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Attempting to convert an existing Win 7 32bit system into an Intel raid.

Current Process:

  1. Boot to non raid drive and install Intel raid drivers.
  2. Use minitool to migrate OS to separate drive.
  3. Enable SATA Raid in Bios and create Raid 1. (Can reinstall windows here but would like to use current OS instead)
  4. Use minitool to migrate OS back into the raid.
  5. Reboot
  6. Gets to the glowing Microsoft window icon and instead of starting it reboots. (Can boot as non-raid)

What am I missing in my Existing OS for raid Config?

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  • Maybe, you can copy disk or migrate os again. For me, it worked the second time. After clone is completed, just take out the source disk and connect target disk only to see whether it is bootable.
    – LulaGreen
    Apr 28, 2018 at 6:25

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At the risk of potentially giving an incomplete answer, I am going to post one based on my experience with doing many hard drive, RAID, SSD, etc. migrations over the years.

Based on the steps you took and results you described, I am making two assumptions:

  1. Since it is a 32-bit installation of Windows 7, I have to assume the drive is using the MBR partitioning scheme with BIOS (non-UEFI) booting.
  2. When your system is rebooting in Step 6, I believe there is an "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" BSOD that you are not seeing because the system instantly reboots. In order to know for sure, in your original working (non-RAID) configuration, you would need to go to Control Panel, System, "Advanced" tab, "Startup and Recovery" section's Settings button, then finally uncheck "Automatically restart" under the "System failure" section. Then you would unfortunately need to re-copy your Windows partition to the RAID. Instead of rebooting, you would then get a BSOD that would hopefully give a clue to the problem.

Because my suggestion in my #2 assumption above is potentially not a good use of time (in case it does not help narrow down the problem), I am going to suggest something that has generally worked for me, especially back when I was still using Windows 7...

I suggest that if there is a way you can have your RAID copy and your original single-drive setup available at the same time, that you boot from the working setup with the RAID attached (if your hardware configuration allows it). Windows will then detect the RAID volume and add it to the registry. You would then need to either re-copy the single-drive config to your RAID anyway (and if you do this, you might as well disable the automatic restart that I described above), or if you are familiar with how to use Registry Editor, you could just copy the contents of the registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices to your RAID copy of the same registry hive, located at %SystemRoot%\System32\config\SYSTEM, where %SystemRoot% is usually C:\Windows. Going the registry route, if your RAID copy of your Windows installation got assigned to drive letter D:, for example, on your RAID copy of that registry key, delete the "\DosDevices\C:" entry, and rename "\DosDevices\D:" to "\DosDevices\C:".

Also, during your first boot off of the RAID, I would advise booting into Safe Mode. Assuming that works, only then try booting normally.

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