Windows 7: Can you install software raid 0 for c:?

I want to set up a raid 0 during the install for my c partition on Win 7 can this be done?

If not what I will do is install on a parition on one drive and then after I have installed set up some stripped partition and hack the registery and change the locations of the Windows folder to be on the stripped partitions after copying them of course. This is just not a very nice way of doing it.


My mobo doesn't support hardware raid so that is why I am trying to implement software raid and I have a second hardrive.

Windows 7 doesn't much care for RAID, which is dated technology now that drive imaging is built in.

If you lose one HD, you lose everything. Better to install to one HD and back up image/files to the other.

I am wanting to do it for performance not redundancy.

Hello Billy,

Since it's a OS drive, you will not want to do a software RAID (dynamic partition) with it. You will not be able to start up Windows 7 afterwards if you do.

You will need to use hardware RAID instead by either using a motherboard that supports it, or installing a RAID controller card to use.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

What kind of performance gains have you seen with RAID before?

Thanks Brink so it sounds like you are saying that if your motherboard does not support hardware raid then you can use a dedicated raid controller and this will work, would you expect to configure the raid in the bios after installing the device?

The RAID controller will have it's own setup key combination that you would press to enter it's setup during boot instead of through BIOS, but from there you can setup RAID for the drives to install Windows 7 on. If your motherboad has a spare one, I would recommend a PCI-E RAID controller instead of PCI one for better bandwidth.

No I don't have a spare pci-e slot on my motherboard.
After reading What is PCI Express? A Layman's Guide to High Speed PCI-E Technology-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com I am thinking it may be a waste of time as the sata speed is significantly higher than the pci speed. Also I would probably be a waste of time buying a pci card as I will probably upgrade my motherboard some time when i'm not stingy and then I will have to buy a pci-e card to get sick performance.

Does it work like this, if you had a pci-e x 16 you could put a pci-e x8 device in it at it would just run at the slower speed as there physically the same slot right?

One would have to wonder why they make sata pci raid cards.

Would a Solid State Drive be a good idea for C:

Actually I have been lying I just realized I do have a pci-e 1x

Billy, may I ask what performance gains you have experienced before by using RAID array with Windows 7?

We see so many problems with RAID in Windows 7 installs that it would be nice to know the benefits as well, since you are wililng to go to so much trouble to get it.