How To Break RAID

practice

Have just got 2 year old Dell Computer configured to use RAID.

2x 160 gb hard drives installed reading as 1 drive.

I want to break the raid and see both drives
Read up about this and cannot find an idiots guide on how to do it.

Will I do any lasting Damage if I do my own thing with the BIOS settings

Faolchu

if it has a windows OS and you're using software RAID then I'm pretty sur eyou can break teh array in the disk management mmc. if its hardware raid then I'd hazard a gues sthat at book theres an option to enter teh RAID configuration utility and you may be able to do it that way

GowlBag

Just bear in mind that you will lose everything if you break the RAID. MAke sure to back everything up first.

seamus

Don't just mess with the BIOS settings - there's usually an option to restore everything to default. Do this and there's little chance of breaking anything. This should reset the RAID controller and remove the RAID.

As noted though, you will lose all of your data so make sure you don't need anything.

Once you've reset the BIOS, you will have to reinstall windows.

Faolchu

its a 2 dis array so chances are its mirrored would he really lose the data if he breaks it?

fionny

Faolchu wrote: »

its a 2 dis array so chances are its mirrored would he really lose the data if he breaks it?

I reckon its strip raided but easy way to see is how much drive space is on the machine at the moment, if its 160gb its mirrored if 320gb its striped.

With a mirror you can break it with some jiggery pokery i think safely enough. Google will help there.

GowlBag

If it's a software mirror it would probably be easy enough to get stuff back off either drive. But from what I've seen of Dell RAIDs they are usually striped for performance which is seriously dangerous from a fault tolerance point of view.

practice

GowlBag wrote: »

If it's a software mirror it would probably be easy enough to get stuff back off either drive. But from what I've seen of Dell RAIDs they are usually striped for performance which is seriously dangerous from a fault tolerance point of view.

Not Interested in getting DATA I just want to see 2 seperate drives, re format and reinstall OS.
pressing ctrl + i gets me into RAID settings.
Can I just delete RAID and then reboot with os disc in and press ahead.

I just dont want to make computer unbootable

yoyo

practice wrote: »

Not Interested in getting DATA I just want to see 2 seperate drives, re format and reinstall OS.
pressing ctrl + i gets me into RAID settings.
Can I just delete RAID and then reboot with os disc in and press ahead.

I just dont want to make computer unbootable

If you break the raid setup youll need to re install Windows more than likely, You'll be able to boot the computer once the os is installed without RAID

Nick