Windows 7: raid0 unallocated space 700 GB

Hello, I have a set up with one SSD for windows 7 x64 and two Seagate Barracuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB HDD 3.5"

Without raid0 all is going well, when I raid0 the two Barracuda I have better performance but I have a huge unallocated space of 746.53 GB

On Windows 7 disk management the I do not have any option for the unallocated space, as all options are grey out when I right click.



When I log off windows and delete the raid0, I can see all 2795 MB of the space, if I raid them again I end up with 746 GB space which I cannot add as a simple volume nor expand the other volume.

Is there a known workaround?

Thanks

Did you initialise the RAID as GPT instead of MBR? That's the first thing that comes to mind.

Hi I will look on it, I didn't even know the difference

well I don't even have the option of converting it to GPT. The strange thing is that if I delete the raid configuration, I have all the volume available in two disks.

Well I exited windows, delete raid0 set through BIOS and logged in Windows.

Then went to disk management and selected "New stripped Volume" from both disks (both unallocated at the time).

Windows warned me that need to convert both disks to dynamic disks in order to complete. I choose yes and now I gained back the unallocated space - but I did the raid0 from inside windows not from the BIOS, is it possible?

Please look at the snap shot of the disk management and confirm that I am on raid0, thanks.

Yes, Windows supports creation of RAID0, RAID1 and JBOD in Home Premium and Professional, and RAID5 in server versions.

Thanks stormkitty. So its the same as I would have raid them through BIOS? Dynamic disks have any disadvantage apart from the fact that you cannot install operating system?

None that I'm aware of, carries same risks/rewards as standard RAIDs formed in BIOS/etc. Somebody else will correct me if I'm wrong.