SATA RAID drivers and a new MOBO

[I Saw OJ]

I've got an Asus MOBO with an onboard RAID controller that I have a RAID 0 running on with XP Pro installed. I have been playing with the notion of upgrading my MOBO so I could get a PCI-E video card. Would I have to reinstall windows with the new RAID drivers? Or when you install the drivers for the first time, windows just needs them for the initial install be after that?s all done no longer requires them to boot? I'm sure there?s someone out there who knows thanks!

 

[Lord Evermore]

It's not really clear what you mean, to me, but I think I figured it out.

When you boot to the XP CD, you will always need the RAID drivers, even if it's the same type of RAID controller. The installer is not using any drivers already loaded on the existing Windows installation.

Besides that, if you're moving to another type of RAID controller, even if it's from one Intel or Nvidia RAID to a newer version, you are most likely going to have to wipe the drives and rebuild the array. The new controller may not even recognize your existing RAID array, so it wouldn't even matter if the drivers were installed. If it's an entirely different brand of controller, you definitely will have to rebuild the array.

You should naturally have a backup of your system before a move no matter what. You may want to install the new RAID drivers to the system before you make the backup, if it's an add-in RAID chip. Do the backup, move the drives to the new board, and go into the RAID BIOS to see if it recognizes the existing array (if it's a different type of controller then don't even bother). If it recognizes the array, great, perform the normal steps for moving a hard drive to a new system (you can try a boot right into Windows and hope it detects everything and doesn't crash due to the hardware being too different, or do a Repair Install, or do a complete wipe and reinstall; Repair installs are my preference).

If it doesn't recognize the array, then use the BIOS to clear remove anything it does see, and build a new array. Then restore your backup onto the new array, and go about the normal process for moving a hard drive.