Turning an existing install to Raid 10

fross · 30 Jan 2009 at 19:15

Hi all,

I have a gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard and a bunch of different drives, one 1TB with my vista x64 installation on it, and 2 more data drives. I'm considering getting 3 more 1TB drives and turning it into a raid 10 array (2TB, mirrored and striped) for redundancy and performance. The motherboard says it supports raid 10 in hardware.

Is it possible to do this withj an existing installation? ie tell the motherboard hey, I want you to set up this drive onto these 4 in that configuration? The only guides I can find are how to install onto a raid array *from scratch*. Anyone who's turned a single-disk install into a raid array, I'm looking for you

Cheers,

/fross

rpstewart · 30 Jan 2009 at 23:43

The Intel Matrix Storage Console help claims it's possible but it's not something I'd fancy doing without a decent backup.

The trick is to get the system working with the SATA ports in RAID mode. It's not as difficult with Vista as it is with XP though.

cje · 30 Jan 2009 at 23:50

I've been told that a new clean install on the new raid array would be by far be your best option.

NightmareXX · 30 Jan 2009 at 23:59

I suppose you could make an image of your existing drive, install the new RAID setup and then install that image onto the RAID setup?

fross · 31 Jan 2009 at 08:55

I guess clean install is the way to go. Damn, I don't even have a floppy drive to install the drivers from, will have to hope it works from a usb key

Thanks for the feedback guys!

PistolPete · 31 Jan 2009 at 23:29

NightmareXX said:
I suppose you could make an image of your existing drive, install the new RAID setup and then install that image onto the RAID setup?

Except it would be imaged back without RAID support!

I've managed to migrate an Nvidia system from SATA in IDE mode on a single drive to a 2 disk array without reinstalling OS. It was quite easy but again not to be recommended without either a good back or your not actually bothered if you have to rebuild IF it goes wrong.

marcus_667 · 1 Feb 2009 at 00:35

i installed my Raid setup drivers via usb key with vista worked a charm

fross · 1 Feb 2009 at 16:27

Thanks Marcus, I'll be using a USB key for mine.

Route now seems to be get 3 more 1TB drives (spinpoint) and an external 500G or so, as my backup external drive recently failed, before the main ones, go figure. Backup the existing drive onto the external one, then put the 4 drives in Raid 10 and reinstall Vista, with raid drivers from the USB key.