Intel matrix raid 0 >1 "modify volume" greyed out

kbreak

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Jul 13, 2005
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I have two x 1TB drives in an HP 9160f desktop, vista 64 home, and I would like to go back to the safer and not as sexy raid 1.

However inside the Intel Matrix console, I can select the raid volume but I can't do anything but change the volume name.
boring.

What am I missing?

TIA

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e-Run-e

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Sep 15, 2009
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Kbreak,
I have the exact same problem with the exact same machine. Have you resolved the problem? If so, please share.
TIA,
e-Run-e
 

kbreak

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Jul 13, 2005
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nerp, never did.

disk management says that one drive is unallocated but on startup, bios says that the two drives are in raid.
The computer still works so I'm leaving it alone till the next windows reinstall.

good luck, let me know if you ever figure it out.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
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If I understand your post correctly, what you would like is to have the computer's RAID system convert your drives from a RAID0 to a RAID1 array, preserving everything they contain - OS, app software, data, configuration files, etc. Not gonna happen. Although I can think of some issues that would need to he handled, if I were a programmer (I am NOT) I would never try to write this conversion process - there are just too many ways your information could be destroyed forever!

The problem is that the structure of the data files on the two disks in these two versions of RAID is so different, you can't just move it around. To make a RAID1 array from your disks you really need to wipe them clean and start from scratch, so the data has to sit someplace safe in the meantime. Best plan is for you to do that yourself so you can be sure it's safe.

1. Buy / borrow / obtain somehow a reliable way to copy absolutely everything from your RAID0 array to a backup system. - or two (see below).
2. Make your complete backup, then verify that it works. You must be confident you can completely restore all your stuff on the new system. Don't forget that you will be trying to restore all this to your new disk system with NO OS running!. So the backup / restore software will have to have a way to restore to a blank new disk on its own - maybe has to load a minimal OS of its own from DVD or something.
3. Here's the paranoid me part - do #2 again - on another backup unit! I'm always more comfortable with TWO known good copies in case one develops an unexpected glitch.
4. Use your machine's RAID administration tools to break up the RAID0 array so it becomes two completely independent plain disks. They will be full of junk data you cannot use, but that does not really matter.
5. Use that RAID system again to create the new empty RAID1 array, and let it completely wipe all old data off if it wants to do that.This array will need to be used as the boot device, too. I expect that, unseen to most, this means the Partition Table and MBR of these disks have to be re-written.
6. Restore your data etc to this new "drive", the RAID1 array.
7. With luck, boot from this drive. One thing I do not know is whether the RAID drivers will co-operate. The Windows Install you have already was done to an existing RAID0 array (which is treated in many ways as one disk unit) and must have included installing RAID drivers so that Windows can use it. I expect, but cannot be sure, that the RAID drivers already installed in your old Windows version will still be able to deal with a RAID1 array managed by the same chipset and BIOS code as the old RAID0 array.

I am assuming that you know already that the amount of data already in storage on the RAID0 array is LESS than half its capacity, because that's all the space you will have in the RAID1 array you plan to make.
 

kbreak

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I have windows home server and it works perfectly.

I'm waiting till this install of windows gets too slow and then I'm going to reinstall without any RAID.... and maybe upgrade to windows 7.

WHS works perfect to do this sort of thing, just set the computer to boot off the DVD drive, pop in the provided disk and startup.
The disk will point to the WHS and start copying data over.

WHS is slow but it's fire and forget.

thanks!