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#1
Unable to configure RAID on Windows 7 Home Premium
Hello everyone,
I'm about at my wit's end trying to figure out my problem and finally decided I should ask the pros for help, since an exhaustive search of the interwebs has turned up nothing. I'm a hobby PC user so please be patient with me. So here is my problem.
I recently bought all the stuff to build an HTPC/gaming rig for my girlfriend and I and I wanted to set up RAID 1 but no matter what I try, I can't get it to work. Here is my rig.
ASRock H77 Pro4-M mobo
Intel i7-2600
(2) 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm; 6.0GB/s HDD
(4) 2GB G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR 1600 RAM
EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Video Card
Cooler Master 600W Silent Power supply
I think that's about it.
Here is what I've done.
I went into bios and set my storage configuration to RAID. After, I saved and exited, and allowed the machine to reboot. When it did, I pushed Ctrl + I to enter the RAID volume setup menu. I labeled the volume, chose RAID 1, selected my drives, selected my size, and saved and exited. Then I booted from my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (Dell OEM, if that matters). I selected my regional settings, and when prompted, accepted the terms and selected "Custom" install. At the drive select screen, I saw one disk, which I believe is what I should see. I highlighted the drive and selected "Load Drivers." I used the driver labeled with the arrow in the attatched image. I got it from my mobo's website found here ASRock > Products > H77 Pro4-M. After the driver loaded, I removed the USB drive, hit "Refresh" and selected the Drive 0. When I clicked next, I got an error that read "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition. See the setup log files for more Information." No matter what I did, I could not proceed past this point. I decied to try a software RAID. I reset everything in BIOS to ACHI (I think that is what it was labeled as), and then proceeded to boot from the windows CD. This time, I saw both drives. I was able to select Disk 0 and install windows. Afterwards, I got all my drivers loaded and then tried to use Intel Rapid Storage to create a software RAID. However, when I started the utility, I found that I don't have the "Create" button. So it seems I can't even try to create a software RAID. I have looked in the disk manager of windows and the option to create a mirrored volume is greyed out.
As I've stated, I'm totally lost on what to do. Hopefully one of you tech savy individuals can help me out.
Thanks in advance.
Mike H.