Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - I need to replace my RAID SATA PCI Controller card with a non-RAID Card

Jerold · 01-13-2007, 06:39 PM

I've found a utility and the manual on the Promise site and this is what I've discovered. The GUI based Utility is more user-friendly and easier to understand.
I currently have two RAID 0 (Performance) Arrays with 1 HDD in each array.
Even though 2 HDD's is usually the number of HDD's in a RAID 0 array, one HDD is allowed and the performance is as good as a 1 HDD array gets. I can delete the array, but it tells me that deleting the array will cause the read/write requests from the OS to fail. That is ok as long as the data isn't lost - I hope.
I don't have another HDD big enough to clone my 2 SATA HDD's, so I backed up the data on the 2nd HDD onto an external and the C Drive on the 1st HDD was backed up with Acronis True Image onto DVD-R's. I hope these are restorable if I lose the drives. I've done it on my laptop, but who knows with this machine.
My goal now is still to only replace the SATA Controller Card with the non-RAID one since I am still getting the F1/F2 system BIOS message.

My plan is to:
1. delete Array 2 (the 2nd HDD) and try to boot the system straight thru into Windows with only the original SATA HDD.
2. If it goes thru, I'll install the non-RAID PCI controller card into the machine and reboot and hopefully install the controller card.
3. Shutdown and move the SATA cables from the old card to the new one and remove the RAID card.
4. If all that goes well, My system should be ok to reinstall the 2nd SATA HDD as a non-RAID.

01-13-2007, 06:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
Jerold Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 86 OS: WinXP Pro	I've found a utility and the manual on the Promise site and this is what I've discovered. The GUI based Utility is more user-friendly and easier to understand. I currently have two RAID 0 (Performance) Arrays with 1 HDD in each array. Even though 2 HDD's is usually the number of HDD's in a RAID 0 array, one HDD is allowed and the performance is as good as a 1 HDD array gets. I can delete the array, but it tells me that deleting the array will cause the read/write requests from the OS to fail. That is ok as long as the data isn't lost - I hope. I don't have another HDD big enough to clone my 2 SATA HDD's, so I backed up the data on the 2nd HDD onto an external and the C Drive on the 1st HDD was backed up with Acronis True Image onto DVD-R's. I hope these are restorable if I lose the drives. I've done it on my laptop, but who knows with this machine. My goal now is still to only replace the SATA Controller Card with the non-RAID one since I am still getting the F1/F2 system BIOS message. My plan is to: 1. delete Array 2 (the 2nd HDD) and try to boot the system straight thru into Windows with only the original SATA HDD. 2. If it goes thru, I'll install the non-RAID PCI controller card into the machine and reboot and hopefully install the controller card. 3. Shutdown and move the SATA cables from the old card to the new one and remove the RAID card. 4. If all that goes well, My system should be ok to reinstall the 2nd SATA HDD as a non-RAID.