RAID0 and Windows 7

T4RG4

T4RG4

T4RG4

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22 Jul 2009
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28
Guys,

I can now (finally) get into Windows and view the RAID0 drive (my HDD is a small SSD). However, it's not showing up as an accessible drive, so what do I need to do?

In Computer Management the drive appears, and it looks as though I need to create a Striped Volume? That needs two disks, and the RAID0 setup configured during boot, pairs them anyway so I cannot add two disks together for they now appear as one :/

How do I make this RAID0 setup operational?
 
for Raid0 you need two hard drives

is that what you have ??

when you boot you creat the raid array and in windows it will look like one drive
 
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I have three disks...

1x Intel SSD as the boot drive (which works fine)
2x Spinpoint F1 for the RAID0 (configured, paired and showing the total volume in Computer/Disk Management)

It's classing the volume as 'Unallocated' though, is this the problem?
 
why are you trying to Raid your non boot drives? i would have thought the main advantage was to Raid the boot drive/OS drive

thinking about it, i dont suppose it matters, you can still raid your data drives, and get to access files and data quicker but if the raid fails you lose both drives worth of data, so remember to back them up

yes try to allocate and format
 
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Yep, to speed things up wherever possible. There is also an element of 'because you can' here :)

I have an external backup drive. If I lost the data, it would not cause me huge issues. It'd just be a pain reinstalling.


Right... how do I allocate and format? The options do not appear. Creating a Striped Volume etc are, but I suspect this is a Software approach to RAID?
 
Hurrah! It has finally worked. Managed to turn it into a Simple volume (I assume it's still RAID0?) and now its accessible as a normal drive.
 
T4RG4 said:
Hurrah! It has finally worked. Managed to turn it into a Simple volume (I assume it's still RAID0?) and now its accessible as a normal drive.
Click to expand...

cool, nice one

it must be raid, if you have double the size (both HD added together) and its showing as one drive
 
I've just checked, after having a nagging feeling, whether the drive(s) are being used in RAID0 format and I guess they are not.

Both drives are 320GB, but Windows has combined them for a 600GB device! Just when I thought all was sorted :(

Is there something you can do within Windows (I'm using Win7) to convert the device to Stripe mode or something?
 
T4RG4 said:
I've just checked, after having a nagging feeling, whether the drive(s) are being used in RAID0 format and I guess they are not.

Both drives are 320GB, but Windows has combined them for a 600GB device! Just when I thought all was sorted :(

Is there something you can do within Windows (I'm using Win7) to convert the device to Stripe mode or something?
Click to expand...

mate, that sounds right !! when you raid0 it adds both drives together to form one drive.
 
That should be RAID1 though I thought? Doh, RAID1 would be 320GB, as the 2nd drive is a mirror therefore RAID1 is 320x2! GAH! I've only gone and moved stuff around in the machine (moving SATA ports) and now Win7 reports that I have one Spinpoint at 320MB, and another at 600MB (the latter still, somehow, in RAID!?).

I guess I'll learn from this mess... once I fix the issue I've just caused myself...

No pain, no gain.
 
T4RG4 said:
That should be RAID1 though I thought? Doh, RAID1 would be 320GB, as the 2nd drive is a mirror therefore RAID1 is 320x2! GAH! I've only gone and moved stuff around in the machine (moving SATA ports) and now Win7 reports that I have one Spinpoint at 320MB, and another at 600MB (the latter still, somehow, in RAID!?).

I guess I'll learn from this mess... once I fix the issue I've just caused myself...

No pain, no gain.
Click to expand...

you have raid1 and raid0 back to front

raid1 copies one drive to the other as a backup type system so 2 x 320 shows as 320

raid0 doubles the drive sizes (2 x 320 = 600 ish) and writes/reads to both drives at the same time for extra speed.

yes, your learning, its all good :)
 
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Found out I put another HDD in the wrong SATA slot so that caused a little more confusion, it's so hard to see inside my case and everything fits quite tightly! Hohum.

My current problem is - the USB keyboard is not always recognised (active) during POST so I cannot get into the RAID controller interface!

Yet, in Windows7 I've been able to select both Spinpoints and set them as a dynamic disk, striped. This, in my mind, is what RAID does but is this a software approach to RAID and therefore not as quick as hardware?
 
i think (not 100%sure) that to do that you must have the raid setup in the bios enabled anyway

try to get in there and check..
 
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