RAID=0 setup help..

[dVeLoPe]

I have a WD 74GB Raptor that I use as my only HDD. I just bought another Raptor (same model) and want to install it into my system so that both drives pull out the same files making it reduce loading times in half... How would I go upon installing my 2nd drive without messing with the original in my Gigabyte DQ6 board.

 

[tuskenraider]

so that both drives pull out the same files making it reduce loading times in half...

That ain't gonna happen. Two doesn't equal twice as fast and three doesn't equal thrice as fast. It'll will be quicker in many things and no faster than a single drive in others.

How would I go upon installing my 2nd drive without messing with the original in my Gigabyte DQ6 board.

You can't. You'll need to image your current drive to a spare, create your RAID0 array, and then copy the image back to the new RAID0 array.

 

[kuyaglen]

what he^ said.

 

[Madwand]

You could try running a normal 2-drive setup. It's safer, easier to maintain, and should give you a performance boost due to separating the OS / swap from programs / data.

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Edit: I hadn't noticed before that this was an Intel RAID board. The stuff below is mostly for nVIDIA RAID, but some material might be similar.

You can get around double STR with RAID 0 with a small stripe size and good implementation.

Depending on the RAID implementation, you can sometimes do an in-place migration from single drive to 2-drive RAID 0. But the main problem here is not changing the RAID implementation per se, but the OS installation's recognition of the OS drive/driver changing underneath it. The safest approach would be to backup to external, configure RAID and re-install, and then restore data files from backup. (And continue maintaining backups going forwards.)

With nvRAID, If you happened to have RAID enabled in the BIOS for the ports (but RAID arrays not defined), then you should be able to do an in-place conversion.

However, even trying this stuff is risky, and you'd be better off having a backup to start with. I'd recommend in all cases getting a largish 3rd drive and populating it as an external backup.

Here's one possible approach (no guarantees here, do at your own risk) assuming nVIDIA RAID:

Image drive to external backup.
Enable RAID on 2nd drive port at the BIOS level (while no drive attached)
Re-install chipset drives to install RAID drives and RAID utility
Configure 1st drive as single-drive RAID 0 in BIOS. Use 32K or smaller stripe size for STR.
Ensure that RAID array is set to boot device.
Start Windows, confirm that it recognizes the "array" and works.
If NOT OK, then undo / restore from backup, etc. / use some other technique.
If OK, then shut down, connect second drive.
Boot into Windows.
If NOT OK, then undo, etc.
Use nVIDIA RAID tool to migrate single drive to 2 drive RAID 0. [This is risky, wait and don't interrupt]
When done, restart, ensure array is boot drive, restart Windows.
If NOT OK, then undo, etc.