quick SATA RAID driver question

[AWBbox]

Ok, so I’m going to start my new build in a few days, just waiting for stuff to be released etc. I am used to the IDE drives of the old family pc, i.e. don't need drivers for them. My new PC's hard drives will all be SATA,

I'm getting: 150Gig Raptor X, and 400Gig storage (haven’t decided which one yet)

I know that drivers need to be installed for RAID, but I don't intend on having any RAID arrays right away, I’d only use it if I added another drive for storage, then I’d have 2 in RAID 0.

Question: Should I install the RAID drivers that come with the mobo as soon as I’ve built the PC or will this only confuse things? -OR- Should I install the drivers for future use even though I won't use them immediately?

Thanks

 

[dheyworth1981]

Raid or Sata....

Using Raid on those 2 drives might be difficult as i think they will have to be the same size

Sata drivers depends on the controller card/mobo, windows might detect it, or you might have to put them on a floppy ready for the "Press F6 if using SCSI" prompt on installing windows

 

[rpstewart]

You'll not need drivers if you set the SATA ports up as non RAID, the Windows install will detect the drive(s) and allow you to partition and install as normal. I suggest that you only fit the disk you want to boot off while you install windows and then add any other drives after the install, this will prevent Windows from inadvertantly spreading the install across multiple disks.

You won't be able to go from a single storage disk to a pair in RAID0 without losing data. Having said that I wouldn't recommend RAID0 for storage anyway, you don't need the speed and the risk of losing everything as a result of a hardware failure is too high. A pair of individual storage drives would be a better option.