Setting up RAID 0 with Vista already installed

Mike1983

Mike1983

Mike1983

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Hello

As per the title, I've already got Vista installed on my system and it's been running for a while now and is just set up how I like it with all my apps etc. I intend to clone my current system disk and install it on either a single Velociraptor 300 or 2x 150's in RAID 0. The only problem is I can't find a decent guide anywhere detailing how to set up RAID with Vista already installed. All the ones I've come across are for when starting from scratch on either XP or Vista.

The relevant parts of my system are detailed below

* Vista Ultimate 64
* Abit IP35 Pro motherboard
* 1x system HDD and 1x storage HDD

Can anyone please describe the general procedure for setting up RAID with this Vista / IP35 Pro combination? Unfortunately I'm interested in the procedure right from installing / connecting the drives but the general procedure rather than in depth technical detail would be great.

Thanks
 
You would have to start from scratch matey.

Thats as far as i know anyways.

Clean install. When you add drives to a raid array it erases what ever is on them.
 
Thanks

Wow I assumed you could set up RAID within Windows and then clone the existing system disk onto the new volume with Acronis?

Oh well, guess it's a single Velociraptor then, don't want the hassle of a full install again.
 
You CAN set up a new RAID 0 array and then clone over your existing system using Acronis, however that would require a third hard drive, at least during the process to store your current system on. You are quite correct that this needs to be done within Windows also as your Windows install needs to have the new raid array drivers installed, prior to cloning, otherwise it won't boot afterwards
 
Thanks Pandobear...

I don't understand what you mean by a third hard disk though, if you can set up RAID 0 with Vista already installed wouldn't it be the case of doing the following?

1) Set up 2x Velociraptor 150's in RAID 0
2) Verify that Vista now sees them as a single 300Gb drive
3) Start up Acronis and clone the existing system disk to the new RAID volume

----

Now secondly how to set up RAID in the first place, I assume the following after a bit more reading and possibly getting confused

1) Set the SATA mode in the BIOS from IDE to RAID
2) Install the Vista RAID drivers within Vista from the motherboard CD (or should I do this before changing the SATA mode from IDE to RAID?
3) Install, initialise and format the 2 new Velociraptors
4) How do I then tell the system that these 2 new disks are to be in RAID 0, is it an option in the BIOS or is it within Windows?

Thanks
 
If you change the SATA mode in the bios from IDE to RAID before installing the RAID drivers on to your setup then your vista install wont boot.

What pandobear means is you need somewhere to store the image of your current install that acronis creates. You can not store it on your raptor drives because when you create a RAID array it deletes all data on the drives. Your spec shows you have a 500GB and 1TB drive so you could store it on there if you have the space.
 
Once you setup RAID in the BIOS you need to go into the Intel RAID setup which shows after the first post screen, you need to press CTRL & I then setup the disc's you want to RAID, save and reboot.
 
Thanks it is getting clearer now

I understand that when setting up a RAID array the drives will be formatted but if you've already set up the array prior to cloning cant you clone directly onto it?
Assuming not then yes my system disk is the 500Gb and general storage on the 1Tb. So if I understand corect I would need to create a partition on the 1Tb, clone the system disk onto that partition and then clone that onto the new RAID array? Seems an extra step to me but I obviously don't fully understand the process.
 
Dont quite understand what you are trying to achieve mate.

If setting up new RAID array then always the best method has to a new install. I cant think of a single situation where I would want to clone a none raid OS onto a seperate drive, then copy it back to a raid array. You're asking for problems in my opinion.

If you partition a drive that you intend to use for the raid setup then you'll lose that same amount of space on any other drive you choose to use in the raid set-up.

Example

Drive 1 = 320gb
Partition = 20gb
Available for raid = 300gb

Raid that with another 320gb, then you'll only have 2x 300gb drives and not 2x 320gb.
 
Ah in that case yes you can just "clone" the drive straight on to your RAID 0. Sorry I didn't realise you had your OS on a 500GB drive, I thought you had it installed on one of the raptor drives. As above though, a clean install would be best ;)
 
As fobose says, I also had thought that you had your OS on a raptor already. There should be no problems to changing the bios for the sata controller to work in 'raid' mode, and creating the new raptor based 300 GB drive. Make sure that you still retain your OS drive as the first bootable drive. I have done this before and had no problems booting into Windows, you can then use Acronis to copy your OS across. Keep your 500 GB drive intact for a few days to ensure that you have no problems.

On Vista you may need to use your OS DVD to 'repair' the new copy once Acronis has finished. This always seems to happen, it may be that I am just using an older version of Acronis, but something to watch out for.
 
Thanks, no probs, it's hard to get across in words the exact situation I'm in.

Well I think I know what I'm going ot do now so thanks for the replies. I don't want to go down the route of aclean install as I believe it can get a bit tricky with drivers during the Vista installation and I'd also have to reinstall all my programs again.

Just backed up my system now, taken HD benchmarks and about to install the RAID drivers and change it over in BIOS to make sure everything is stable first before going ahead with things. So I'm going to go ahead as listed below

1) Install RAID drivers
2) Change over SATA mode in BIOS
3) Install and initialise disks in Vista
4) Reboot and go into Intel RAID setup after POST screen to set the two discs up in RAID
5) Verify it has worked and a 300Gb drive is present
6) Clone system disc onto the new RAID volume

Let me know if any of that seems wrong as in my head thats how things are going to go ;)

Thanks again
 
OK, just run into some "challenges"!

1) Tried to install the Matrix storage / RAID drivers from the mobo CD but get the error message regarding the PC does not meet the minimum spec. This seems to be a common error after searching the net.

2) Assuming you had to have the BIOS setting set to RAID rather than IDE before installing the above drivers I then reboot and change over the setting in the BIOS. Vista obviously does not boot due to the lack of RAID drivers.

Looks like further research is required!
 
It is worthwile installing latest Intel Matrix Manager available from the Intel site. As everyone else is saying, Vista has native support for the ICH9 which is the hard drive controller on a P35 board.
 
Pandobear said:
It is worthwile installing latest Intel Matrix Manager available from the Intel site. As everyone else is saying, Vista has native support for the ICH9 which is the hard drive controller on a P35 board.
Click to expand...

Ofcoarse it is, Windows Drivers are always crap basic and lacking in performance (only a n00b would install say a Sound or GPU Driver from Windows Update) ;)
 
On the contrary, the windows update drivers would be stable and might be of use to people who do not have performance in mind (a work station for example).
 
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