Solved Windows 7 w/Raid 1 Re-install

[Steve C]

Hi folks,

I am about to do a re-install of Windows 7 on my non-raid primary hdd. I have 2x 2TB data disks that are configured as Raid 1 and Windows is managing these drives. How do I go about preserving the data on the raid drives, as I'm assuming that a fresh install of Windows will no longer recognize them as raid drives?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Golden]

I'd just like to double-check : Is this a hardware RAID (configured in the BIOS) or software RAID? Are the disks formatted as logical or primary partitions?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

I did a similar thing not that long ago. In my case I wanted to perform a clean install on my SSD, but retain all my data on my hardware-based RAID0 and RAID5, which were on other disks.

All I did was unplug the HDD's comprising the RAID arrays, did the clean install to the SSD, and then reattached the RAID disks and everything was exactly as I had it before the clean install.

I'm not sure about a software-managed RAID though. To be 100% safe, back up the data to an external disk so it can be copied back if needed.

Regards,
Golden

 

[Steve C]

I'd just like to double-check : Is this a hardware RAID (configured in the BIOS) or software RAID? Are the disks formatted as logical or primary partitions?

This is a software raid. Since my motherboard does have an Intel Matrix Manager I was thinking of using it this time around when I do re-install Windows. Could it be possible to convert the raid to hardware controlled at this point without losing any data on the drives, or does the preparation of the disks wipe them clean?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Do you do this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKDCmOBqNBY to create it?
Post screenshot of disk managemnt please

 

[Steve C]

Here is a screenshot of my disk management..

 

[Kaktussoft]

First break the mirror.

1. Right click "My Computer" and choose "Manage" -> "Storage" -> "Disk Management", right click the mirrored volumes and choose "Break Mirrored Volume" to break mirrored volumes or choose "Remove Mirror" to remove mirror. If the boot/system partition is on the mirrored volumes, you can only choose "Remove Mirror" to remove mirror. Please backup your important data before this operation.

Post screenshot of disk management afterwards

If all is fine... so you have 2 disks not mirrored. change drive letter of one of the volumes. So one volume is D other one is K for example.

Then make thos 2 disks basic instead of dynamic. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html

Post screenshot of disk management afterwards

 

[Steve C]

This is something I wanted to avoid. Right now I have 1.2 TB of data that I would need to backup with no real solution of doing so. In theory, breaking the volumes shouldn't affect the data and backing up is just a safeguard?

 

[Kaktussoft]

This is something I wanted to avoid. Right now I have 1.2 TB of data that I would need to backup with no real solution of doing so. In theory, breaking the volumes shouldn't affect the data and backing up is just a safeguard?

It's safe. But always make backup first when doing tricky things.

 

[Steve C]

Thanks very much for all your help gentlemen.