SSD install with existing RAID 0 HDD (new Win 7 64 bit install)

[phalcon51]

I may have gotten ahead of myself a little bit here. I didn't find this site or the SSD Optimization Guide over at The SSD Review until after I found I had a problem. I just installed a new Intel 330 series 180 GB SSD in my Dell desktop that has an existing RAID 0 HDD setup.

But first, the details:

Approx. 2 1/2 year old Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000
Intel i7-920, 2.66 GHz, 8MB processor
8 GB 1066 RAM
Two existing Samsung HD642JJ 596 GB HDD in RAID 0 array
One new Intel 330 Series 180 GB SSD
American Megatrends BIOS v02.62
Nvidia GTX 260 GPU

First off I backed up all my essential data and removed the existing RAID 0 array via the built-in software during boot-up.

After installing the new Intel SSD in SATA port 5 I then rebooted and recreated a new 1+ TB RAID 0 array using the 2 Samsung HDD's leaving the BIOS set for RAID rather than AHCI. As far as I could tell it does not allow me to have different settings for different SATA ports - it's either RAID or AHCI for all the drives, I guess. I'm not sure if that's part of the problem. I also changed the boot priority setting putting the new SSD before the RAID drive and setting the DVD drive with the OS disk in it as the first boot device.

I rebooted to the WIN 7 disk and let it do the install which went without a hitch. Only after installing Windows and trying to install an app did I realize that the system only sees the new SSD and the RAID array doesn't appear to exist to Windows. The BIOS does recognize it during boot-up however.

I figure I did something wrong while setting things up but I'm not sure what.

Should I have set the drives to AHCI, installed Win 7 to the SSD and then created the RAID array using the built-in software during the next boot? Can I even do that?

What's the proper way to approach this?

Thanks for any help.

Gary

 

[ShintaiDK]

Did you check Windows Disk Manager?

 

[phalcon51]

No, I haven't. I wasn't even aware of it till now. Doing a Windows Help search for "disk manager" just brings up a lot of generic topics though. How do I access it and what do I do with it?

Gary

 

[ShintaiDK]

Rightclick Computer, Manage. And there is a disk management in the side panel under storage.

 

[phalcon51]

Can I assume it will be self-explanatory as to how to use it and what to do with it when I get there? (I'm at work typing on my iPad right now and don't have access to a pc to check it out)

 

[kbp]

I do believe you need the bios in RAID to make a RAID array EVEN thou you boot or primary is a single drive. And YES trim will work fine on the single drive with the bios in RAID.

 

[phalcon51]

So, I decided to back up a step.

I deleted the RAID 0 volume, booted back into the BIOS to confirm that the controller was set to RAID, rebooted again and pressed CTRL-I to recreate the RAID volume after which it continued to boot into Win 7.

Windows said it was loading the device drivers for the new drive and then said it was ready to use.

At this point it still doesn't show up in Computer or Windows Explorer. All that shows up is the C drive (the new Intel SSD) and only one of my two CD-DVD drives, apparently because I have a disk in the one that it shows but not in the other. (Previously, it seems to me that both the DVD drives would be displayed whether or not there was a disk inserted, but I digress from the problem at hand)

Before I go back into Disk Management can someone take me through the steps I need to take to make the RAID volume visible and usable in Windows?

From what I saw before, the first thing it's going to ask me to do is to initialize the drive by creating either a MBR or GPT partition. As the size of the RAID volume will be 1+ TB would it be better to use GPT?

After that step, I have no idea what to do next and would appreciate any help you folks can give me.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[bigsnyder]

If you are working just with Windows, MBR would be my choice. I don't think the RAID volume will show up until you prep it in Disk Manager (setting up partitions and formatting)

 

[phalcon51]

Thanks for all the help, I finally got it up and running through Disk Management. Now on to re-installing everything...