RAID Migration Question

Question

I added another HDD (2-250GB HDDs) and configured my PC for RAID 0 last night via Intel Matrix Storage Manager. When I click on computer, it shows only drive C and 222GB. If I go to Disk Management, it shows Disk 0, Recovery, OS C 222.78 GB NTFS and then 232.83 Unallocated. The boot screen shows one disk (approx. 450GB?)( I forget without rebooting) Is this right? Or did I do something wrong? Where do I look to verify exactly what I have now?

Thanks,

Spott

XPS 410
C2D E6320 (1.86GHz)
4GB 667 MHz RAM
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Nvidia GeForce 8600GTS
Vista Home Premium

Message Edited by spotteddog on 08-01-2007 12:39 PM

I just got off of Chat with Dell support. They tell me that even though I "Migrated" to RAID O, I still have to re-install Vista. I thought that when I "Migrated" to RAID, it just put the files it wanted onto the 2nd HDD. Did I misunderstand?
It's there a way out of this without having to re-install Vista. I can't be without a PC for that long for the next several days.

Message Edited by spotteddog on 08-01-2007 04:06 PM

C3PO5 · Answer

Hi Right click on the c:\ partition and see if it will expand into the  232.83 Unallocated and use it while you are in disk manager this is what the expand option is for. Good Luck

spotteddog · Answer

C3PO5,

I was on with Dell Chat for almost 2 hours yesterday. Without getting into details, they were pretty much useless.
So, all things considered, I decided to make both drives non-RAID again and I re-installed Vista. Am in the process of restoring everything now. Almost done.

I didn't realize it was such a chore to migrate to RAID. I read the instructions in the XPS manual and followed them. I just didn't understand that I had to re-install Vista after the migration. I understood that if I used the Intel Matrix Storage Manager, I wouldn't lose any thing and my data would be spread across the 2 drives. Guess not? I just couldn't spend any more time with it, so I reverted back to non-RAID.

Maybe if I do some more research and try to find specific instructions, I'll try again some time.

Thanks,

SpottXPS 410
C2D E6320 (1.86GHz)
4GB DDR2-PC5300 @667Mhz
2-WD2500JS, Non-RAID
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Nvidia GeForce 8600GTS
Vista Home Premium

C3PO5 · Answer

Hi Yes raid can be a problem if you do not have all the info and not sure how to use it !  Me i would use Raid-1 if one of the drives quit on you ,you still have the other drive with the OS still on it , but if you use Raid-0 and one drive quits you have lost everything and an OS reinstall is required. Anyway Good Luck ! See Yea

TomXPS · Answer

What it did when you migrated to RAID 0 is normal.  It takes the existing Partition size and migrates it to two disk (striped).   You can setup another partition on the free space and use the free space as another drive.   Not sure about expanding the partition size since it RAID would work.      Personally using RAID 0 is a bit risky, failure of 1 disk causes loose of all data.   Basically your doubling your chance of failure.   Been using RAID 1 for the last 3.5 years, with the cost of disk now it is worth it to me.

spotteddog · Answer

TomXPS and C3P05, Thanks for the feedback. I'll stick with the 2 non-RAID drives for now. I have everything re-installed and everything is working fine without RAID. Thanks again. Spott

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