Dan said:
Thanks. I have the manual & have read that portion, I thought maybe
someone here might have actually done it & might have some tips.
I think the problem with your question is, we don't know
much about the configuration.
1) Is the RAID 1 for a boot partition, or is it data only ?
2) Was Windows 7 installed on this motherboard from scratch already, or
are you moving a Windows 7 install from another computer and expecting
it to "pick up and run" on the new motherboard ? If Windows 7 was installed
on this motherboard, did you set the Intel to AHCI or RAID, and did you
use the Intel Southbridge ports for the drive with the boot partition ?
3) Do you expect to "transport" the RAID 1 from the old system and have it
work and preserve all files on the new machine ? Do you have a backup
image of the data that was stored on the RAID 1 ? You may need to do a
backup and restore type operation to smoothly move the data (this is a
"safety first" approach to data management). *Never* just try to grab disks
and move them from machine to machine, without a disaster plan. For example,
due to a hardware defect, both RAID 1 drives could be ruined while you're
working on them. A backup is very important.
To move a RAID array from one computer to another, bare minimum, the controller
should be the same brand (this improves the odds that the metadata format is
the same - the "reserved sector" holds details about the array format).
For example, you may move a RAID 1 from an older Intel chipset to
a newer Intel chipset. There can still be issues. You would not expect a
RAID 1 connected to a Promise controller on the old motherboard, to just
start running (properly) in RAID 1 when plugged to an Intel controller.
You also have several storage controllers on that motherboard. In fact,
all three controller chips support some form of RAID. (Intel, Marvell, Jmicron/GSATA)
There are a metric boatload of permutations and combinations here. Even if
you started giving details, there's no guarantee we'll cover all the bases.
Intel supports "migration". With Intel, you can start with a single drive,
add an empty drive, and tell the RAID management software to migrate to RAID 1.
During the array build, the single drive will be copied to the empty disk,
giving RAID 1. So that is an option.
Personally, I would use a backup and restore option, as that is guaranteed to have
a good outcome. To do that, connect the two drives, define the array configuration,
say "yes" when it says "do you want to delete all the data". You'd say yes, because
you have a backup image stored on another drive. (Preferably, a drive stored in
a safe place and known to be good.) Once the RAID 1 is running, then you'd do a
restore onto the array. That requires the least knowledge about what is going on.
If the Intel BIOS setting is wrong, and you really want to run the RAID 1 array
on Intel, it may take some monkey business to get it all the way you want. It really
depends on what drives are connected where, and what mode you've put things in.
Motherboard user manuals *never* give the level of detail needed. In some cases,
a manufacturer provides a second document for download, which may offer the odd
useful tidbit. (Asus, for example, until they ruined their web site, used to
have a separate "Technical Documents" structure, and chip specific details could be
found there. Including details as to whether a single drive could be run on their
RAID controller.) But generally speaking, there is never enough detail to answer
all of your questions. Even our best efforts here might not be enough.
For Intel, on their web site, they offer a manual for each revision of RAID
software they've done. A few Matrix RAID manuals were written. There is
probably one for RST. Nvidia provides a MediaShield manual of a similar
nature. All of those manuals contain tables of allowed RAID migration patterns.
Other controllers have more limited documentation, maybe a page or two in the
main motherboard manual.
Paul
CI Devices, I have a "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE COntroller"