MSI GS70 - Adding second SSD for RAID

LEK-89 · 15 Jun 2014 at 16:45

Hi all,

I've managed to acquire a second 128B mSATA SSD drive to go in my GS70, my intention is to RAID it together with my original mSATA SSD drive which is running Windows 7. The newly purchased drive is totally identical to the original drive in terms of manufacturer & model.

However, I have never delved into RAID before! Could anybody guide me the way as to how I can get it set up? I've read via a few places that the SATA configuration in the BIOS needs to be changed from AHCI to RAID which I have not done as of yet due to not knowing what to do afterwards. Also, am I able to carry this out without having to re-install Windows?

Many thanks - Liam

nightmare99 · 15 Jun 2014 at 18:11

Are you looking to go RAID 0 for performance or RAID 1 for redundancy?

LEK-89 · 15 Jun 2014 at 18:30

RAID 0.

Liam

nightmare99 · 15 Jun 2014 at 21:43

To make this move you will either have to use some imaging software to back up your drive then create the RAID volume and restore the image to that or just create the RAID volume and do a clean install.

You are correct as you will have to go into the BIOS and configure a RAID 0 volume by adding both SSD drives, you just need to decide if you wish to keep your current windows installation as this will have to be imaged before hand if that is the case.

LEK-89 · 15 Jun 2014 at 21:54

nightmare99 said:
To make this move you will either have to use some imaging software to back up your drive then create the RAID volume and restore the image to that or just create the RAID volume and do a clean install.

You are correct as you will have to go into the BIOS and configure a RAID 0 volume by adding both SSD drives, you just need to decide if you wish to keep your current windows installation as this will have to be imaged before hand if that is the case.

Now I understand

I decided to change the setting in the BIOS to RAID and then I restarted, after the BIOS logo I was greeted with the CTRL+I Intel Rapid Storage Technology screen and I followed it through up to where you create a new RAID0 volume but I stopped there and read up on Google about how both drives are formatted when the new volume is created... looks like I need to make another image of my current Windows 7 setup!

Am I right thinking that once I've setup the new RAID 0 configuration, will my Acronis image still restore without a problem despite now being in a RAID configuration?

Thanks - Liam