SSD OS & RAID 1 Help

xXHeloMechXx · February 19, 2014

I have a 120gb SSD i want to install my OS onto, and two 1gb HDD's I'd like to have in RAID 1 configuration. I'm starting off with these 3 drives new, so theres no retention of any current data needed. The problem I ran into when doing this was that I set my mobo up for RAID in the SATA config, and added the 2 HDD's to the RAID array under the RAID controller setup, but when I went to boot from DVD to install it asked for drivers. Am I correct in assuming these are some sort of RAID drivers, that I'll need in order to install the OS? Also, when configuring the SATAs to RAID it sets all hard drives connected to RAID, including my SSD. Is that normal? Any help, and advice on how I can get this done would be much appreciated.

Comp specs:

Sabertooth 990fx motherboard

4.0 Ghz AMD FX-8350 CPU

16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RAM

EVGA GTX 660 Ti 3GB FTW

Samsung 840 Evo 120GB SSD

2 x WD 1TB Caviar Blue HDD

antoainb · February 19, 2014

Try doing it from scratch, unplug the drives leaving only the SSD in. Install Windows and then shutdown the computer, plug the drives in and take out the SSD, configure the RAID volume, making sure to only select the HDD's and shutdown. Plug the SSD in again and make sure to set the BIOS/UEFI to boot from it. Everything should work then.

P.S.: I'm sure there are simpler methods for this but this is fool proof.

xXHeloMechXx · February 19, 2014

Try doing it from scratch, unplug the drives leaving only the SSD in. Install Windows and then shutdown the computer, plug the drives in and take out the SSD, configure the RAID volume, making sure to only select the HDD's and shutdown. Plug the SSD in again and make sure to set the BIOS/UEFI to boot from it. Everything should work then.

P.S.: I'm sure there are simpler methods for this but this is fool proof.

Hmmm, might give that a try. I installed the OS to the SSD last night, and then tried to configure the RAID drives, and still ran into the same issue. I didn't disconnect any drives while doing it though. Maybe that'll trick the system.

Any other advice is more than welcome.

roberto++ · February 19, 2014

yes, you are correct. There is a raid driver you will need to download from your motherboard's website, keep them on a flash drive, in case the os looses the raid driver. it has happened to me before. No raid driver, cannot detect the raid array.

You have to set all drives to raid, and initialize them in the raid bios. SSD you can just initialize, some say Raid 0, others say jbod ( just a bunch of disks).

here is a brief overview of what you will need to do, my recommendation.

install only your SSD
go into the bios and switch your SATA controller mode from ACHI to RAID
go into the RAID configurator and create a new array with 1 drive.
restart and install your os as normal, this is where you will need your raid driver from the motherboard website
after install, shutdown, and your 2x 1TB drives
go back into the RAID configurator and add another new array, and set to raid 1, and initialize. Note: initialization will DELETE EVERYTHING from your 2x 1TB drives.
Exit raid configurator and boot into windows.
Create the partition and install the raid monitor software, to manage your raid 1 from windows.
done

I have a 120gb SSD i want to install my OS onto, and two 1gb HDD's I'd like to have in RAID 1 configuration. I'm starting off with these 3 drives new, so theres no retention of any current data needed. The problem I ran into when doing this was that I set my mobo up for RAID in the SATA config, and added the 2 HDD's to the RAID array under the RAID controller setup, but when I went to boot from DVD to install it asked for drivers. Am I correct in assuming these are some sort of RAID drivers, that I'll need in order to install the OS? Also, when configuring the SATAs to RAID it sets all hard drives connected to RAID, including my SSD. Is that normal? Any help, and advice on how I can get this done would be much appreciated.

Comp specs:
Sabertooth 990fx motherboard
4.0 Ghz AMD FX-8350 CPU
16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RAM
EVGA GTX 660 Ti 3GB FTW
Samsung 840 Evo 120GB SSD
2 x WD 1TB Caviar Blue HDD

xXHeloMechXx · February 20, 2014

Thanks for the tips. I'll post up once I get it working.

Yoinkerman · February 20, 2014

What windows are you trying to install? Windows 8 already has ahci drivers, which for AMD aren't any different than RAID drivers(at least I don't remember installing separate drivers when installing windows). if that doesn't work you should be able to put the raid/ahci drivers from your mobo CD onto a thumbdrive and look for them when installing windows(or download from the website and put onto a thumbdrive).