SSD RAID and UEFI boot?

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

So the day has come, I got another SSD to use in RAID with my current one. I simply got it to increase performance

 

I currently have a Samsung Evo 840 Series SSD in my machine, I picked up a Kingston SSDNow! 120GB SSD for the second one because I am a cheap bastard.

Question is: Can I use these in a RAID 0 and still boot to a UEFI windows install? Been looking around for this answer but haven't really found much. Can I also take an image of my current install on the samsung and simply restore it to the RAID or will it require me to do a fresh install?

[Bittenfleax]

-snip-

When you put the two drives in RAID, it will wipe them.

 

EDIT:

How are you going to RAID? From your Asus P8Z77?

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

When you put the two drives in RAID, it will wipe them.

I know that, the only thing on them is a windows install, I am making a ghost image of it now, I want to know if I will be able to reinstall that image or not since it's a UEFI install currently or if I will have to do a fresh install or if I can even do a UEFI install on RAID.

[Alim]

I believe RAID controller bios must have uefi driver included to let you boot

[Bittenfleax]

I know that, the only thing on them is a windows install, I am making a ghost image of it now, I want to know if I will be able to reinstall that image or not since it's a UEFI install currently or if I will have to do a fresh install or if I can even do a UEFI install on RAID.

Ahh, my bad. I am not sure if your motherboard supports it. Try it out? 

 

I definitely know that there are tools which enable you to back up UEFI and restore however, I do not know how you do it with these. This is only from memory (I am not sure if you need a special back up to do a recovery).

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

Ahh, my bad. I am not sure if your motherboard supports it. Try it out? 

 

I definitely know that there are tools which enable you to back up UEFI and restore however, I do not know how you do it with these. This is only from memory (I am not sure if you need a special back up to do a recovery).

Not a huge deal really, if I have to do a clean install I can, more of a pain to have to install windows twice than it is to reinstall all my apps

 

I believe RAID controller bios must have uefi driver included to let you boot

Fair enough, I don't imagine it'll really make that huge of a performance difference with RAID 0 on SSD's

[Bittenfleax]

Not a huge deal really, if I have to do a clean install I can, more of a pain to have to install windows twice than it is to reinstall all my apps

 

Fair enough, I don't imagine it'll really make that huge of a performance difference with RAID 0 on SSD's

Hah yeah, at least it will be a quick install (unless it is a disk).

 

Yeah, to be honest you cannot see the speed difference visually, only when you start to do benchmarks and things.

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

Hah yeah, at least it will be a quick install (unless it is a disk).

 

Yeah, to be honest you cannot see the speed difference visually, only when you start to do benchmarks and things.

I noticed it when I was running a non-UEFI install on just the one SSD, but I don't think I'll notice on a RAID 0 non-UEFI install.

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

When you put the two drives in RAID, it will wipe them.

 

EDIT:

How are you going to RAID? From your Asus P8Z77?

Missed the edit on this, I'll be doing the RAID from a hardware level in the BIOS (hopefully)

[Bittenfleax]

Missed the edit on this, I'll be doing the RAID from a hardware level in the BIOS (hopefully)

Ahh right okay. Good luck 

[Alim]

Just make sure you have RAID driver on usb. Uefi should have it's driver, but you still need RST driver for Windows

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

Just make sure you have RAID driver on usb. Uefi should have it's driver, but you still need RST driver for Windows

Would the Motherboard disk work as well?

[Captain_WD]

So the day has come, I got another SSD to use in RAID with my current one. I simply got it to increase performance

 

I currently have a Samsung Evo 840 Series SSD in my machine, I picked up a Kingston SSDNow! 120GB SSD for the second one because I am a cheap bastard.

Question is: Can I use these in a RAID 0 and still boot to a UEFI windows install? Been looking around for this answer but haven't really found much. Can I also take an image of my current install on the samsung and simply restore it to the RAID or will it require me to do a fresh install?

 

Hey there r-4,

 

I wouldn't recommend using different branded drives on the same RAID array due to differences in the firmware which can cause data corruption and drive dropouts. As it was mentioned, putting drives in a RAID array automatically formats them and you will need to do a fresh install of the OS on the array. I'd suggest to use them separately or simply get a larger SSD.

 

Captain_WD.

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

Hey there r-4,

I wouldn't recommend using different branded drives on the same RAID array due to differences in the firmware which can cause data corruption and drive dropouts. As it was mentioned, putting drives in a RAID array automatically formats them and you will need to do a fresh install of the OS on the array. I'd suggest to use them separately or simply get a larger SSD.

Captain_WD.

I didn't buy the second one to simply have more storage, I got it to increase performance.

[Captain_WD]

I didn't buy the second one to simply have more storage, I got it to increase performance.

 

In that case I would make sure everything important on the array has a backup on a separate drive that is preferably outside the main system (NAS, external drive, cloud, etc.).

 

Captain_WD.

[Sn4tchBandicoot]

In that case I would make sure everything important on the array has a backup on a separate drive that is preferably outside the main system (NAS, external drive, cloud, etc.).

Captain_WD.

I haven't ran any kind of irreplaceable data on my boot drive in like 5 years, people still do that?