[airplaneman]

I have a dual HDD external with two 1TB drives in RAID 0 in it and I want to put both of those drives into my desktop. I didn't install RAID drivers during the windows installation (using 80GB SSD for boot).

Two questions:

1. Do I need to install the RAID drivers while installing windows?
2. Do I need to format the drives to get them recognized in windows after the drivers are installed? I have a lot of data on there that I don't have a way to back up and the drives are already in a RAID configuration.

 

[brettjv]

Um ... they were in RAID on your old board or something?

Are the two drives are in a box that has has a RAID controller in it for the two discs already, or what were you using as your RAID controller?

You for sure don't have to install RAID drivers when windows is installing just for storage discs (only if the OS is physically going onto the RAID array).

However, if the RAID controller for these discs was on your old board motherboard, I hope you were running them using the Intel controller (ICH-10) otherwise you may have a problem because you can't move a RAID array to a different controller without breaking it.

If you were using Intel RAID, you just to install the Intel RAID drivers in Windows, should be on the Mobo disc I'd imagine. Also need to put SATA into RAID mode in the bios first.

If the HD enclosure has it's own controller, then most likely all you need to do is install the RAID drivers that came with the enclosure.

 

[airplaneman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brettjv Um ... they were in RAID on your old board or something? Are the two drives are in a box that has has a RAID controller in it for the two discs already, or what were you using as your RAID controller? You for sure don't have to install RAID drivers when windows is installing just for storage discs (only if the OS is physically going onto the RAID array). However, if the RAID controller for these discs was on your old board motherboard, I hope you were running them using the Intel controller (ICH-10) otherwise you may have a problem because you can't move a RAID array to a different controller without breaking it. If you were using Intel RAID, you just to install the Intel RAID drivers in Windows, should be on the Mobo disc I'd imagine. Also need to put SATA into RAID mode in the bios first. If the HD enclosure has it's own controller, then most likely all you need to do is install the RAID drivers that came with the enclosure.

I'm not sure if the external has a RAID controller..the one I have is this one.

I won't be installing windows on these disks, but I would like to install some games and applications. Can I do that without installing drivers during the windows installation?

The enclosure is plug n play, so it didn't come with any drivers.

Does the R3E use the Intel RAID controller? How do I find out if my enclosure does as well?

 

[brettjv]

Should be able to just plug it in dude. Like I said, the only time you need to install RAID drivers during windows install is when windows is being installed to the RAID set.

 

[airplaneman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brettjv Should be able to just plug it in dude. Like I said, the only time you need to install RAID drivers during windows install is when windows is being installed to the RAID set.

Ok cool, Thanks.

 

[airplaneman]

Alright, I just tried plugging in the drives, and they showed up in the BIOS but they weren't in RAID array (even though I set the SATA mode to RAID). I went to boot into windows from my SSD and I got a bluescreen as the windows logo was loading.

I restarted, made sure that the SSD was the boot drive, and that everything was connected properly and tried again...bluescreen. I unplugged the two RAIDed drives and it boots up fine. What gives? Regardless of if the drives are in RAID or not, they should still allow me to boot into windows, no?

 

[utnorris]

Did you plug them into the SATA II ports or the SATA 3 ports? Was the SSD installed with ACHI, RAID or IDE selected? If you installed the OS on the SSD while it was in IDE mode and then changed it to RAID/ACHI and booted, I believe this will cause a BS also. I would try connecting the drives to the Jmicron controller (Blue Ports) and see if you have the same issue.

 

[airplaneman]

I had the board on IDE mode when I installed the SSD...how can I fix it?

I'll try them with the blue ports, thanks.

 

[utnorris]

You would need to do a registry edit, not sure the process, but you can check the SSD threads on OCZ and it will tell you how to do it.