RAID 0 fresh install upgrade version?

[Squeets]

OK... I am currently using a single WD Caviar Black 640GB... I just bought another and I want to RAID0...

(PC Specs: Q9550, 8GB Mushkin DDR2 1000, GTX260, Corsair 750w, Gigabyte P45 UD3P)

I had the download version of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit which I created a bootable ISO from with the guide on here...

I am going to use the on-board RAID controller for this and I just wanted to know whether I am planning on doing this right or if I am leading myself into a hole where all my pc parts fry and I waste hundreds of dollars fixing my idiot mistake...

Here goes...

-My plan was to make my bootable ISO, and put it on a disc...
-Back up the data I want to keep on my external drive...
-Turn everything off and install my second drive...
-Go into the BIOS and enable my on-board RAID controller...
-Restart and enter the RAID setup (no idea how to do this, but hopefully it happens automatically )
-Set my two drives into a RAID0 array (which will wipe out my OS and data)(is there anything else I do here?)
-Restart and wait for the error where it doesn't find my OS...
-Install my OS with the Windows 7 Upgrade ISO I created (will this work???) following the other guide here...
-Wipe the sweat from my brow if everything goes smoothly

That is my plan... I have no experience with RAID and I am not even sure if I can use my OS... But that's what I got... Can you experts tell me if I am good or if I am doomed?

 

[zigzag3143]

OK... I am currently using a single WD Caviar Black 640GB... I just bought another and I want to RAID0...

(PC Specs: Q9550, 8GB Mushkin DDR2 1000, GTX260, Corsair 750w, Gigabyte P45 UD3P)

I had the download version of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit which I created a bootable ISO from with the guide on here...

I am going to use the on-board RAID controller for this and I just wanted to know whether I am planning on doing this right or if I am leading myself into a hole where all my pc parts fry and I waste hundreds of dollars fixing my idiot mistake...

Here goes...

-My plan was to make my bootable ISO, and put it on a disc...
-Back up the data I want to keep on my external drive...
-Turn everything off and install my second drive...
-Go into the BIOS and enable my on-board RAID controller...
-Restart and enter the RAID setup (no idea how to do this, but hopefully it happens automatically )
-Set my two drives into a RAID0 array (which will wipe out my OS and data)(is there anything else I do here?)
-Restart and wait for the error where it doesn't find my OS...
-Install my OS with the Windows 7 Upgrade ISO I created (will this work???) following the other guide here...
-Wipe the sweat from my brow if everything goes smoothly

That is my plan... I have no experience with RAID and I am not even sure if I can use my OS... But that's what I got... Can you experts tell me if I am good or if I am doomed?

Make sure you have the newest RAID driver you can find and have a "working" win 7 DVD

 

[Zomby88]

You are aware that if you loose 1 of the drives your data is lost ? What is your reason for doing this ? The speed ?

You say you HAD the download version , did you test it yet ? What dload version do you have?

 

[Squeets]

You are aware that if you loose 1 of the drives your data is lost ? What is your reason for doing this ? The speed ?

You say you HAD the download version , did you test it yet ? What dload version do you have?

Well I am only using 1 drive... And it has been that way for 6 months... And before that on my last computer, I used the same single Seagate Drive for almost 2 years with no problems... I have confidence in my drives... And yep, I am doing it for speed... I love the idea of raid 5/10... But I don't have that much money right now (it is the last week of winter quarter and after spring break I have to buy books for spring quarter) so I can't buy 3 or 4 drives... Plus seeing as how I am not entirely sure how to start with RAID0, it would be a waste to buy 2 more drives at this point...

I haven't tested my DL version yet, but I followed THIS tutorial on making it into an ISO and I am putting it on a disc in a few hours (have to go get a few discs because I don't have any here) and then I will follow THIS guide to do a fresh install with Windows 7... My version is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Upgrade...

I want to do this because I just did a straight boot from in Vista upgrade when Windows 7 came out and it is just very slow... I have a netbook that I put Windows 7 on and that little thing with all of the power it doesn't have compared to my desktop boots into Windows faster than my desktop... I am tired of it...

 

[Squeets]

OK... I am currently using a single WD Caviar Black 640GB... I just bought another and I want to RAID0...

(PC Specs: Q9550, 8GB Mushkin DDR2 1000, GTX260, Corsair 750w, Gigabyte P45 UD3P)

I had the download version of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit which I created a bootable ISO from with the guide on here...

I am going to use the on-board RAID controller for this and I just wanted to know whether I am planning on doing this right or if I am leading myself into a hole where all my pc parts fry and I waste hundreds of dollars fixing my idiot mistake...

Here goes...

-My plan was to make my bootable ISO, and put it on a disc...
-Back up the data I want to keep on my external drive...
-Turn everything off and install my second drive...
-Go into the BIOS and enable my on-board RAID controller...
-Restart and enter the RAID setup (no idea how to do this, but hopefully it happens automatically )
-Set my two drives into a RAID0 array (which will wipe out my OS and data)(is there anything else I do here?)
-Restart and wait for the error where it doesn't find my OS...
-Install my OS with the Windows 7 Upgrade ISO I created (will this work???) following the other guide here...
-Wipe the sweat from my brow if everything goes smoothly

That is my plan... I have no experience with RAID and I am not even sure if I can use my OS... But that's what I got... Can you experts tell me if I am good or if I am doomed?

Make sure you have the newest RAID driver you can find and have a "working" win 7 DVD

Question about this... There are 2 drivers on Gigabytes website SATA2 RAID and SATA RAID... Would I get both or one or what? Also, will these drivers still be working when I go to RAID my drives (when my OS is wiped in the format of the two drives)?

 

[Squeets]

OK can the above poster tell me if this is a "working" W7 install?

When I put it in it launches the installer... So does that mean it will boot when doing a clean install?

 

[pparks1]

But the disc in the drive and try booting your machine to see if it boots up. That way you will know for sure.

I love the idea of raid 5/10... But I don't have that much money right now (it is the last week of winter quarter and after spring break I have to buy books for spring quarter) so I can't buy 3 or 4 drives... Plus seeing as how I am not entirely sure how to start with RAID0, it would be a waste to buy 2 more drives at this point...

Well, RAID 5 is a stripe with parity. Therefore, you usually suffer a small write performance penalty when it calculates the parity bits. RAID 10 is a stripe and then a mirror...so you end up with redundancy..but you only get 50% of your disk space usable...so that's pretty expensive for large amounts of disk space.

If you really want to have extreme performance, skip raid altogether and get yourself an SSD drive. These will usually outperform a RAID 0 array with the benefit of almost instaneous random access...which no RAID array will provide.

 

[Squeets]

But the disc in the drive and try booting your machine to see if it boots up. That way you will know for sure.

I am not going to break anything if I do that and restart my computer once it boots will I?

Also do you know the answer to the above question? Are the RAID drivers going to stay if I install them now? Because I don't have a flash drive or a floppy drive and don't feel like buying either of them...