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I have two HDDs in RAID0, on a Gigabyte EP45T-DS3R motherboard. I'd like to install Windows 7 RC on a solid state drive, and use the HDDs as data storage. The HDDs are full of data (which I'd like to keep), so ideally I'd like to avoid formatting them.
Can I simply plug in the RAID0 drives after the upgrade, and access their data? Or is it a bit more complicated than that?
sblair
Posted 2009-07-16T23:20:01.983
Reputation: 12 231
5
Personally, before I changed anything, I would get a big external drive and back up all my files off the striped array. Then, I would remove them all, put in the solid state drive as the primary partition for Windows 7 and blow away the striped array. Then create a mirrored array (raid 1) for the data file storage (this will cost 100% drive efficiency of course) and restore the backup from the external drive to the raid 1. I think that's the safest way to go.
JP Alioto
Posted 2009-07-16T23:20:01.983
Reputation: 6 278
1Agreed, you definitely want to have a backup when dealing with striped raids. There's always a significant chance you're going to lose data when dealing with changes to any raid. – David Snyder – 2009-07-16T23:27:14.320
Yes, you're absolutely right. RAID 0 without a backup == pain somewhere down the road. But, I was wondering if there's a (straightforward) way to just use the disks without formatting them? – sblair – 2009-07-16T23:48:02.353