RAID 0 array - Not a new install of OS

lifgard

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Jan 17, 2008
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I have Win7 x64 up and running without problem.

I have two 140GB Raptors that I installed in SATA 2 and 3 ports on my motherboard.

I have enabled RAID on SATA 2 and 3 in BIOS.

I have created the array by hitting F10 and opening NVIDIA MediaShield. I selected Striping and moved both drives into it. I reboot and the flash screen says Healthy RAID 0.

I go into Win7 Disk Management and see the drive. However, it sees it as a 279GB drive. When I select create Striped drive, it has the drive (Disk2) in the right side and will only allow me to move Disk 1 (my SSD with OS) into the right side to create the array. Obviously, I don't want to do that.

I then created the drive as simple, formatted it and it is now seen by Win7. However, it is seen as a 279GB drive.

I check in Device Manager and it says 279GB NVIDIA Striped Drive.

So - what am I doing wrong?? Is the NVIDIA software and BIOS conflicting with Win7, as Win7 only sees it as one drive and there is no need to create a Striped drive with Disk1 (or any other disk), because it is actually a RAID 0 array??

Also - if it is working correctly as a RAID 0 array (with Win7 just seeing it as a single drive), why is Win7 seeing it as 279GBs? Shouldn't it being seeing only 139GB since they are in RAID 0 (using both drives at once)??

Lastly - how do I confirm it is actually working in RAID 0?

Thanks,
ERIC

 
Solution
1. Your RAID 0 array is working if the OS reports the RAID 0 volume as a single 279GB drive.

2. RAID 1 (mirror) is what you would need for the array to be seen as a single 140GB drive, but since you appear to want a striped array, you have it set correctly.

3. To test whether your RAID 0 array is actually operating correctly, run a benchmark with HDTach. Take a screenshot of the results, upload to an image hosting page and post the link here.

4. You may want to brush up on what RAID is and how it operates. Great article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
1. Your RAID 0 array is working if the OS reports the RAID 0 volume as a single 279GB drive.

2. RAID 1 (mirror) is what you would need for the array to be seen as a single 140GB drive, but since you appear to want a striped array, you have it set correctly.

3. To test whether your RAID 0 array is actually operating correctly, run a benchmark with HDTach. Take a screenshot of the results, upload to an image hosting page and post the link here.

4. You may want to brush up on what RAID is and how it operates. Great article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
 
Solution