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Ok, so I stupidly installed Vista Premium after setting up and getting a RAID to work. I hooked up two 1TB WD Caviars and set them up in a RAID 1 configuration. After getting it all working and serving all my media, I decided to change Vista Business to Premium. I installed the OS on a separate hard drive than the RAID, but now when I boot up the RAID doesn't show. When I go into Disk Management, the RAID shows up but "Offline." What do I do?????

When I right-click it gives me the option to change it from Dynamic to Basic, but that would wipe out all the data.... any suggestions???

Go into RAID BIOS menu and check its status (Online/Offline ?)
If it states Online, then you may have a faulty HardDrive

The BIOS menu doesn't say whether its online or offline, but under status it does say Healthy.

It says Boot = Yes, Status = Healthy, Vendor = NVIDIA, Array Model Name = MIRROR 931.51G... if any of that helps

The Raid BIOS Menu...

On Intel Motherboards press <CTRL-I> to enter RAID Configuration Utility, on bootup


http://support.intel.com/support/mot...0811.htm#ctrli

Its not an Intel Motherboard, its NVIDIA...

Also, once I installed the NVIDIA system tools its detecting the RAID and saying its healthy, but the OS just says its offline... whats the deal?

Thanks ! the more info the better.

I'd say check cables.... all the rest. It sounds like hardware issue (ie my first post to you)

It can't be a hardware issue, its passing all the tests. The only problem is in windows, I think its most definitely a software issue...

To confirm hardware you must eliminate all the software first (ie remove Raid)
Or test each drive with a Diagnostic disc

if i remove the RAID i lose all content... no?

Breaking a RAID-1 (mirror) will not loose any data -- that's the whole point of mirrored
disks.
Getting the mirror reconnected may be another matter, as you're using the onboard
raid chip instead of a real raid controller.

well what do you suggest i do?

That makes sense, so maybe if I format one of the drives so that it shows up again and then rebuild the RAID? would that work?

I'd just say rebuild the RAID and let it mirror the data again, given the first drive is working fine and the data isn't messed up.

ok, I formatted my drive (OS) again and installed Vista Business... guess what, the drive shows up!! So I need an explanation. I know that I can just copy all my stuff onto an external, then re-install Vista Premium, initialize the RAID again and then put everything back on the RAID. But, I want to know what the F*** is going on???