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Enable RAID without reinstall OS?
I have a Inspiron 530 quad core with Vista Home Premium. I am thinking of adding a pair of drives to make a RAID1 as my main data storage.
I tried changing the BIOS SATA setting from IDE to RAID and Vista will just reboot during startup. I read about the F6 method of installing Intel drivers during OS installation but I really want to avoid reinstalling the OS since I have a lot of things on the machines already. Reinstalling everything will be a nightmare to me.
So is there any way to enable RAID mode without reinstalling the OS?
PETER345
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April 27th, 2008 21:00
I did the opposite on my 9200. It was set for RAID mode and I found a MS article that described how to make Windows work for ATA more (you needed to add some entries to the registry and they said you needed to install some driver files, but I didn't need those). It worked nicely. I'm not sure about the procedure for going the other way.
Did you try installing the SATA (RAID) drivers from within Windows while running in ATA mode?
(My experience is for XP. Since you have Vista, there may be differences.)
Peter
keithg2
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935 Posts
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April 28th, 2008 00:00
I have an Inspiron 530s and went RAID also.
I looked around for days for a way but, no way around backing up your data, reinstalling your OS and apps, to my knowledge.
RobinBredin
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April 28th, 2008 11:00
Configuring for RAID Using the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager
If you already have one hard drive with the operating system installed on it,
and you want to add a second hard drive and reconfigure both drives into a
RAID volume without losing the existing operating system and any data, you
need to use the migrating option (see "Migrating to a RAID 1 Volume" on
page 45 or "Migrating to a RAID 1 Volume" on page 45). Create a RAID 1
Volume only when:
• You are adding two new drives to an existing single-drive computer (and
the operating system is on the single drive), and you want to configure the
two new drives into a RAID volume.
• You already have a two-hard drive computer configured into an array, but
you still have some space left on the array that you want to designate as a
second RAID volume.Migrating to a RAID 1 Volume
1 Set your computer to RAID-enabled mode (see "Setting Your Computer toRAID-Enabled Mode" on page 42).
2 Click Start and point to All Programs → Intel(R) Matrix StorageManager→ Intel Matrix Storage Console to launch the Intel(R) Matrix
Storage Manager.
NOTE: If you do not see an Actions menu option, you have not yet set yourcomputer to RAID-enabled mode (see "Setting Your Computer to RAID-Enabled
Mode" on page 42).
3 On the Actions menu, click Create RAID Volume From Existing HardDrive to launch the Migration Wizard.
4 Click Next on the first Migration Wizard screen.
5 Enter a RAID volume name or accept the default.
6 From the drop-down box, select RAID 1 as the RAID level.
NOTE: Select the hard drive that already has the data or operating systemfiles that you want to maintain on the RAID volume as your source hard drive.
7 On the Select Source Hard Drive screen, double-click the hard drive fromwhich you want to migrate, and click Next.
8 On the Select Member Hard Drive screen, double-click the hard drive toselect the member drive that you want to act as the mirror in the array, and
click Next.
9 On the Specify Volume Size screen, select the volume size you want, andclick Next.
NOTE: In the following step, you will lose all data contained on the memberdrive.
10 Click Finish to start migrating, or click Back to make changes. You can useyour computer normally during migration process.
You can download Intel Matrix Storage from the Dell downloads.
Ryanh6178
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April 28th, 2008 16:00
Hi Stephenju,
I think I would have to agree with Keithg on this issue. While PETER's experience on the 9200 worked the opposite direction. This is most likely due to the fact that the 9200 support RAID settings per drive rather than the 530(s) supporting either all or nothing RAID.