Before I Press Power for the First Time - Setup with an SSD and a Two HDDs RAID 1

[ScottNY]

I am almost done with my new build - Win 10 64-bit Pro, i5 6600K, Gigabyte Z170MX Gaming 5 mobo, G.Skill DDR4 TridentZ 3000 mHz RAM [2 x 8]. I plan to use RAID 1 for the two HGST 3 TB drives [to protect against a manual failure of one drive] and a Samsung EVO 850 500 GB for the OS and program files. All drives are new.

I have my OS setup on a USB stick, but before I start the PC for the first time, what do I need to know? Is there any special way I should connect my drives to the motherboard? Will the Win 10 USB install walk me through setting up the SSD as my boot drive? Will it also walk me through setting up the two RAID 1 HDDs? Do all drives use the GPT setting? I want to make sure I don't screw this up.

Thanks!

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is there any special way I should connect my drives to the motherboard?

1. Disconnect HDDs, leave only SSD.
2. Install windows (If you're doing hardware raid, then sata controller mode must be on RAID setting in BIOS before installing windows. If you're doing software raid, then sata controller mode should be on AHCI.)
3. Connect HDDs and setup RAID.

 

[mcnumpty23]

only connect the ssd first then install windows to it

then connect the 2 x hdd--you must connect those to the sata ports that can do raid if your board has more than 1 sata controller

then you set those to raid in bios instead of ide or ahci

and either in the bios or by pressing a key combination as it boots up--for example ctrl +l you make your raid

how you make the raid will be different for each motherboard so may need to press different keys as it starts up

edit--beat to it

 

[ScottNY]

Thanks, both of you. What's the difference between a hardware RAID vs a software RAID? Is there one you prefer over the other?

 

[mcnumpty23]

if the motherboard has hardware raid i prefer to use that

another much more versatile thing is windows storage spaces it allows doing much more its very versatile

only limited by the number of sata ports so can run as many drives as you like

can add more drives at any time as long as you tell it in the beginning to allow up to for example say 20tb of storage

you can then start with 2 drives right up to whatever you want as long as totals under the amount you told it in the beginning

can use different sizes of drives with no lost space

and it can do multiple mirrors as redundancy

i shoved a load of old drives i had lying around in storage spaces giving me a twice mirrored storage space

 

[SkyNetRising]

What's the difference between a hardware RAID vs a software RAID?

Hardware RAID is hardware dependent. If you loose the hardware (motherboard dies), you most likely won't be able to transfer your RAID setup to another different hardware. You'll need same motherboard with same firmware.
Software RAID - is hardware independent. It's quite easy to transfer it to different hardware.

Hardware RAID might operate a bit faster than software. But modern CPUs are powerful enough, so difference is not that big.