Switching from RAID Configuration to AHCI

[jaiello]

I have my SSD drives configured as RAID 0 so my BIOS is set for RAID. If I switch over to AHCI to temporaily install a single drive (I would disconnect the RAID drives and install a single HD) and then later switch back to RAID in the BIOS will my RAID settings up be okay on my drives? I'd hate to lose the work I put into getting the OS and programs built. Maybe this is a dumb question or has an obvious answer. I need to get something off of the single drive but don't want to screw myself for it.

 

[MerrickAggie97]

you should be ok, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. I know its fine for RAID 1. Ive done that on a few occasions.

What chipset is it? IF it is a recent Intel chipset you should be ok.

I would back up your can't lose work if I were you though.

Here is another question:

Cant you hook up a single drive elsewhere?

 

[FishAk]

Cant you hook up a single drive elsewhere?

+1

But if you can't, and you write down your BIOS RAID settings, before you remove your SSDs, and than put the settings back before you plug your RAID volume back in, how would your computer know the difference?

If everything goes to hell in a hand basket, it'll be simple to just restore your OS/programs image. You obvously have a good image set, or you wouldn't be running an array.

 

[jaiello]

Great info. Thanks guys. I am going to try it this weekend after I make two more image backups just to be safe.

 

[heymrdj]

You should have no issues. The RAID data is written to both the BIOS and the drives themselves. When you're done in AHCI land, go to the BIOS and set the system to RAID, then shutdown and plug in the drives. Boot back up and the system will now scan the drives and find your RAID configuration. This happens in just seconds. The BIOS will reload the RAID information back into the BIOS for safe keeping (and faster boots) and you'll be on your way. You may have to reboot after the RAID is found and go back into the BIOS to set the boot order of your RAID array so that you don't wait for card readers and USB drives to boot first . Make sure you reinstall the drives in the right order, most RAID chipsets (even motherboard raid) can deal with the out of sequence drives and rebuild properly, but that's not always the case, best to be safe and plug them in the same order.

This is something very common. If you ever flash your motherboard's BIOS, you'll see everything goes to defaults. But when you turn RAID back on in the BIOS and boot as normal, your RAID will be there and perfectly fine.

As for experience on this: 3 MSI 890GX-G60 mainboards with RAID 0 arrays getting flashed from 1.2 to 1.4 then 1.6 BIOS's. Also ASUS M4AVT onboard RAID 1 arrays. Dell Perc 5 SCSI arrays, HP SmartArray SCSI setups, and LSI MegaRAID setups. Lots of RAID experience .

 

[jaiello]

Thanks. This is exactly the way I would expect it to work. I will be trying it this weekend.

 

[vanilla guerilla]

you can probably leave them connected. i have my sata 2 controller (ich10) set to ahci and am running a raid 0 array on it, tho the array is not my primary drive(s). i had to switch to ahci because my single 60gb ssd would not boot when the controller was set to raid, and was suprised to find that my raid 0 array still ran fine.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Why remove your RAID setup to look at a single drive? Your controller should recognize the single drive even if the controller is in RAID mode.

 

[Burner27]

+1 it should just be set as an un-RAID drive anyways

 

[jaiello]

Okay to answer a few questions. The reason to remove the RAID array was to boot from the previous drive. There was a couple of things I needed to verify since I installed the RAID array on two new SSD drives. There were a couple of programs I needed to run to deauthorize them on the old drive (iTunes for one).

So the good news is this worked exactly as vanilla_guerilla suggested. I have a Cooler Master 690 II Advanced case which has a drive bay on top that allows me to boot from it. I put that old drive in the bay changed the BIOS to ACHI and the boot drive to the drive bay and bam the system booted no problem and I was able to do my housekeeping then back out and change back to RAID and everything is fine now.

So Burner27, are you saying that I should set the BIOS back to ACHI now that the RAID array is built and it will function as a RAID set? Interesting thought. Why?

 

[Yellowbeard]

Ah, I did not realize you were wanting to boot from the single drive. Glad to see you got it sorted. Gotta love iTunes.....right?