Installing Windows 7 Getting Rid of RAID

DanyD · 08 Apr 2011

Hi guys

I will be upgrading to Win7 soon from XP and i have a few questions before i jump in head first

So basicly i have a RAID0 setup at the mo on 2 500gb SATA drives and reading on here and other places tht really i gain no extra performance on it and just upping my risk of loosing my DATA. So wha i want to do is get rid of my RAID0 and install Windows to 1 drive then just use the other for games music and other stuff. Now i no 500gb is alot for just an os but i dont want to buy another HD. So do i formatt the RAID0 First then split it or how do i go about this.

Also any tips would be nice as i havent installed an OS other than XP for ages

THanks for Reading

Brink · 08 Apr 2011

Hello Dany,

You would need to split/delete the RAID in the RAID setup screen at boot first. Usually you have a key combination like CNTL+I that you press quickly when you see the RAID screen at boot to enter the RAID setup screen. From here, you would just split/delete the RAID.

From this point, you would just boot from your Windows 7 installation disc, and select a HDD to install Windows 7 on.

Clean Install Windows 7

or

Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Hope this helps,
Shawn

DanyD · 10 Apr 2011

Thanks mate just went through my boot setup and found my RAID settings. There are two options one delete and one is clear i guess clear would formatt the RAID but keep to together and delete will formatt and splitt the RAID but ill check the MB's manuel to check.

Thanks for the Help

Brink · 10 Apr 2011

You're welcome Dany.

Yes, that would be correct. :)

Please let us know how it went.

DanyD · 06 Jun 2011

Hi guys i have just installed windows 7 and im really enjoying it the install took next to no time and went real smooth.

One problem if u can call it tht when i split up my raid my system never formatted it. I thought tht the win7 install would ask me to formatt my drive later on in the process anyway so i just carried on. I then came to the screen where windows ask's u what hard drive u want to install in on and it showed my 2 hard drive both wit just shy of 500gb free on each. I went to formatt but it was greyed out and so i couldnt click it. I picked a drive anyway and the install went through no problems.

I got into win7 and windows only saw 1 drive i went to my computer found the other drive formatted it and called it ,E: the formatt took maybe 60 seconds. To me something seems odd is this normall :/

Brink · 06 Jun 2011

Hi Dany,

No worries. This is normal. The drive probably would have needed to be deleted before it allowed you to format it. However, when you do a clean install, Windows 7 will format the selected drive by default before it actually installs on it anyways. :)

DanyD · 06 Jun 2011

cheers for the fast reply

apart from a issuse i had wit updates not installing when i restarted my pc for the first time, Which i fixed my installing them while in windows i have had no problems at all and really enjoying the little features big step from XP

Brink · 06 Jun 2011

That's great news. It may take a bit to get use to the differences between XP and Windows 7. Please feel free to create new threads to ask any questions you may have on anything. :)