need RAID help

[lance0802]

Hello All,
I am new to setting up a RAID array, and I am having some serious issues with a New build and install of Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

Asus P6T deluxe V2 mobo
i7 2.66
2 WD 500 GB HD
2 WD 1 TB HD

I want to set up the 500 GB as the main system drive and the 1 TB drive as a storage drive. I have set the BIOS to RAID, and set the secondary RAID screen in the POST to RAID 1 for both sets of drives.

After I got windows 7 installed, I downloaded the intel matrix manager from the ASUS website. The matrix manager recognizes both sets of drives, but windows 7 is only recognizing the primary system drive (500 GB).

I've been looking for a solution to this problem for several hours...unsuccessfully.

 

[torrentg]

Hi. Go to disk management. Assign a drive letter to the pair of drives that you don't see in Windows Explorer.

 

[Hiker Guy]

I am interested in how you resolve this, and all the steps you had to go through. I have a very similar setup (Win 7 64, P6T, 4 drives), and finally just gave up on the RAID concept. When I was reading through the P6T manual, and the Intel RAID manager pdf, it appeared I would lose my data and programs on the initial setup.

So, were all your program files on the 500 GB drive, and the RAID 1 setup copied it to the second 500 GB drive, or did you have to start all over with loading data?

 

[torrentg]

Yes, when you create a raid, it will lose any data previously on the drive(s).

As I understand it, the op installed well to a 2 drive raid and his other raid is not being seen by Windows.

So, going to disk management and assigning a drive letter should fix it.

 

[lance0802]

torrentg - thanks, that fixed the problem. I don't know why I didn't think about that earlier. Everything seems to be working now.

Hiker - This is a completely new build with all new HDs. I had NO data on any of them. If you set up a RAID system, you will lose the data that is on those drives unless you image them first. You could image your drive to an external or other drive, set up your system with RAID set in the BIOS, install W7, and copy your data from the external (or other drive) back to your 500GB.

 

[Hiker Guy]

Hiker - This is a completely new build with all new HDs. I had NO data on any of them. If you set up a RAID system, you will lose the data that is on those drives unless you image them first. You could image your drive to an external or other drive, set up your system with RAID set in the BIOS, install W7, and copy your data from the external (or other drive) back to your 500GB.

Perhaps you can answer another question for me. With a RAID 1 system you are configuring, this is duplicating your system drive, and separately your data drive.

So, if your data drive dies, the other takes over, and you can replace your failed data drive. That part I understand.

For the system drive, does this also hold true? Is the RAID 1 system drive bootable? Sorry for the dumb question, but I never really got a solid answer for this.

thx

 

[lance0802]

It is my understanding that the same is true for the system drive, and that it is bootable (I've never actually had a system drive crash in a RAID setup).

 

[tarkh]

hi 2 all.
There is other way to fix this problem.
Just boot from reanimation CD, start any Partition Disk Manager, create primary partition on your disk and then format it with NTFS file system.
Thats all. Then youll see your drive in win7 64.