P8Z68-V PRO RAID issues

[Fitzwilliam]

Hi, all,

I recently came into possession of a Crucial M4 SSD, intending to install Arch Linux on it. That...did not pan out. Not wanting to waste the SSD, I'm now trying to use it in a RAID 0 array for Windows 7. I'm pairing it with the Crucial C300 I already have, and my mobo is the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO. I've tried finding a recent guide to doing this, but none seem to exist, and I'm at my wit's end. At this point, I can see the array in my Win 7 installation, but the boot gets stuck at the "Starting Windows" screen, and if I boot into Safe Mode, it halts at disk.sys.

Questions:

1) Is the M4/C300 pairing doomed from the start; i.e, do you need two of the EXACT same hard drives to do RAID 0?
2) Do I or do I not need to install RAID drivers during the Win 7 installation? Information conflicts on this point.
-----2a) Does anyone know exactly which driver(s) I need? The manual says I need to make a floppy using a utility on the support disc, but a) I don't have a floppy drive, b) it seems absurd that I should need one in 2011, and c) I would have to install Windows 7 to one of the SSD's simply to use the utility.
3) Am I just missing something?

I'd love any help on this one.

 

[Fitzwilliam]

Update:

I managed to find Intel's readme buried in the download form Asus's website, and I followed its instructions precisely:

1) Set RAID in BIOS
2) Make RAID array in IRST utility
3) Boot into Win 7 setup
4) Select boot drive; format
5) Select "Load driver"; select required driver
-----5a) Checked "hide drivers that are incompatibe blah" box
-----5b) The setup only showed one driver, so I picked it
6) Install Windows as normal

Same result. Anyone get this better than I do?

 

[Fitzwilliam]

Second update:

Also tried manually creating and aligning the partition with DISKPART. No change.

 

[Fitzwilliam]

Well, after a solid 48 hours of trying, I'm giving it up. Windows 7 + SSD's + RAID 0 does not seem to be a great combination. Feel free to close the thread.