Windows 7 software raid question

[grahamie]

Im in a bit of a sticky spot i bought a revo x2 drive and have found that my motherboard is on the unsupported list (Crosshair iv extreme). However i have managed to bypass most of the issues windows 7 x64 is installed and working just fine as long as i don’t use the onboard raid feature. This is my issue, i have a 4x wd black raid 0 that i need to be active while windows is running on the revo x2. My question is can i use the windows soft raid feature to set the raid up and keep all my data in place or am i going to lose all the data that is on the raid now ?

 

[Ubrales]

If you re-setup the RAID 0, yes you will lose all data. It is better to save all data to another external drive and then setup RAID.

 

[grahamie]

Thats what i was afraid of. i was hoping when i went through the rebuild process at the point windows asks you if you wanted format the drives i would select no and all my data would stay intact but i guess that was abit hope full

 

[Ubrales]

Correct!

Just save all data to an external drive. Then you are free to do as you wish with the RAID setup. Just keep in mind that RAID 0 has no fault tolerance. RAID 1 has fault tolerance, but the total disk capacity will be cut in half. (I have RAID 1 for my data, and perform regular backups).

 

[grahamie]

ill give it a go ill back up as much as i can 4tb is a lot to back up LOL I use raid 0 for the speed i used to run raid 10 for protection but the loss of 2 tb and the speed loss just was not worth it for me as i have a seperate 2tb single drive to backup any important data
Do you have any experience with windows software raid i was wondering how the speeds are compaired to an onboard raid

 

[Ubrales]

I have an EVGA Classified motherboard, and I use on-board RAID 1 (mirroring) with 1 TB drives. In use for the past 18 months, and I am very satisfied with it. I have never bothered with the speeds because it has not been an issue for me.

I also perform frequent backups to an external drive. Alternately used Win 7 Backup, and Easus Todo Backup. Both are great.