raid-0software-raidwindows 7
I'm trying to convert my system to RAID 0 and so far I found contrasting opinions on the process. Somebody says Windows 7 can't boot from virtual volumes, somebody says it can.
My ideal setup would be two 500gb HD striped in RAID 0 with the OS and software installed on them.
Any thoughts?
I convert my comment to an answer, as the comment by @C0D3M0NK3Y confirms it.
Windows will not accept dynamic virtual disks in a RAID, but the comment by @C0D3M0NK3Y confirms that fixed-size disks used to work in XP Professional. There is therefore an excellent chance that fixed-size virtual disks will still work with RAID in Windows 7.
It is actually quite logical that Windows cannot create a RAID over dynamic disks whose size is unknown and can change at any moment.
EDIT/ADD:
Had to try it to see either way for sure, and it works (when using fixed-sized VHDs):
Host OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, with two "Basic" disks.
VM OS: Vista Ultimate.
Created two "fixed sized" VHD's of 500MB each, one on each of the host's physical disks, and attached them to the VM (as the 2nd and 3rd drives).
Initialized the new disks in the VM and then converted them to "Dynamic" disks (in Vista's Disk Management).
Then joined them together into a RAID0 (stripe):
Worked like a charm, without any need to do anything 'weird'.
This was by far the simplest solution I could find. The others involved reinstalling windows, downloading sketchy software or large registry hacks.
1) With RAID disabled, boot into Windows and start Regedit.exe
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV
3) In the right-hand column, you should see a value named Start. Double-click this entry and change the data from 1 to 0.
4) Reboot with RAID enabled – Windows should load just fine. Now install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager as you usually would. This time around, it should detect your hardware and install without any issues.
Best Answer
Ok I've actually done this for windows server 2003. I converted a Raid-5 to no raid and then back to Raid-1. The key is to have backups.
As far as I know, this only works with hardware Raid. The hardware Raid produces one virtual hard drive out of the several hard drives that are in the Raid. This virtual drive should be accessible to live cd's and such just as if it were a single drive.
I used the Acronis live CD to crate the backup of the Raid-5. CloneZilla should also be able to do a backup and restore of a Raid (if it is hardware raid) as described in their FAQ.
Once you have the backup of your current drive (no raid), you can create whatever Raid configuration you would like in the hardware raid settings manager which is either in the bios or in a menu right after the bios (creating a raid will delete all the information on the drives that you are using for raid).
Once the raid is created, you can use CloneZilla or whatever backup tool you used to restore your disk image back to the Raid virtual drive.
If the boot settings are correct, and your raid hardware supports booting hard drives (which it probably does) then your set.
By the way there are many different Raid controllers so instructions may vary. This is just how I found I was able to do it with the hardware that I was working with.
good luck.