Question

I'm trying to convert my system to RAID 0 and so far I found contrasting opinions on the process. Somebody says Windows 7 can't boot from virtual volumes, somebody says it can.

My ideal setup would be two 500gb HD striped in RAID 0 with the OS and software installed on them.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

No I don't think you can boot Windows with software RAID 0. I couldn't find anything definitive but it wasn't possible in Server 2003. Since I don't believe you can configure software RAID in the setup process there couldn't be a way to set it up later. Interestingly it looks like you can setup a RAID 1 mirror on the boot drive.

It looks like you'll need hardware RAID to be able to boot a RAID 0 array. Most motherboards have some RAID support built in, so if you're board has that you can setup the array in hardware and Windows will be able to boot from that array.

Answer 2

If your BIOS supports RAID, then your problem will mostly be W7 drivers.
There are several ways you can go about it:

1. Try installing on the RAID - it might work out of the box if you're lucky.
2. Install on another drive, ensure that W7 sees your RAID, then take an image of the system disk and restore to the RAID.
3. Disconnect the second drive, set your BIOS to RAID and install on the first, add RAID drivers, then add the 2nd drive and convert it to RAID. See the advice at the end of this thread for similar advice.

Finally, whether this can work or not depends on the combination of your BIOS, motherboard and W7 drivers. The complications involved have led many people to using non-RAID as the boot medium.