Despite the warnings, I tried enabling RAID in BIOS (Intel chipset) and almost fried my Win 7 installation. So, I now believe for myself that the only way to enable RAID is to also reinstall Windows 7.
Does anyone know whether a data partition on the Windows boot drive would be affected?
Are there any clear advantages to RAID in a one-drive system? (I did not see a way to enable NCQ).
I looked into old RAID technology because of the many problems it is giving with Win7 installations. It can require reformatting the drives with loss of data to set up RAID.
It also needs two drives to be RAID, I believe, as it is redundant array.
RAID is completely redundant IMO with drive imaging now even built into Windows 7. Best to set up modern AHCI config of your SATA controllers.
Just load the AHCI drivers from your mobo CD/Downloads page into the installer.
Last edited by gregrocker; 07 Dec 2009 at 19:24.
How do I enable AHCI? I did not see it offered in the BIOS settings. Is that a limitation of the controller or the hard drive?
RAID can still perfectly valuable to increase disk performance, and drive imaging will still work with most system cloning software. That said, as SSD's drop in price, at a point in the not too distant future I'm sure performance increases from SSD's will be more affordable, and simpler than data spread over several mechanical disks
To enable AHCI (and consequently both NCQ and SATA hotswapping) you should load the appropriate driver during the earliest stages of setup at the F6 prompt.
The only settings currently offered are SATA and RAID. Are you saying I have to find a driver and use a boot disk to load rather than loading it from Windows?
Again I think you need to read your mobo manual to learn how to enable AHCI for your model, if possible.
You can also check the Support>Downloads page for your mobo model to see if there is an AHCI driver, then attempt to Upgrade the SATA controller driver via the Device Manager, since you have already installed and don't need to load it into installer.
Otherwise I'd stick with SATA as RAID requires two drives and reinstall. Why do you want RAID?
I want to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager in order to enable software NCQ, but Intel Matrix Storage Manager won't install unless the hard drive controller is in RAID or AHCI mode. AHCI mode is not available in my BIOS settings.
This explains it a bit more: AHCI Controllers? - Tech Support Forum
Here is the solution of guy who was struggling here yesterday to get RAID installed: My Windows 7 Install
Quote