How should I setup my SSD and 2x750 HD's in Raid 0

[Stalzy]

This is my mother board ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 LGA 1155

I'm installing a Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive. My OS, Few currents games, and apps are going to be installed on my SSD.

My 2xWestern Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX 750GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s are going to be in Raid 0 for Video Capture/Storage.

I've never installed an SSD or even touched Raid 0 before. I get the rest of my parts in tomorrow and would like to be directed (or told) to a guide on how to properly install this the correct way without any conflicting problems. Any help would be amazing. Thank you.

 

[Dereck47]

Connect your SSD to port SATA3_0 or SATA3_1.
Connect your HDDs to ports SATA2_2 and SATA2_3.
See page 15 of your motherboard manual for the location of the ports.

Set the SATA mode of your SSD to AHCI (Page 58, Step 1).

Pages 54-57 will instruct you on how to create your RAID.

 

[Stalzy]

Why would I connect my HD's to Sata2 when they are Sata 3?

 

[RetiredChief]

Check your manual.
You have 2 x Sata 6 and 4 x Sata 3 controlled by intel.
You want your SSD on the Intel Sata 6 (1st port) and your 2 HDD on the first 2 Sata 3 ports. Set the Intel controller to Raid. Connect up the SSD (leave HDDs disconnected) install win 7 and get it set up. Intel controller will alow TRIM to pass with the controller set to Raid as long as the SSD is NOT a Member disk of a raid set up.

Connect HDDs and set up your raid volume.

Now the part I'm not sure about and that is your DVD drive. ??? will it work on the last Intel SATA 3 port with the bios set to raid for the Intel ports. If so You are all set. If not try putting the DVD on the 3rd party SATA controller - a waste of sata 6 port.

Option 2. SSD to Intel Sata 6 1st port. As before with HDDs disconnected set Bios to AHCI and install win 7. When done connect HDDs to 3rd party sata 6 controller (Set to Raid) set up raid. DVD again to last port on intel controller. This ASSUMES your 3rd party controller allows for Raid0, some donot - reason to check MB manual.

 

[Dereck47]

Why would I connect my HD's to Sata2 when they are Sata 3?

Your 2 HDDs in RAID-0 cannot spin fast enough to saturate a SATA2 port, let alone a SATA3 port.
They are SATA3 "Compatible", but not SATA3 "Capable".

But you can connect them to the SATA3 ports if you wish.

 

[Stalzy]

I first installed my OS on my SSD which is SATA3_0. After installing and updating bios/drivers. I formatted my HD's. Went back into the Bios and selected Raid Mode.

On reboot I selected the 2xWD drives to be part of the Raid 0 array and created the volume. After those changed were saved it reboots, shows the windows loading screen and I get a BSOD. I don't know what I'm doing wrong..

 

[Stalzy]

Check your manual.
You have 2 x Sata 6 and 4 x Sata 3 controlled by intel.
You want your SSD on the Intel Sata 6 (1st port) and your 2 HDD on the first 2 Sata 3 ports. Set the Intel controller to Raid. Connect up the SSD (leave HDDs disconnected) install win 7 and get it set up. Intel controller will alow TRIM to pass with the controller set to Raid as long as the SSD is NOT a Member disk of a raid set up.

Connect HDDs and set up your raid volume.

Now the part I'm not sure about and that is your DVD drive. ??? will it work on the last Intel SATA 3 port with the bios set to raid for the Intel ports. If so You are all set. If not try putting the DVD on the 3rd party SATA controller - a waste of sata 6 port.

Option 2. SSD to Intel Sata 6 1st port. As before with HDDs disconnected set Bios to AHCI and install win 7. When done connect HDDs to 3rd party sata 6 controller (Set to Raid) set up raid. DVD again to last port on intel controller. This ASSUMES your 3rd party controller allows for Raid0, some donot - reason to check MB manual.

Okay, I didn't change the mode to Raid when I installed Windows, I'll try and do everything step by step again

Edit: Does my mode have to be in Raid Mode? Because the UEFI Bios that comes with it has 3 modes like I said above, IDE, AHCI, and RAID.

Editx2: I went into the setup and changed the sata mode to Raid, installed windows. After windows was installed, I installed all the drivers from my mother board disk. After installing everything I updated my Bios, and my SSD firmware. This resulted in the Sata going back to IDE. I powered down, plugged in my hard drives. Went into the Bios and switched it back to Raid. Created my volumes and it installed the drivers as I was starting windows. So everything seemed fine. When I came back into windows the array seemed to have installed. On the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program. It shows them in an Array.

But they aren't showing up under my computer? I don't get it. Did I need to format the drives first? I deleted everything off them and just installed the raid array. Can I go back and format the array so that they show up?

 

[Stalzy]

After a few strenuous hours at the keyboard and reading I finally got it setup. All I had to do is format the array after... haha. Thanks guy's for all the help/

 

[Stalzy]

Best answer selected by Stalzy.