Adding a drive to a RAID 0 Intel RST set up.

[APM]

Hi all,

I have a 1TB WD Caviar Black paired with a 64GB Crucial M4 SSD in RAID 0 running Intel RST.

All good and fine apart from the accumulation of external HDD's that's starting to build up.

So thinking of rationalising I go and order a 1TB WD Green internal HDD and here I am waiting for it to arrive so I can add it to the system when the thought hits me that maybe I can't just do that without some juggling and/or acrobatics,who'd have thought something would be simple with computers right?

If it's possible I'd like to add the new drive in a non-RAID set up and just use it for storage as that way I can still back up the RAID 0 on a 1TB external drive I have here for exactly that purpose but I'm not sure if BIOS will allow that as it has already been set to RAID for the RST.

I think it will be possible to add the new drive to the existing array in RST but that would mean I'd need a new 2TB external to back up to plus there's going to be performance discrepancies between the two HDD's,not good.


If anyone has done something similar or has any experience of adding drives into an Intel RST system then I would love to hear your idea's,tips and tricks before I get stuck in myself.

Thanks.

 

[skyripper]

RAID 0 = Stripe. Half data written to each Stripe.
RAID 1 = Mirror. Data is written to both drives equally.

In both cases, both drives have to be the same size.

So I don't understand how you have a RAID0 with that setup.
Unless you mean you are using your SSD as a Cache for the 1TB WD Black.

Either way, you can just add the Green as a non-raid device and use it.

Far as I know RST doesn't allow you to add drives into an existing RAID, just create new ones to sit with your existing ones.

 

[APM]

Yes,I'm using the SSD as a cache device.

It says RAID 0 in the Intel RST management console.

That's good news then,I can just fit it,connect it up and start using it for storage with no complications?
Hope so.



Thanks

 

[wazza300]

your using raid for the cache,but its not in a normal raid 0 array

you can also cache a raid 0 array but to do that you would need to re install windows across your two hdd's then cache the raid,simpler to add in the second hdd and use normally for storage ect but it wont be accelerated like your os hdd

 

[APM]

So I just add the new drive to the system then when it's booted under Computer in the Windows 7 start menu I'll see a new drive listed as (D) ,(E) or whatever it turns up as and it's drag and drop to place files in that drive from there on in?

I had a nightmare setting this system up with the RST with countless OS installs and re-installs before everything was showing and working properly and I've been averse to tinkering with it since.

If it works like that I'll be a happy bunny and if I can take a system image to a 1TB HDD for a back up of the OS installed disk too I'll be a very happy bunny indeed.

Thank you gents.

 

[APM]

The new disk arrived,I fitted it,went to disk management and created a new simple volume.The OS assigned a drive letter and all is well.

Absolutely no reference to the Intel RST at all and I've doubled my storage capacity for an hours worth of messing about and re-assigning cables and the like as well as giving the case a good dusting.

Brilliant,just hope that the WD Green will function ok as I've seen some dodgy reviews for them since I ordered it.

Thanks again for posting.