Upgrade help.

[CRH7386]

Hey everyone, I built my PC about 4 & a half years ago and I'm getting ready to upgrade but I think I'm going to run into some problems so I was hoping to get a couple questions answered.

I have an Intel e8400 with an XFX 780i motherboard (LGA 775) and I'm running Windows 7 with 2 640GB WD hard drives in Raid 0. Now, I want to upgrade to to the Intel 2500k (LGA 1155) with the ASRock P67 EXTREME4 motherboard. I've tried searching around and I can't seem to find any recent answers to this, so I'm wondering, is it possible for me keep my existing raid while switching over? From what I've read, it doesn't really seem possible but I just wanted to be sure. I can back up all the data that I need if I really have to, but if it's possible to keep my raid, it would save me a lot of time as my concern is having to reinstall all my programs and especially all my games again since a lot of them will need to be re-downloaded from Steam.

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for a way to avoid this in the future so I will always be able to swap over my raid to a new motherboard?

And finally, do I need a new copy of Windows 7? Or is it possible to use the same one I have, whether it's with the raid intact or a fresh install?

Thanks in advance for all the help!

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have an Intel e8400 with an XFX 780i motherboard (LGA 775) and I'm running Windows 7 with 2 640GB WD hard drives in Raid 0. Now, I want to upgrade to to the Intel 2500k (LGA 1155) with the ASRock P67 EXTREME4 motherboard. I've tried searching around and I can't seem to find any recent answers to this, so I'm wondering, is it possible for me keep my existing raid while switching over?

Nope. Your old chipset is NVidia, the new chipset is Intel, their RAID drivers and disk formats are not compatible.

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for a way to avoid this in the future so I will always be able to swap over my raid to a new motherboard?

Yes. Buy a hardware RAID controller card, don't use motherboard RAID. Then the RAID is transplantable to any mobo with that kind of expansion slot.

And finally, do I need a new copy of Windows 7? Or is it possible to use the same one I have, whether it's with the raid intact or a fresh install?

Depends. The retail versions of Windows can be moved between motherboards. The OEM versions are tied to the motherboard, and if you decommission or sell your old motherboard, you have to sell the OEM OS with it.

 

[CRH7386]

Nope. Your old chipset is NVidia, the new chipset is Intel, their RAID drivers and disk formats are not compatible.

Yes. Buy a hardware RAID controller card, don't use motherboard RAID. Then the RAID is transplantable to any mobo with that kind of expansion slot.

Depends. The retail versions of Windows can be moved between motherboards. The OEM versions are tied to the motherboard, and if you decommission or sell your old motherboard, you have to sell the OEM OS with it.

Okay, thanks for your help! I'll start looking for a raid controller and back up all my stuff.