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Noobish RAID questions:

N

npurdin

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 9, 2006
Messages
124
Sorry for the noobing, but I'm getting a bit frustrated with MSI's documentation, or lack thereof. I've waiting far too long in the grand scheme of things to actually implement a RAID in any of my systems, and now that I want to, it appears I don't know what I'm doing.

Motherboard:
MSI z87 G45 Gaming (6x SATA3 ports)

Goal:
1 SSD - Main OS disk, frequently run program files
3x RAID HDD (clean, no data, ready to blow out to whatever is necessary)
1x backup data HDD - Old data from previous PC's, dates back to 2001
1x DVD drive

I currently have my OS set up on the SSD, but nothing invested in it, so if I have to reformat, no loss.

Questions:
1: To run with a RAID, must I install the OS with a RAID setup, even if the ending configuration with have the OS disk running alone?
2: What is the deal with MSI's software requiring 3 pieces of intel software to run "SuperRAID"? Is this necessary? (Seems to me I have a hardware controller on this board, wouldn't expect to need a windows software suite to make it work)
3: Can you ever forgive me for being such a noob?

Thanks in advance.

Just for reference:
My previous system (which still works by the way) was a socket 939 A8n32 SLI Premium with 4GB pc3200, an opteron 185, and dual 8800GT's.... This upgrade was a long time coming, but I can't help but thinking I let myself fall behind, or even out of the game, so to speak.
 
1) you can do what you like without issue after installing the OS if you arent changing the OS drive.
2) dunno, I havent got an MSI board, hardware needs a driver and software to make use of it though.
3) You arent that bad, you know what RAID is for ;)
 
The (Intel) RAID software typically allows you to verify your RAID along with other maintenance related functions.

I'm not sure about your motherboard in particular, but even though there might be a controller on the board, it's still probably a software RAID, and is usually referred to as a software RAID.
 
Seems to me I have a hardware controller on this board,
Click to expand...

No ya don't. AFAIK no MB comes with a hardware controller.

I'm not sure what you're calling SuperRaid but you'll need at least some of the Intel stuff.

One piece of the software is just a RAID array monitoring program that you don't really need but could come in handy.
 
Is this for Windows?

If not md RAID or RaidZ (ZFS) are the way to go here.
 
Do not use the motherboard RAID unless you have some special need for it. Use your OS built in RAID as it will probably be faster and more reliable than these consumer board's software RAID. It also saves you the hassle of being dependent on that board brand. So to answer your questions another way:
1. Your OS setup should not matter if it is on a separate disk. You can do the RAID setup at any point
2. Do not use MSI RAID setup
3. What Nenu said.
 
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