Win7 and enabling raid

DarkGuarDNDarkGuarDN
edited December 2009 in Science & Tech
ok, so I think I know what the answer to my question is, but maybe someone knows of a work-around or something. The problem: I have Windows 7 installed on my i7-920, Asus P6t Deluxe V2 mobo (X58 chipset), 6gb DDR3 ram, and 500gb HDD. I recently came across 3 640GB hdd's that I now want to try out a RAID 5 array. However, I originally installed Win7 without enabling the RAID controller and had the SATA controller emulate IDE (instead of RAID or AHCI). I have the 500gb drive plugged into the first SATA port.

So I plugged in all the drives and switched the bios setting from IDE to RAID and on first boot up, windows BSOD right after the windows start up screen and reboots. If I set it back to IDE windows boots up just fine. So I'm thinking this has to do with having a driver for the RAID controller.

I have tried downloading drivers and installing them, but they all say I don't meet the requirements to install the driver (both from the Asus site and the Intel site). Is there a way to install the driver into Win7 w/o having to reinstall it? I know when you first install windows it asks if you need to have a driver for your SATA controller, but since I am doing this after the fact, I don't have that option. So do you guys think I have to reinstall Win7 so I can enable the RAID controller? Thanks for your help

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    You have to reinstall Windows 7, and completely format all the disks to add them to a RAID volume.
  • SerpSerp Texas Member
    edited December 2009
    Does he have to completely reformat if he just wants to make the raid with the 3 drives and leave the 500gb drive as the boot drive?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2009
    Windows has to be reinstalled for the proper driver setup, and the 640s have to be reformatted to create the RAID volume.
  • SerpSerp Texas Member
    edited December 2009
    If he's using the onboard Intel raid controller it'll format the drives after you create the raid. I've only ever created a raid with all drives formatted so I'm not 100% sure about when you have another drive already with an OS installed.


    sorry for hijacking your thread Dark:respect::respect::respect:

    /hidesinacorner
  • DarkGuarDNDarkGuarDN
    edited December 2009
    Serp wrote:
    If he's using the onboard Intel raid controller it'll format the drives after you create the raid. I've only ever created a raid with all drives formatted so I'm not 100% sure about when you have another drive already with an OS installed.


    sorry for hijacking your thread Dark:respect::respect::respect:

    /hidesinacorner

    haha, no worries Serp.

    well, in the old days, when I was dumb enough to do RAID 0 (I dunno if RAID 5 makes me as dumb tho :o ) , I could just add the two drives onto the mobo without having to do anything with the main OS drive since they had separate IDE channels for the RAID controller. Now it seems that all of the SATA ports are connected to the RAID controller. So I can't just add the RAID and leave the OS drive alone.

    I was able to create the RAID array without formatting the main OS drive, but obviously, Win7 wouldn't boot up.
    Thrax wrote:
    You have to reinstall Windows 7, and completely format all the disks to add them to a RAID volume.

    thanks Thrax, I figured as much. luckily the Win7 install is quick!
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