How to install Windows 7 onto software RAID-0

Question

I recently got a new laptop (Asus G73JH-A2) which has two identical hard drives in it. Unfortunately the motherboard does not have a RAID controller. What I would like to do is run the drives in a RAID-0 configuration to improve performance (plus get the extra capacity on one partition). I would like Windows installed onto the striped volume (RAID 0).

I have spent some time using diskpart to create a striped volume across the two drives, however when I go to install windows and select the volume it will not let me select 'Next' giving the error "Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition contains one or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation." I'm hoping theres a step that I am missing that will allow me to install windows on a striped volume. Any ideas?

Answer 1

After many hours, I am concluding that it is not possible. It seems that RAID-1 is possible, or at least the 'Mirror' feature of Disk Management, which can be applied after install, but RAID-0 striping is not possible on the OS disk.

Answer 2

If this is at all possible, then the correct procedure is to install Win7 on one basic disk, convert it to dynamic, then add the second disk. This also depends on your Win7 version, since the Home version doesn't support mirroring, only spanning and striping.

Read this article and its comments: Information regarding Windows 7 software Raid.

I would only remark that :

1. Tests have not shown RAID-0 to have any performance improvement
2. Using RAID-0 means that in case of a problem on one disk, you actually lose both disks
3. If you need to reinstall Windows, then you lose both disks again.
4. A 2-disk configuration is more flexible.
5. I would actually advice as the most fail-safe configuration, to put only Windows and installed applications on the system disk, while data is put on another disk. It's usually the system disk that's in danger. The biggest danger here is Windows Update itself : What will you do if after it Windows will BSOD rather than boot? You then lose both Windows and your data!

You might also find this of interest:
How to Avoid 200MB Hidden System Partition From Being Created During Windows 7 Installation

Answer 3

HarryMC is almost completely mistaken. The article he cites is no longer available. I have found that RAID0 provides a substantial performance improvement in some situations. To protect against data loss, make sure you have a good backup system. Losing Windows does not necessarily entail losing both disks; just leave your data in its own separate Win7 RAID0 array and install Windows on a separate drive if necessary. I don't know why the system disk would be in particular danger, especially if it's the newest. If a Windows update is going to screw up your system, that would presumably not be unique to RAID0. In any case, that's just a question of whether you keep a system image or other backup and can restore it to the target partition. Harry seems not to know that Win7 permits creation of multiple RAID0 arrays on the same drives, as well as single-drive partitions within a set of dynamic disks. And I'm not sure why his response refers to support for mirroring, when the question had to do with RAID0.

I agree with the second answer. I have spent hours at it myself. RAID0 on Win7 does not appear possible. If you do find a way to do it, but then have a problem with it, I am not sure how you will restore your Win7 installation. Your data will still be there in its own separate RAID0 arrays, or on single-disk partitions on the dynamic volumes, but to get it back you may have to install Win7 from scratch on a separate partition.