RAID after installing the OS?

[mm2112]

I just installed Windows 7 on an OCZ SSD and wanted to RAID 0 two WD Caviar Black-1 TB HDDs but found out that you have to do this before installing the OS.

I am using an Asus P6T Deluxe V2 board and was wondering if I could unplug the SATA port to the SSD, boot into the BIOS, set the SATA config to RAID, then reboot and RAID the WD HDDs that are still connected using the Intel driver. Then, reboot after re-plugging in the SSD. Would this just mess up everything? What other solutions are there? Clone my OS and reinstall?

 

[lysinger]

If I understand what you are trying to do, I recommend a reinstall

You would have to turn RAID on in your BIOS and it will affect all drives connected to your SATA controller. The SSD can be a standalone logical drive and the 2 WD drives can be made into a RAID 0 logical drive.

Windows will probably need to load a new driver to access the HD controller that it did not detect on initial install hence the probable need to reinstall Windows. RAID controllers also have a nasty habit of wiping out all data on drives when you configure or reconfigure a drive.

The good news is that Windows 7 doesn't take long to reinstall and has a pile of storage drivers already built in and should see both drives (the SSD and logical WD array).

 

[mm2112]

that's what I figured, thanks. Could I clone my existing Windows installation and re-load that image after I reinstall to save time?

 

[lysinger]

In my experience, that would take more time because you would still have the storage driver issue (my experience being on Pre win7 PCs and servers, I've not done a repair install on win7 yet). At best it would just work. At worst you would have to do an installation repair. I'd like to know what happens if you turn on your raid and try to boot it up, just make sure you have a good backup of any important data before you do this.

 

[Kari]

edit nevermind
edit2 actually do mind

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/196922-14-switching-storage-controllers-reinstalling-windows#t1806473

PROBLEM: You have a pre-installed system running on a controller that is not set to RAID. You wish to switch your controller mode to RAID. (OR: you have a new controller that is RAID and a system that is not recognizing it). You may be getting "Bootmanager not found" errors or similar.

SOLUTION: You need to install the RAID drivers in your system. This can be done easily during a new system install but is slightly trickier if you have a pre-existing system -- see method below.

METHOD:

1. Retrieve your Windows install/rescue disk (or, in Windows 7, make a new one via Control Panel/System/Backup and Restore).

2. Locate and download the RAID drivers for your system and place them on floppy or USB drive. Shut down your computer.

3. Load the new controller or switch the controller setting to RAID.

4. Enter your BIOS and set the boot disk to your CD/DVD drive. Start using your resuce/Windows CD

5. The rescue CD can now be used to install the new drivers off the flash card.

6. Restart with your hard drive as the boot. DONE.

So as an example, which worked for me..

I have a ICH10 southbridge on an Asus mobo. I went to the Asus site and downloaded the RAID driver package. This included a utility that would set up a flash drive with the drivers (there is also a way to do this, per the mobo manual, via the BIOS). After loading a flash drive, I burned a Windows 7 rescue disk. I think restarted, entered the BIOS, switched my controller from IDE to RAID, switched my boot disk to the CDROM, and loaded the rescue CD. At one of the prompts, I selected "Load Third Party Drivers" and then used the flash drive to add them in. I restarted the computer off the hard drive and my system successful loaded.

This took me two days to figure out but once I came across the right solution, it was a very, very quick and easy fix!

edit3
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976/en-us
and this might help as well, though it's mainly about going from ide mode to ahci mode, it also mentions raid...

 

[miller2112]

wow, thanks! I'll give this a shot

 

[mm2112]

Best answer selected by mm2112.