Hope someone can shed light on RAID for me...

I had a D901C which I use for work and some play. Having three drives allowed me to use 1) a Boot Drive, 2) a Work drive and 3) a gaming drive. I really have not interest or use for RAID.

I just picked up a D900F that the seller installed Windows Server2008 R2 on. The install is with a single drive in the Laptop, but he left the Bios set to RAID. Again, I planned on having three distinct drives, with distinct purposes.

I tried regedit to set msachi to 0 value. That did no allow me to reset bios from RAID to ACHI and still boot into Windows.

So when I install a second and third hard drive into the Laptop, what happens then? Will it allow me to use them as independent drives, and not try to force them into some RAID mode?

I realize I could re-install Windows. But if that isn't necessary, I save time and hassle. Anyone be down this path? AlanP

 

if RAID isn't set in the bios you should be good. But why aren't you interested in RAID? It can be pretty good in a RAID-0 config unless you're worried about data loss.

 

I need three drives for three different purposes. I back the Boot Drive frequently. That is the drive that ends to fail.
The second drive is back onto a Laptop at home for games and hobby.
The third drive is back and updated at Work. Actually ends up being our Server backup/restore.

So RAID was the setting in Bios when he installed the OS, but he only had one hard drive in the Laptop. So he wouldn't have had an opportunity to set a Mode. Hopefully I can just say"never mind" to the RAID control and run them as three separate drives, after installing the next two hard drives.

Again I am hoping to avoid reinstalling Windows from scratch. But I will do that rather than loose drives to RAID. AlanP

 

You can add drives to the computer with the SATA type set to RAID and the new drive not being part of the RAID Array. If you plan on adding an SSD you'll want to change that to ACHI, you'll have to reinstall Windows but would need to anyway with a new SSD.