticed the Windows RAID0 has significantly faster write speeds, but similar read speeds.

Onboard RAID isn't that good, it's not a real RAID. It's the same as the Windows RAID. A dedicated RAID controller is $400 dollars and gives full performance on all drives. The onboard RAID is going to top out on the speed of the RAID itself. I use it because you can't install Windows on a Windows RAID, obviously.

You might need to fix the boot sector on the SSD if you had another drive installed while Windows was installed. It might have put the boot sector on a different disk.

This is generally something you configure before installing Windows.

I wouldn't worry about RAID drivers anymore, Windows will just go online and find them. And you aren't really dealing with a RAID card, it's just the motherboard chipset. That's more of a 90's issue.

 

[far_side2004]

It is better.

A. you can move it from one windows installation to another and it will repair
B. the headache you dealing with now
C. It's faster.

My OS is on a RAID0 from the hardware, and I have two disks in a RAID0 from Windows. I noticed the Windows RAID0 has significantly faster write speeds, but similar read speeds.

Onboard RAID isn't that good, it's not a real RAID. It's the same as the Windows RAID. A dedicated RAID controller is $400 dollars and gives full performance on all drives. The onboard RAID is going to top out on the speed of the RAID itself. I use it because you can't install Windows on a Windows RAID, obviously.

You might need to fix the boot sector on the SSD if you had another drive installed while Windows was installed. It might have put the boot sector on a different disk.

This is generally something you configure before installing Windows.

I wouldn't worry about RAID drivers anymore, Windows will just go online and find them. And you aren't really dealing with a RAID card, it's just the motherboard chipset. That's more of a 90's issue.

Thanks, this has been very helpful.