Reinstalling !*'!";!*- windows

[redboy1]

Trying to reinstall windows which is partitioned on my HDD.

I have my HDD in raid with an ssd. Thing is when I go to install windows when I've got RAID selected in BIOS, no Disks show up when I get to "where do you want to install windows" section.

If I select AHCI in BIOS then proceed it comes up with the drives. I don't want to proceed because I won the able to raid.

Where am I going wrong?

 

[holtehero]

Are you raiding your Mechanical and SSD?

I wouldn't have thought that was a good idea as the slowest drive would take away any benefit (in this case the mechanical). It would only be worth raiding if you had two SSDs of the same speed and then its debateable if you really need to for booting

The best bet is a completely fresh install, don't raid your two drives (SSD and HD), set windows up on your SSD with a new primary partition. Then completely format your HDD, unless you have stuff on it you want to keep.

 

[Theydon Bois]

"I have my HDD in raid with an ssd."

Have you? Dont you have one of those motherboards with an SSD on it for smart caching, or have you set up a raid?

Ignoring the SSD on the motherboard, how many drives do you have in your PC?

 

[redboy1]

Sorry mate, that's what I mean the 32gb ssd on the mobo. Just have that and my 1tb HDD.

Last time I set it up I just selected raid and went from there, this time there are no disk options.

 

[redboy1]

Are you raiding your Mechanical and SSD?

I wouldn't have thought that was a good idea as the slowest drive would take away any benefit (in this case the mechanical). It would only be worth raiding if you had two SSDs of the same speed and then its debateable if you really need to for booting

The best bet is a completely fresh install, don't raid your two drives (SSD and HD), set windows up on your SSD with a new primary partition. Then completely format your HDD, unless you have stuff on it you want to keep.

Sorry i Didn't explain well, my mobo Motherboards - P8Z77-V PREMIUM has a 32gb for smart caching. Last time I set BIOS to raid when I installed and then used Intel® Smart Response and Rapid Start Technology programming to accelerate the HDD.

 

[holtehero]

You shouldn't really Raid between those two devices

Just make sure AHCI is set as "ON" in Bios

As the difference in size is so great, you will likely also struggle to clone the OS to the SSD, so your going to have to start from scratch in my opinion

Edit: ok i see your motherboard has a 32Gb mSata SSD built in, i still don't think you should raid that with a mechanical. Also, you are right on the borderline of being able to install the OS on a drive that size, or are you saying the OS is on the mechanical and your using the 32Gb for caching?

 

[Theydon Bois]

I didnt read it all, but does this help?

How to: Set up Intel Smart Response Technology (SSD caching)

 

[holtehero]

That makes more sense to me now, seems a bit of a strange way of setting up a cache drive.

I'd certainly be tempted to

a) either buy a larger SSD (128Gb) and just have the OS booting off it
b) See if the motherboard will take a larger mSata drive and install the OS on that entirely

i'm not sure all of the caching etc, is going to speed up the mechanical to that great a degree - certainly not to the degree of having a dedicated SSD as the boot drive

 

[redboy1]

I didnt read it all, but does this help?

How to: Set up Intel Smart Response Technology (SSD caching)

It says to install windows with sata set to RAID. Like I say when I try that I'm getting no disk options. Only time I see disk options is when I set it to ADCI.

 

[redboy1]

That makes more sense to me now, seems a bit of a strange way of setting up a cache drive.

I'd certainly be tempted to

a) either buy a larger SSD (128Gb) and just have the OS booting off it
b) See if the motherboard will take a larger mSata drive and install the OS on that entirely

i'm not sure all of the caching etc, is going to speed up the mechanical to that great a degree - certainly not to the degree of having a dedicated SSD as the boot drive

Its been great while I've had it working. Knocks about 15/20 seconds off start up.
I know a dedicated ssd is better but don't want to get one as this does work, just don't know why I'm not getting the options.

 

[holtehero]

Looking at that guide, as the caching is software based in windows then it would seem you would need to reinstall windows first on your HDD

You would probably have to select AHCI or IDE mode for this to work correctly as its possible that Windows setup doesn't load any Raid drivers or any that will allow you see the Raid Array

Then once you have reinstalled windows, you probably need to setup the caching again and also modify the Sata mode to the correct one

How to: Change SATA Modes After Windows Installation

 

[Theydon Bois]

That makes more sense to me now, seems a bit of a strange way of setting up a cache drive.

I'd certainly be tempted to

a) either buy a larger SSD (128Gb) and just have the OS booting off it
b) See if the motherboard will take a larger mSata drive and install the OS on that entirely

i'm not sure all of the caching etc, is going to speed up the mechanical to that great a degree - certainly not to the degree of having a dedicated SSD as the boot drive

I agree with Holt. Remove that SSD, grab a new SSD (personally, a 256+) and install the OS to that, leaving the Mech for your Steam library. The SSD caching does speed things up, but nowhere near the same as a dedicated SSD.

 

[holtehero]

Its been great while I've had it working. Knocks about 15/20 seconds off start up.

Also, 15-20 seconds is what my PC takes to boot up, that is how much difference an SSD makes

 

[redboy1]

That's not far off the time mine booted up. I'm just going to have to keep at it. Im completely happy with the speed just want to get it going again.

 

[redboy1]

Think I sorted it folks. Went into the raid console and selected "reset disks to non RAID"

Fired up windows install with RAID activated in BIOS, got to the select drive section and there they all were

 

[Theydon Bois]

Huzzah!!