ASRock Socket 2011: Installing 2x 256 Drives in JBOD & Retaining TRIM Functi

[Raviolissimo]

Hello,

I just bought a hex core 3930K system and was not satisfied with the disk space left over after the original Windows 7 Pro installation on a single SSD.

So I bought a second identical 256 GB SSD (from The Egg) and thought I could just go ahead and set it up as a JBOD system. I went into the BIOS & enabled RAID for starters.

And now - I'm stumped.

I have the ASRock Extreme6 motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157289

For starters, is this a bad idea ? I want to retain TRIM functionality. I'm used to having a larger desktop, with 200+ GB of files on it, and about 50 GB for applications (3D CAD, Animation, Adobe Master Suite). Windows 7 eats up about 60 GB for whatever purpose, just the OS.

Once I saw that I would be limited with the first SSD drive, I figured I could run the 2 drives in drive-spanning configuration.

That's where I could use a step-by-step explanation of the installation procedure.

Hopefully I'm not the first to want to try this, and other members could benefit.

If I had to do it again, I would get the 512 GB SSD. But now that I have the 2x 256 drives, how do I set up Windows 7 ?

Thanks !

 

[nhasian]

Last I checked TRIM doesnt work with RAID. Just install Windows 7 to the primary drive. then you can use the secondary drive as D:
If you absolutely do not want a second drive letter you can mount the 2nd hard disk as a folder in your filesystem. For example you make the 2nd hard disk be My Documents or whatever.

 

[Raviolissimo]

Last I checked TRIM doesnt work with RAID. Just install Windows 7 to the primary drive. then you can use the secondary drive as D:
If you absolutely do not want a second drive letter you can mount the 2nd hard disk as a folder in your filesystem. For example you make the 2nd hard disk be My Documents or whatever.

Thanks for the reply !

I set up a non-Admin user account ("RB_User") and tried to set the desktop for that user following your instructions, as elaborated on @
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753321.aspx

"To assign a mount-point folder path to a drive by using the Windows interface

In Disk Manager, right-click the partition or volume where you want to assign the mount-point folder path, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Do one of the following:
To assign a mount-point folder path, click Add. Click Mount in the following empty NTFS folder, type the path to an empty folder on an NTFS volume, or click Browse to locate it."


I double-checked to see if there were any hidden files in the folder - there were none, i.e. it was empty.

Whatever it tried, it remained "Gray'ed out".


Like you said, I would like the 2nd hard disk to be, well, not "My Documents", but "Desktop" ... but it's not letting me.

One other way I can think of to free up space is to install all applications on the second SSD drive. Then they will load fast and won't eat into space available for Users.


But, I'd still prefer to map the "RB_User" Desktop to the second drive. It's just not letting me, so far.


There's got to be a way !

 

[Raviolissimo]

I found a way - you set up a New Folder, in the User directory, named Desktop.

and map that to the second SSD drive. It comes up as a "mounted volume" or something.

The SSD drive disappears from "My Computer" though. As far as I can see, the only way to access it for admin. purposes is via Disk Administrator.