Help to convert raid 0 boot drive to a basic boot drive

[adaal]

My 3x250g disk (Hitachi sata 2) raid 0 boot drive (partitioned off 20g for boot and 230g for data) is not working for me. How do I split one of the drives out of the Raid and convert it to a basic disk with 2 partitions (20 g for operating sys and balance for backup)?

Can I just remove two of the three raid 0 disks from the computer and restart with the xp media center 2005 (built on xp pro) disk to reformat and repartition the one disk?

What scares me is the microsoft warning "After you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, you cannot change the dynamic volumes back to partitions. Instead, you must delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then use the Convert To Basic Disk command. If you want to keep your data, you must first back it up or move it to another volume." I don't want to keep any data, but how do I delete disk volumes containing my operating system?

I will also raid 0 (or jbod) the 2 remaining drives for multimedia data storage.

Motherboard is asus a8n sli premium with built in Raid (I am using the nvidia raid currently)

 

[PanicX]

You'll have to configure your RAID devices using the Configuration Utility that normally prompts during start up. Basically before your computer boots windows it should prompt something similar to "press ctrl + S" to enter configuration utility. Then you can manage which disks are in what RAID configuration. You may also want to check your BIOS as there may be settings there or access to the configuration utility.

Note that once you change the RAID configuration, all data on the devices is no longer be able to be read.

 

[adaal]

Note that once you change the RAID configuration, all data on the devices is no longer be able to be read.

you are right, there is a raid utility i can access during boot up and in the bios is also a raid setting. I don't know which one to adjust first, but i probably won't be able to boot after that since my operating system is on the current raid 0.

Then will I be able to put windows on the previous raid drive with the windows disk? Will that delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then convert the disk to a Basic Disk?

 

[PanicX]

You shouldn't have to change the BIOS settings, in more cases than not, they simply enable or disable the controller.

When you make a change to the RAID configuration, all data including partitions logical drives, extended drives and filesystems will be gone. You will have to recreate your partitions and reformat your drives. (meaning dynamic and basic disks wont apply as they are OS level distinctions and your OS is not installed)

IMPORTANT: Before you hose your system, be sure you have a driver disk for the RAID controller. If you want to install Windows to a disk on a RAID controller you'll need to press "F6" at the beginning of the setup and supply a driver disk. If you're going to install to a disk thats on the IDE controller you won't need the driver disk.

 

[adaal]

You will have to recreate your partitions and reformat your drives. (meaning dynamic and basic disks wont apply as they are OS level distinctions and your OS is not installed)

Thank you for your help...my main concern was if I could install windows on a single hardrive that was from my former raid 0...if i understand you correctly i can reformat and partition that former dynamic disk with my windows disk when i reinstall!

My plan is to re-raid 0 (is that a term?) the two remaining drives for music/multimedia storage only...the operating sys will be on the new ntfs drive using a regular sata 2 controller. Should I re-raid those at the same time i install windows or do it afterwards?

 

[tdeg]

You can install on any of them with no problem.

The warning only applies if you don't want to non-destructively do this.

 

[PanicX]

Personally, I'd configure my disks before I install the OS. The only issue not configuring them before hand would be the drive lettering that Windows automatically assigns to your hardware. If you want your RAID array to have drive letter D: then you'll have to RAID and format them before you install, otherwise your CD/DVD will get D: and your array will get the next available letter once you add it. In any case you can always change the drive letters later without too much headache.

I'm assuming your system setup has all 3 SATA drives on the same controller. Be sure you make a driver disk for your SATA/RAID controller before you reconfigure your system. Otherwise Windows Setup won't be able to see your drives.