SEARCH

The How-To Geek Forums Have Migrated to Discourse



Join the Discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com

How-To Geek Forums / Windows 7

Need to add another hard drive

(16 posts)
  • Started 4 months ago by Handthumb
  • Latest reply from Handthumb
  • Topic Viewed 222 times

Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Hi. I will make this as short as possible. I had a motherboard go bad and I had to use one of the two hard drives I was using to get back up and running. (business computer) So now, I want to add another hard drive. I know I can't use the standard raid setup so I was trying to do it through windows 7. I tried to create a new striped volume but once I get to the "select disks" window, it does not allow me to select one disk. I have my "C" drive only, so can I just add one other hard drive? Am I doing something wrong here?

One other question. I have the Sabertooth 990fx mobo with the AMD Phenom II Black Edition processor with a total of 16gb ram. I have 4 extra Corsair Dominator-GT ram, 12gb 1866mhz DDR3. Is it worth putting in the Corsair ram or will it not make a difference? Thank you for your time. :)

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Posts: 13598

Handthumb hi. Can you put your 2nd question in a New Tpic please.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

O.K. Will do.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
whs
whs
Posts: 17584

Is there any special reason that you want to Raid the drives ?? Best would be when you posted a picture of your full Disk Management so that we can see where you stand.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Hhmm... Let me see if I can figure out how to post a picture. I wanted to raid the drives so I can speed things up. Disk data transfer is a little slow. I use Autocad, Tekla Structures, Adobe , itunes, email and GoogleChrome at the same time. (on a slow day) 1tb hard drive is good, 2 would be better. I had two in my old Crosshair iv formula and the thing was amazing.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
raphoenix
raphoenix
Posts: 14920

The HDDs should be IDENTICAL in make and model number for any Raid Arrays.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
raphoenix
raphoenix
Posts: 14920

Need to Clean Install to get rid of reserve boot partitions.

What is the make model number of the machine or motherboard ??

However can be done the way you have it but is terribly awkward mess.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Motherboad is Asus Sabertooth 990FX, can't seem to find the model number and Asus web site is being stupid. This is the one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6813131736

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
raphoenix
raphoenix
Posts: 14920

Do you have Manual ??

If not download it from Asus Site.

http://www.service.asus.com

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Yes, I have the manual.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
raphoenix
raphoenix
Posts: 14920

Do you know how to use Windows 7 Installation Disc and DiskPart Commands to prepare the hard drives ??

Do you know how to setup the Bios for Raid 0 Array ??

Do you know how to Clean Install ??

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Originally I did the clean install etc. But then I found out I couldn't do the Raid setup in the bios since I needed 2 clean disks and I already had everything including the OS installed on one of the drives already. So the other disk has been sitting there ever since. So I cannot go this route because I can't afford to take the time to wipe my main disk clean and start from scratch. That's why I wanted to try a software raid setup.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
raphoenix
raphoenix
Posts: 14920

Appears to me the Boot Manager resides on Partition 1 Disk 1 and calls Winload System on Partition 2 Disk 0.

If Partition 2 Disk 0 actually has boot manager and booting the system, I think? you will loose the system if you format Partition 2 Disk 2 and try to include it in a Raid 0 setup.

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
germ-x
germ-x
Posts: 5310

If you have an external storage device make an image of your system now then you can try differnet setups and if all fails you just recover your image and your back in 20 minutes.
Use this free imaging utility.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Posted 4 months ago #
Top
 
Handthumb
Handthumb
Posts: 23

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help. Germ-X, thanks for the link. I will give it a try. :)

Posted 4 months ago #
Top