Raid setup on windows 7

[max1989]

I have 2 identical hard disk, i have windows 7, i know how to make raid settings in bios, I found raid driver here http://www.techspot.com/drivers/driver/file/information/11396/

how to install raid driver. this driver has some makedisk file asking about floppy drive, what is it, does it has to be floppy.

also when should i install raid driver, during os installation or after os installation???

 

[sminlal]

If you have one of the motherboards with the Intel RAID chipset, you shouldn't need any special drivers - they're already included in Windows 7.

 

[c_schwab]

When you install windows 7 there will be a section that asks for RAID drivers. You can install them from a USB drive then continue the installation

 

[Fohsap]

@max1989

Actually, what sminlal said wasn't entirely correct. If your motherboard predates Windows 7, the Windows 7 Installation DVD may not be able to locate generic raid drivers for your chipset prior to completion of the partitioning step in the wizard.

In this case, you have selected a driver set that is not compatible with Windows 7. Go to the manufacturer's website and locate your chipset. Select Windows 7 (64 bit or 32 bit, depending on which version of Windows 7 you plan to install) from the list of drivers avalable. If necessary, extract the driver files (i.e., from an executable or archive file). Copy the drivers to a floppy disk drive or a burnable CD.

With RAID activated in your BIOS and your array set up via your HDD manufacturer's RAID configuration tool: in the partitioning dialog under the Windows 7 installation DVD, select "advanced options". Then, click "find driver" on the bottom left-hand corner of the dialog. It will prompt you to insert your driver CD Rom. Do so. Click "browse". Locate the directory into which you have stored your driver files on the CD. Click "OK". Windows should give you several options of drivers to install. Be sure to select RAID controllers for installation at this time.

 

[Fohsap]

Remember, the drivers are usually extracted to a folder before they are installed. That folder's what matters.

 

[CCurtis]

Thanks for the info. I have an MSI GF615M-P33 v1.3 motherboard with Nvidia 7025 and Nforce 630a+. I set up a RAID 5 array at the BIOS / RAID setup level using 4 2TB drives, and want to be able to boot from it. When Windows 7 installed, it clearly saw the single large array, but once installation completed, I had only a 1.8TB "drive". From this thread I now know that I can't have a 5+TB partition, and I'm going to have to subdivide the space. However, since only 1.8TB is showing up in Disk Manager, I now gather that I didn't have the proper RAID drivers available during original Windows installation, and that I should find the right ones for my MB (that's still problematic in itself!!) and re-install, being careful to watch for the opportunity to use "Advanced Options" -- at which time I should get the RAID drivers bound in and then should be able to see a larger single volume that can be divided into 2TB chunks (since I can't use GPT because I want to be able to boot from the RAID, and while there is evidence that GPT can be booted from, it's evidently only true for 64bit systems with UEFI, which I don't have. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx).

My question is this: I've had to put at least =some= effort into updates, etc. I'd prefer not to lose all of that. Can I do a backup to an external drive, re-do the installation, and restore the backup and be back where I was, only with Disk Manager now able to make productive use of the entire array?

 

[max1989]

Best answer selected by max1989.

 

[CCurtis]

FWIW: I wound up backing up to an external drive, installing an IDE drive for the system drive (since I wanted to keep all 4 SATA connections for RAID 5), and restoring. Then I could make the RAID a GPT drive.