Vista - Raid non raid problem

I'm have a couple of problems and I was hoping someone here could help with the solutions.

I wanted to use a raid setup with vista ultimate x64. But I had problems with my raid bios. I went ahead and installed and activated vista any way in a non raid configuration. Now that I have my raid bios issues fixed I would like to setup my raid array. The problems and questions I have are:

1. I didn't realize it but I left the bios setting for my sata set to raid. I don't have the raid set up just the setting at raid. When I change it to ahci vista won't startup and my machine reboots. If I don't want to or can't do the raid array how do I fix this? Since I've already activated vista can I reinstall it? I believe I did install the raid driver at install time.

2. If I do want to do the raid array can I do that with vista already installed on one of the drives?

thanks for any help.

Hi GureMediation,

It sounds as though you needed to supply RAID drivers when you were installing Vista. What is the make and model of your motherboard?

If Vista was installed with your controller set to RAID, and you switched it over to AHCI, then that'll kill the Vista installation. Likewise if it was set to AHCI and you change it to RAID or IDE after Vista is installed.

You can read more about AHCI here : Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Set the controller back to RAID and you should be able to recover Vista without missing a beat.

Are you planning on using a RAID setup for you boot device? If that is the case, then you should have setup your raid array before installing windows.

If you want to keep your boot drive seperate from the raid array (use raid for data only), then you should be able to safely create the raid array now.

My motherboard is a gigabyte GA-X48-DS5. I did install the raid driver during the vista installation. My problem is I had raid enabled in the bios but I didn't set up the arrray. Now I want to know if there is any way to set it up now with vista already installed.

Thanks,
My bios was set to raid but I didn't set up the array. Yeah, it does work when I set it back to raid. I was wondering if there was a way to set up the raid array now with vista already installed or do I need to reinstall?

And if I have to reainstall what do I do about having already activated vista?

I have a system with a ASUS P5Q Deluxe mother board.
1 x 320 Seagate SATA HDD
4 x 250 Seagate NQC HDD's
also 2 x CD drives 1.44 FDD

1) To get raid working I have to first set the RAID in BIOS
2) As the system boots I have to CTRL+I to enter and configure the RAID mine is set as follows...
3) c: 320Gb as a NON raid disk
the first 2 x 250Gb as RAID 1 mirrired
the second 2 x 250Gb as RAID 0 for speed
4) as you boot from your VISTA 64bit (Im usin Ultimate) CD it will then display and ask you whick drive you want to intall Vista on select it and Vista will do the rest my result Vista bots from the 320Gb, I have the next HDD RAID 1 as 250Gb drive, then the HDD RAID 0 as a 450Gb drive.

Works well.

You will have to reinstall and reconfigure from scratch so back up all your data.

Wish you luck.

Yeah, I believe that is what I will have to do. I was hoping there was some way to set it up with out having to reinstall vista. Thanks.

If I guessed your question correctly, the answer should be: yes, you have to clean install Vista if you like to boot from the raid drives; just follow the steps posted by Sentar. You shouldn't worry too much about the re-activation. It should be okay.

If just happen to have any problem, you can go to this tutorial for reference:

Activate Vista by Phone

Good luck and let us know how is it go.

Thanks, but given all the sw I've got installed and configured I will probably leave it the way it is. Thanks anyway.

This thread is the closest I've come to something similar to my problem, I hope you forgive the semi-hijack...

P5Q Pro
Q6600
2x2GB Mushkin 800
500GB Seagate (Boot drive)
300GB Maxtor x3
Vista x64

I've got the OS (Vista x64) installed on a non-Raid drive, which was installed as the drive configuration was set to "enhanced IDE" in the Bios. (as opposed to RAID or AHCI). Currently my computer is running fine with lots of software installed.

Then I wanted to add a RAID5 array on three 300 GB HDs, so I changed the Bios drive configuration to RAID, set up my drives accordingly and rebooted to the Blue Screen of Death. After trying to repair the OS a couple of times, I gave up on the RAID5, changed my Bios back to 'enhanced IDE' and like one of the above posts mentions, my computer booted up beautifully.

I'm thinking that I should have set the BIOS to RAID, even though the OS install was not on a RAID drive.

Is there anyway to add my Raid5 array and salvage my OS install (and programs)... ?

Also; my 500GB HD is partitioned - if I change the BIOS to RAID and install the OS on the first partition, will it affect the other partition?