Formatting a raid hard disk

G

Guest

Guest
I have a raid 0 array installed by the oem of my computer. I am having all sorts of problems with Vista, so I want to completely format the hard drives and start again with Windows 7. How do I do this with a Raid hard drive? I don't trust windows to upgrade properly and without mistake, so I do want to essentially start again from scratch as much as possible. Thanks.
 

rollaballinc

Distinguished
Sep 4, 2010
184
0
18,690
ok well first ... you never want to put an OS on a raid . The reason for that is that if you mess up your OS with a virus you could possibly loose everything ..... you could invest in a small hard drive like 100 to 200 gb for os and use the raid 0 disks for storage ....
 

Allnsmth

Distinguished
Feb 7, 2011
19
0
18,510
Hi,
First and foremost, backup all the data from the hard drive partitions that you want to format. For example, you may want to backup your ‘Documents and Settings’ folder so that you can use it on a new installation of Windows. Also remember to backup other important items like the internet browser bookmarks.
Restart your PC and enter the BIOS setup by pressing the ‘Delete’ key. Once in the setup, ensure that the boot configuration is set to allow the CD/DVD drive to boot first.
Insert the Windows installation disk in the drive and then exit the setup after saving the changes.
As your machine restarts, you should be prompted to press any key to boot from the disk. It is important to boot from the disk because you cannot format your system partition from the operating system itself.
 

hk3008

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2012
57
0
18,630
hi how are you I have a sony AR series 770 1080p laptop with dual 160g raid setup hard drives when I put the windows disc in (wich i tried without going into bios and changing the boot order) it goes the the first couple windows screens for the new windows install till it hits the select partition upgrade and where it shows the NTSC partition for the 320 total gigs it say "cannot create partition" or some other errors, I have tried taking the laptops hard drives out and plugging them into my desktop but only the secondary shows up in the other computer as well the laptop will not boot further then shortly past the bios then it goes blank and the "|" curser flashes in the left corner till you manually turn it off so..... my second question would be how do you format a primary hard drive from the laptop (or another computer for that fact) in my main computer when it won't show up ..... p.s. really need the first question answered because my desktop has quit working as well blah I turned it on a week ago and it came on for a second then turned off now it won't turn on unless I unplug it flip the power switch and and them reply it back it flip the switch then hit the power button it worked like this for 4 or 5 days then quit now after the sequence sight the power cord switch and button itll turn on for about 25 seconds reach the bios screen and turn itself off .... I ordered a POST card tester but it doesn't arrive for quite a while and I have a mortgage calculator due at any moment for my first programming class and no computer lol but any and all help would be greatly appreciated thankyou (and sorry was referenceing to the reformatting question on the initial post and decided to throw in the extra stuff, thanks again 8D )