I have built basic PC's in the past but have never used a RAID array at all. SO now I am buying parts to build my new PC, it will be an intel i7 processor. My motherboard will have RAID support which I will use instead of an aftermarket raid controller for now.
Also I plan to use 2 SSD drives in RAID-0 for my windows 7 OS. (Please note that I am aware of the issues with doing this, including lack of TRIM support when using RAID with SSD drives. I am OK with it not working as I can just re[place the drives in a year or so or wheneer they become more sluggish).
SO here is my question part. If I assemble the motherboard, PSU, processor, RAM, vidm card, etc and then go to turn the PC on, it will have the 2 SSD drives hooked up. so I assume I will then soon the BIOS screen before I install windows? How to I go about making the 2 drives work in RAID-0 at this point? I do the raid part before installing my OS right?
Please help with the steps involved from assembling the parts of the PC and then turning it on, to the part of getting the RAID-0 set up between the 2 drives and then installing my windows 7 OS from a Optical drive?
Please help, all advice, instructions, tips appreciated as long as on topic. I do not need to be told that this is a bad idea as far as if 1 drive fails I losse it all, I plan on having a disk IMAGE to be able to restore my OS and software to a new set of drives at anytime needed in the event of drive failure. Same goes for lack of TRIM support.
Thanks for reading and help =)
Best Answer
Normally you setup the machine like normal. On first boot, go into the BIOS. The BIOS setup usually has a setting as to RAID Off/0/1. Set it to 0. Then save and reboot. Upon restart, you setup the machine just like normal. The hardware raid makes the two drives to appear to be one to the operating system. At least that's how it works on the Dell's that I've seen. Sometimes the hardware raid will also push a BIOS message upon boot after the system BIOS message. If you go into that setup, sometimes there are options for things like testing the drives, getting information about the RAID, there are sometimes partitioning and formatting options as well.
Ultimately you have to boot the system to find out how it is on this specific motherboard, or download and read the user guide.