Installed OS on small HDD - Raid on 2 x 1TB - confused.

Mel_P

Mel_P

Mel_P

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Hello,

Installed 64 bit Win 7 on a 60MB drive and now have 2 x 1TB drives on Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5. I was thinking of these as Raid0 (duplicated) but reading the book leaves me confused!

Is there an idiots guide please?

Do I need a floppy disc drive - not actually installed one.

Thanks.
 
RAID0 is striping - if you want duplication you need to set them up as RAID1 mirroring.

No need for any drivers with Windows 7 - though once installed I'd download the current Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers.
 
Oops - I do mean RAID1

How do I do it then? Not clear at all?

What are "Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers"

All seems like black magic!
 
Make sure the drives you want to RAID are plugged into the blue SATA ports on the MB, go into the bios and into 'Intergrated Peripherals' and the very top option 'SATA RAID/AHCI Mode' make sure it is in 'RAID' mode save and exit bios, after the POST you should see the raid bios come on the screen press 'Ctrl+i' to enter the RAID bios select 'Create RAID volume' then select the type of RAID you would like and which drives you would like to RAID from the options when you done that save and exit the RAID bios. You don't need the Intel matrix drivers for windows to see the RAID array as windows as build in drivers for the RAID controller but you do need the software to monitor and to tweak and monitor and rebuilt the array if you get an error or a drive fails.

Is you have to use the orange connectors on the MB there is a separate RAID bios that handles just these 4 ports which you'll find inside the main MB bios.
 
Right - I already have them plugged into blue ports - thanks - will try tomorrow!!

Can always reformat the 1TB drives if it goes ape****!

Mel
 
Word of warning:

I'm assuming you're currently set to IDE or AHCI mode in BIOS. If your Windows 7 drive is also on the same ports it will run as a single drive from the RAID controller when you make the change in your BIOS.

This means that Windows will not load, and will probably BSOD, as it hasn't installed the RAID drivers during setup. There is a work around by loading the drivers and making changes to the registry _before_ you change the BIOS to RAID mode - otherwise you're looking at a re-install to get it working.

A further option, though I'm not sure it will work and will depend on your current settings is to temporarily put the Windows disk on the JMicron ports, make sure they are set to IDE while you switch on the RAID controller on the Intel ports. Boot to Windows, let it install the RAID drivers and then I would swap the Windows disk back to the Intel ports.

Also, the Intel Matrix Storage Manager is simply a driver package from Intel. Go to their site select downloads and your motherboard chipset i.e. X58 and you will find it. It updates the standard drivers and also installs the monitoring tool. From my own testing performance is improved using these drivers.

Finally be aware that when you create the RAID array any data on those drives may be lost. I'd ensure you have a backup before doing anything.
 
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The drives were (are) new unformatted WD 1TB just delivered from OCUK, and the OS is on a IDE 60GB drive (waiting for Crucial SSD 128 GB to arrive at OCUK).

Went through procedure as suggested by DIABLO and all seems OK - the BIOS chose the two 1TB drives and I asked it to create a RAID 1 - 1TB drive. After reboot, I then went into disk managmment and created the one partition / quick format. "Drives" then appeared in "Computer" aling side the C (OS) drive.

All seems OK - can read write to a test folder on the 1TB (931GB !!) drives. The intel matrix storage manager already seems to be installed?

Mel
 
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Just a bit unsure now - all seems to work - should I download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager v9 (latest) and install this. Can I do this without upsetting exisiting RAID - nervous!!!!

Any advice? Thanks, Mel
 
Cool. If you're in Windows and have the RAID1 visible in Disk Management then everything is fine.

There was a risk that your main boot disk with Windows was on the RAID controller but didn't have the drivers - that would cause it problems booting, but it sounds like you're past that stage.

Definitely get the ISM drivers, it won't cause any problems to your new RAID array - but as I said earlier, performance is slightly better and gives you the RAID monitoring tools. It's really no different to how and why you would update your graphics card drivers from the default Windows ones.
 
ChileanLlama said:
Definitely get the ISM drivers, it won't cause any problems to your new RAID array - but as I said earlier, performance is slightly better and gives you the RAID monitoring tools.
Click to expand...

Installed - all OK and reported OK by ISM.

Now all I need is my SSD drive!!!!

Mel
 
I intend to install new Win 7 on a new SSD drive when both arrives. I presume I will need to install ISM again as part of install - together with everything else!

Mel
 
ChileanLlama said:
Yes, if it's a clean install of Win7. If you're currently running Win7 RTM then you could restore from a WHS backup on to the new drive :D
Click to expand...


No it's the 90 day enterprise version - so i think I have to do a clean install. I think I would prefer that anyway.

Mel
 
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