I have RAID 1 on an ASUS P5W using Intel ICH7R with XP32 as the operating system. I would like to get rid of the RAID and keep my XP32 setup on one disk and put Win7 64 on the other. I will use an external SATA HD for backing up my data. How do I "un-RAID" my disks?
Thank you for your reply. Do I reset the drives to non-RAID in Matrix Storage Manager first and then change the "Configure SATA As" option in the bios to AHCI? Or do I change the bios entry first? The whole thing makes me a little nervous. Although I have backed up my data it would be a lot simpler to just change a couple of options and have one bootable disk with all my original configurations and one (I assume) non booting disk I can reformat and install Win 7 on. By the way can you dual boot a machine with a 32 bit operating system on one drive and a 64 bit system on the other?
Thanks for your patience, they say there are no stupid questions, the stupidity lies in not asking questions.
4745454b
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Before you change the AHCI option in the driver, make sure you change the driver in windows. If windows is going to keep trying to use the AHCI driver when it loads, you should get a blue screen or a reboot while loading. To do this, go to the device manager, find your drive controller, and change it to windows default. I haven't messed with the Matrix Storage Manager, so I can't answer that question. Pure guess, if you change the bios, the MSM won't matter anymore.
pat
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- Jan 2, 2001
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You should use the RAID BIOS to break the array into single disk. Because having RAID metadata written on drive (Array information for the controller to know what kind of array, as it don't have memory to remember when the system is turned off) may cause problem with the non RAID controller. Then, disable RAID in BIOS, just leave it to nromal IDE or AHCI.
This would means reinstalling the OS. You can use BIOS own boot manager. You hit a key (depend of BIOS) and you get a boot device choice. select the boot device you want and you're good to go. This will simplify the thing as you don't need a boot manager created by one installation of windows that could cause problem if one or the other version of Windows has to be reinstalled.
I suggest to create a system partition and a data partition on each drive. You won't need a complete backup of the drive in case of problem and the OS need to be reinstalled. Formatting the system partition won't touch the data partition and all your data saved there will be safe. And they will be available for the other OS too.
This would means reinstalling the OS. You can use BIOS own boot manager. You hit a key (depend of BIOS) and you get a boot device choice. select the boot device you want and you're good to go. This will simplify the thing as you don't need a boot manager created by one installation of windows that could cause problem if one or the other version of Windows has to be reinstalled.
I suggest to create a system partition and a data partition on each drive. You won't need a complete backup of the drive in case of problem and the OS need to be reinstalled. Formatting the system partition won't touch the data partition and all your data saved there will be safe. And they will be available for the other OS too.
Hi Pat,
I understand your first paragraph and I agree with your suggestion in the third paragraph but I'm a little unclear about the second one - what exactly would mean reinstalling the OS, breaking the array?
I know what your talking about with the boot manager, unfortunately this function is buried in the BIOS setup on this machine and there is no "quick" option. However, I still may use this solution although it will be a bit of a pain. I have seen someone else suggest this approach in other thread posts.
Finally, how big should a system partition be?
Thanks
I understand your first paragraph and I agree with your suggestion in the third paragraph but I'm a little unclear about the second one - what exactly would mean reinstalling the OS, breaking the array?
I know what your talking about with the boot manager, unfortunately this function is buried in the BIOS setup on this machine and there is no "quick" option. However, I still may use this solution although it will be a bit of a pain. I have seen someone else suggest this approach in other thread posts.
Finally, how big should a system partition be?
Thanks
pat
Expert
- Jan 2, 2001
- 6,392
- 0
- 25,810
When you create an array, special instructions are written on each drive of the array, so the controller will know what these drive are for in the array. There is no other way for the controller to remember the array type you created. So, all the extra information written on the drive can cause problem when the drive is removed rom the array without having the controller to release the drive (erasing the information). Doing so may cause the loss of data, having you to install the OS again.
As for the size, it is up to you. Guess how much space you need based on the apps you need. Don't worry about the data, it can be stored safely on the non system partition
As for the size, it is up to you. Guess how much space you need based on the apps you need. Don't worry about the data, it can be stored safely on the non system partition
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