There are several kinds of Raid
configurations available, but all configurations require at least two
hard drives. With two hard drives you will have the choice of Raid 0 and
Raid 1.
* Raid 0 is meant to give you faster performance as it strips your
data across both drives. If you have 2 x 200gb hard drives, with Raid 0
you will have a total of 400gb of fast hard drive that shows up as one
drive. However, the extra speed comes with its consequences. If one hard
drive dies, you lose 2 hard drives worth of data.
* Raid 1 is meant for redundancy (ie. protect your data in case a
hard drive dies). It essentially mirrors each hard drive so that if one
hard drive dies out of the blue, you will not have lost all of your
data. There for if you have 2 x 200gb hard drives, it will not show up
as 400gb like in Raid 0, but it will only give you 200gb total. If in
the event a drive does fail, you will be able to remove the dead drive,
and replace it with a new one. Your computer will then be able to
rebuild the data onto the new drive for you.
* Raid 5 requires 3 identical hard drives. It combines the speed of
Raid 0 and the redundancy of Raid 1. It is both striping and redundancy.
It will net you a total of 2/3 your total space (ie. if you have 3 x
200gb hard drives it will show up as 400gb). You can again lose one
drive and not lose any information, and rebuild it if you replace the
drive. However, if you lose a second drive, your in trouble.
There are more types of raid of course, but those are the basics.
OK now to setup the Raid in Windows Vista:
* First you will need to enter your bios. (Usually pressing F1 or F2 on the bios screen just as your computer starts)
* Then find an option for your hard drives that says enable Raid or something like that.
* Next boot to your Windows Vista DVD by sticking it in your DVD drive and restarting.
* Choose your language from the list
* Click install now
* Enter your product key in the box provided
* Choose the correct version of Vista that you bought from the list
* Click accept to the license agreement
* Now, on the “Which type of installation to you want to do” screen, choose custom
* If Windows automatically detects your Raid controller you are good
to go. However if it doesn’t, you will need to go to you motherboard
manufacturers website and download the driver to a floppy disk or a usb
thumb drive and load it into the Vista setup by clicking the “Load
Driver” button in the bottom left corner.
* Then with your Raid controller recognized, click advanced drive options and choose your Raid configuration you would like.
* Continue with the installation and you are done!
I hope this helped someone out there. If i missed something, please let me know. Enjoy your new faster or safer computer!
Calendar
Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:22 am by 
Subject: Setting up Raid on Windows Vista 
