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Hey guys, I'm finally back after my summer project last year. Everything ran perfectly smoothly, but I just got my hands on 3x1TB drives as I'm starting to run out of space on my current hard drives.
PROBLEM: How to boot into Windows 7 x64 from a 3TB array on an EVGA 780i SLi Mobo
**OPTIONAL READ--Background Info**
Here's what I had set up previously: 2*750GB Sammys in RAID 0. One partition for OS (~333GB), and the rest for photos and all my lossless rips from my CD collection. A 1TB Sammy was installed as well, to dump Backups of the OS partition every week. For extra storage/backups, I had a hot-swap bay installed, which I used to access the drives which I used to back up my photo work/the 2TB drive which held all my DVD .ISO rips (physical disks take up too much space).
My computer chassis can hold lots of hard drives, but for good airflow, I can put up to 3 drives plus the hot-swap drive in the chassis. Thus, what I'm planning is as follows:
3*1TB Drives in one RAID 0 array, but now the 1TB Sammy will be installed in the hot-swap bay, resulting in a bit more work if I want to watch a movie.
So, I want to have a 3TB RAID 0 Array, on which I'll have 2-3 partitions: 1 for OS, 1 for all my media, and 1 optional partition for just my photo work, just to make things more organized/backups easier, as full partition copies are easier to configure than the synchronization software I use.
HOWEVER, as you all know, booting from drives (arrays) larger than 2TB is just a major pain in the neck. I really want to run these drives in RAID 0 because I can reach about 250MB/s Read and ~200MB/s Write in this array, and backups aren't that big of a problem for me in case of drive failure. Using the first 2TB of the array isn't a solution, nor is adding another 750GB drive i have lying around to my current 2-drive RAID 0 array (I'm getting approximately 125 MB/s Read on the current array, and it can probably only hit 180MB/sec with the addition of the third drive)
**END BACKGROUND INFO**
I've done a bit of research, and I think I can solve my problems by creating a hybrid GPT/MBR disk, but most solutions involve OS X or Chameleon in dual-booting OS X and Windows. I really don't care for a hackintosh (threw OS X on a 60GB partition on the PC I built for dad last fall--it's only been used to set a FB status to, "Typing this on a sub-$700 3.4GHz Mac"), but I wouldn't really feel bad violating Apple's EULA/burdened in creating a hackintosh so I can get the huge performance boost that I'm looking for on the Windows side.
Here are two links I skimmed over:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html
http://chameleon.osx86.hu/
I guess I'm looking for help in pointing me towards the right steps of things I need to get done in order to achieve my goal.
What I'm starting to feel in terms of steps is this:
1. Create a hackintosh with OS X on a tiny partition
2. Use Mac tools to create a Hybrid disk
3. Install W7 on 2nd partition
4. Put media on 3rd partition
5. Boot from 2nd partition and never look back.
Although if I can do everything in Windows, that would be greatly appreciated--I haven't done much in Linux, but am definitely willing to try things out.
PROBLEM: How to boot into Windows 7 x64 from a 3TB array on an EVGA 780i SLi Mobo
**OPTIONAL READ--Background Info**
Here's what I had set up previously: 2*750GB Sammys in RAID 0. One partition for OS (~333GB), and the rest for photos and all my lossless rips from my CD collection. A 1TB Sammy was installed as well, to dump Backups of the OS partition every week. For extra storage/backups, I had a hot-swap bay installed, which I used to access the drives which I used to back up my photo work/the 2TB drive which held all my DVD .ISO rips (physical disks take up too much space).
My computer chassis can hold lots of hard drives, but for good airflow, I can put up to 3 drives plus the hot-swap drive in the chassis. Thus, what I'm planning is as follows:
3*1TB Drives in one RAID 0 array, but now the 1TB Sammy will be installed in the hot-swap bay, resulting in a bit more work if I want to watch a movie.
So, I want to have a 3TB RAID 0 Array, on which I'll have 2-3 partitions: 1 for OS, 1 for all my media, and 1 optional partition for just my photo work, just to make things more organized/backups easier, as full partition copies are easier to configure than the synchronization software I use.
HOWEVER, as you all know, booting from drives (arrays) larger than 2TB is just a major pain in the neck. I really want to run these drives in RAID 0 because I can reach about 250MB/s Read and ~200MB/s Write in this array, and backups aren't that big of a problem for me in case of drive failure. Using the first 2TB of the array isn't a solution, nor is adding another 750GB drive i have lying around to my current 2-drive RAID 0 array (I'm getting approximately 125 MB/s Read on the current array, and it can probably only hit 180MB/sec with the addition of the third drive)
**END BACKGROUND INFO**
I've done a bit of research, and I think I can solve my problems by creating a hybrid GPT/MBR disk, but most solutions involve OS X or Chameleon in dual-booting OS X and Windows. I really don't care for a hackintosh (threw OS X on a 60GB partition on the PC I built for dad last fall--it's only been used to set a FB status to, "Typing this on a sub-$700 3.4GHz Mac"), but I wouldn't really feel bad violating Apple's EULA/burdened in creating a hackintosh so I can get the huge performance boost that I'm looking for on the Windows side.
Here are two links I skimmed over:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html
http://chameleon.osx86.hu/
I guess I'm looking for help in pointing me towards the right steps of things I need to get done in order to achieve my goal.
What I'm starting to feel in terms of steps is this:
1. Create a hackintosh with OS X on a tiny partition
2. Use Mac tools to create a Hybrid disk
3. Install W7 on 2nd partition
4. Put media on 3rd partition
5. Boot from 2nd partition and never look back.
Although if I can do everything in Windows, that would be greatly appreciated--I haven't done much in Linux, but am definitely willing to try things out.