RAID on a new Vista Ultimate Installation

[Guest]

I would like to set up a RAID 0 with a clean installation of Vista Ultimate.
I do not have a RAID setup currently (XP Pro). Can I do this during the
Vista installation process or should I set it up now and reinstall XP before
attempting load Vista?

 

[Kerry Brown]

I highly recommend you not use RAID 0. It more than doubles your chances of
data loss.

If you want to continue then you would use the RAID controller
manufacturer's process to create the array. If it's an onboard controller
then this is accessed by pressing a key during the POST at the start of a
boot. See your motherboard or controller manual for details. They all work
differently. During the install of Vista you may or may not need to add a
driver for the RAID controller. Again this varies with different controllers
so you'd have to check with the manufacturer to be sure.

 

[Guest]

You set up the RAID in the BIOS prior to Windows starting.

You probably need to enable RAID on your board in the bios, reboot. Once
enabled, you'll need to press the appropriate key before windows starts to
set up the RAID. Once that's done, make sure the BIOS has "boot from CD ROM"
enabled and that it's listed before the RAID disk you set up for the order to
boot from.

With the Windows set up DVD in the cd drive, start the machine. The install
shouldn't need any RAID drivers installed seperately (f6 during install),
they're all on the disc.

I'm with the other poster......... I won't use RAID 0 ever again because of
a crash & the resulting data loss. It's just not worth whatever perceived
advantage you'd have.

 

[Guest]

Larry,

Well, others here say not to RAID 0 but I use it to strip 2 WD Raptor
10,000rpm drives together as one. Yes, this can be a bit scary if you don't
have a backup solution because if one of the two drives fails, your system
fails and you lose all your data. You have to recontruct everything from
scratch when there is no scheduled backup plan in place.

So, using RAID 0 is just fine if you have scheduled backups to an external
HD. I use Windows Live OneCare to backup to my Maxtor OneTouchII USB
external HD on a scheduled basis. I haven't tried the backup program that
comes with Windows Vista yet but have heard it will do the job - just need to
attach a USB HD. With RAID 0 you will be asking for trouble without the
external hard drive - it's a MUST! Of course you could chose RAID 1 (mirror)
but then you only get the strorage space of one hard drive as the other is
simply a copy of the first. But that is another backup plan, and it doesn't
need to be scheduled - it's automatic.

BTW, I upgraded from WinXP Pro running RAID 0 to Windows Vista Ultimate
without incident. To avoid problems, I think it best to setup your RAID in
WinXP then upgrade.

 

[Guest]

If you dont mind buying extra disks, you could try raid 0 for holding the
system and raid 1 for your data and do automatic overnight backups to it.
This makes the system very fast but safe.

Be careful messing around with the disk configurations after installation.
Vista seems to be extremely sensitive about changing any hardware. Even
driver upgrades can cause vista to deactivate itself if it thinks the drives
are different.

 

[Kerry Brown]

RAID 1 is not a backup solution. In any case backups stored on the computer
are not backups but copies that may be useful for quick restores when
something gets corrupted. A backup is for when something like a complete
system meltdown, theft, or a natural (or unnatural) disaster happens.