Will my RAID0 stay intact when I move it to a new computer?

My primary drive is a 250GB WD SATA drive. So, I added 2x 500GB 7,200 RPM WD SATA drives into my Windows Vista box and created a 1TB RAID0. I then formatted the the primary drive and installed Windows 7. To my pleasant surprise when I booted into Windows 7 my RAID0 was still intact and I kept trotting along the same as I did before.

Now I am replacing my motherboard, processor, and RAM and plan on formatting the primary 250GB drive again and using it to boot for a new clean install of Windows 7.

My question is: if I move these two SATA drives which are setup for RAID0 into the new system, install Windows 7 again, will the RAID0 remain?

Edit: Software RAID. I created it within Windows. The RAID0 does NOT contain the system boot partition.

Jeremy H

Posted 2010-02-25T23:53:39.053

Reputation: 63

– sblair – 2010-02-26T00:46:01.393

software or hardware raid? (did you create the initial raid set via a Windows control panel, or in a BIOS settings screen before Windows booted?) ...and the RAID0 drives do not contain the system boot partition, is that correct? – quack quixote – 2010-02-26T03:29:27.710

1@quack Software RAID. I created it within Windows. Correct, the RAID0 does NOT contain the system boot partition. – Jeremy H – 2010-02-26T11:58:35.923

Answers

Software RAID can be imported via Disk Management into a new install of windows.

MDMarra

Posted 2010-02-25T23:53:39.053

Reputation: 19 580

1This worked great. Put the RAID0 drives into my new Windows 7 system and it recognized it right away and works great. – Jeremy H – 2010-03-01T00:51:43.300

If the RAID controller is from the same manufacturer and a version that supercedes the one you are moving from; it will probably work.

Otherwise, it won't. Different manufacturers use meta data on the drives to describe arrays differently.

Also note that the array may be recognized by the RAID BIOS but windows might give you a 7B blue screen because it will be missing drivers for the controller.

Matt

Posted 2010-02-25T23:53:39.053

Reputation: 5 109