I know this has been asked before but....

[KDH_36]

Hi,

I plan to build a new desktop in a couple of weeks. What I would like is to install Win7 x64 on a SSD and then have 3x 500GB HDD in RAID5 for storage/data. The motherboard is Asus P8P67 Pro R3, Crucial c300 64GB SSD and 3x WD Blue 500GB HDD's. The MB has built in RAID support.

As I understand it, I would need to do the following:

1). Connect the SSD to the Marvell SATA controller.
2). Connect 3x WB Blues to the Intel RAID controller in RAID5.
3). Turn the box on and jump into the BOIS.
5). Enable 'ACHI' for the SSD.
6). Enable 'RAID 5' for the 3x WD Blues.
7). Save and Exit.
8). Install Win7 on the SSD.

Is that correct or do I need to do something else?


Thanks Kevin

 

[tecmo34]

Looks good but I would it in this order...

1). Connect the SSD to the Marvell SATA controller.
3). Turn the box on and jump into the BOIS.
5). Enable 'ACHI' for the SSD.
7). Save and Exit.
8). Install Win7 on the SSD.
2). Connect 3x WB Blues to the Intel RAID controller in RAID5.
3). Turn the box on and jump into the BOIS.
6). Enable 'RAID 5' for the 3x WD Blues.
7). Save and Exit.

You want to install the OS on the SSD with nothing else connected first than connect all your other hard drives.

 

[KDH_36]

That sounds a lot better, thanks.

Looking at the MB specs again, I noticed that the Intel RAID controller has 6 SATA ports, 2 @ 6Gb and 4 @ 3Gb. Since RAID 5 uses 3 disks, if I used the Intel RAID controller, I would need to put the drives on the the 4 SATA ports, as it might not work with 2 drives at 6Gb and 1 drive at 3Gb?

Thanks

 

[sminlal]

I agree with techmo 100% - install Windows on the SSD with none of the other disks connected, then add the RAID array in afterward. If Windows sees the RAID volume when it's installing itself onto the SSD it will create the small "recovery" partition (which is also the boot partition) on the RAID array - chances are that's not what you want to do.