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Need Info on RAID Configurations

EXCellR8

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Hello, I've been looking for a definitive answer to a problem I am facing with configuring RAID on my machine. I basically need to know if it is possible to have two drives (in this case 80GB Intel SSDs) set to use RAID and, simultaneously, use a few SATA drives that are NOT using RAID? I've been told that this is both possible and impossible so I haven't been able to draw any conclusions.

I want to use RAID 0 on the SSDs to install my OS but then keep the file structure of my other disks the way they are. My understanding is if I change the setting in BIOS "configure SATA as [RAID]" will cause my disks to become corrupt? Right now they are set to "IDE" because I am not using RAID. My motherboard is the ASUS P6T (base model?) not the SE or Deluxe with the ICH10R south bridge; I am using Win7 64-bit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
 
yes, you can do that. set it as raid and build the array for the drives you want in the raid configuration and leave the other one(s) alone. funny you mention the p6t, that's what i upgraded from with 2x intel 160GB G1s in raid0 🙂
 
Well that's good news then, because I was starting to think I wasted my money on another SSD. My only concern is after setting all the SATA drives to RAID in BIOS what happens to the serial disks which already have data on them? Do they get wiped out or do they just need the drivers to work again?

Thanks for the help, I've literally been trying to figure this out for weeks!
 
once you set to raid, you reboot your system and you'll notice a raid configuration page. i think you hit control + i (it tells you), and you put your disks in an array there. as long as you don't put your old disks in an array, the data will remain in tact. after you reinstall windows, you may have to import the disk from disk management if it was a dynamic disk (i did) before the drive will show back up. that only takes like 10 seconds though.
 
okay that makes sense... the reason i didn't try it before was because i was afraid it would set them all to RAID (in the array) automatically thus wiping out all of my data. needless to say i would have been quite upset so i didn't bother trying.

one last thing... what exactly do I install for RAID drivers when I reinstall the OS? i downloaded the Intel Matrix Storage manager for my chipset and then Intel RST files. the information on Intel's site is sort of confusing and I really have no idea what either component does lol. i was told to install RST after Windows 7 had been reinstalled but what exactly is it? i have the CD that came with the SSD's are the RAID drivers on there?

now that i think about it, is it possible to install the RAID drivers now and then simply clone/image the disk partition and reapply it after the SSDs are in the RAID array? that would save me a lot of time reinstalling drivers and software etc...

thanks again for your help i really appreciate it
 
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remember chaging from IDE to RAID will render your current boot disk unusable. usually re-install fresh.

Drivers that are not in raid formation with intel ICH will be regarded as AHCI with full trim support. drives in raid formation obviously won't be raid.

IDE is not AHCI and is very very slow compared to ACHI. Enough so that i'd re-install fresh the right way.
 
alright so the two SSDs will be RAID and the other SATA drives ACHI, got it. i also have two IDE drives (i know a lot of hard drives in this machine) but those use a different controller i think. anyways, if i image my current OS drive without the MBR would it work (be bootable upon MBR-rewrite) when copied to the SSDs or no? i know i'm trying to take a big shortcut but i would much rather reinstall windows and then use TrueImage to recall my current OS. but then i would probably have problems with the RAID drivers...
 
no idea man i always do things the right way. fresh clean install that way i don't make little mistakes like IDE mode that result in extremely poor performance.

you sure AHCI mode on that ssd won't give you what you want? It's so much faster than IDE it's not funny. NCQ really means alot to a SSD which can process many tasks simultaneously.

Raid is meh. more headache than value imo. i assume you are going to do raid-0 to get some benchmark queen numbers but then post a month later that due to lack of trim your performance has dropped back to crappy levels?
 
well if AHCI is that much better and more reliable than i may just go with that. i got a decent deal on a second SSD so i just figured i would RAID them and get better performance. not really into benchmarking or anything...

does switching to AHCI require I reinstall the OS as well? -and does it require any specific drivers or erase data on slave drives? i guess i could try reinstalling Windows 7 after setting BIOS to AHCI and then try to recall the image with the new MBR or however that works. if it doesn't boot i will just reinstall everything or try a startup repair or something.
 
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ok thanks for the info guys... appreciate it. i am going to experiment with this for the next few weeks and see which configuration i like best.
 
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