I’m trying to help my grandson set up his ASUS P8Z77-V LT desktop system ( Intel Z77 Express Chipset) with a RAID1 setup. He has a SATA SSD for a boot drive with Win 7 SP1 64-bit OS installed on it. He also has a 1TB SATA HDD for all other programs and data. He has installed a new second identical 1TB SATA HDD for use in the RAID1 array which, at this point, is unallocated. The SSD boot C: drive is on a separate SATA controller and so will not be part of the RAID1 array, just the data D: drive and the mirror drive for D:.
He failed to install the Intel RAID drivers when he originally installed Win 7, so we are going to use a program called RAIDFix to install the Intel RAID drivers after the fact. I've used this program before and it will install the Intel RAID drivers as well as make all the necessary registry changes automatically. We will also install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Manager program.
My question concerns the Intel RST Option ROM screen accessed via CTL-I during the re-boot after installing the Intel RAID drivers. Can we specify the Primary and Mirror drives when selecting the two HDD’s to be included in the RAID array or is the program smart enough to realize that the drive with data on it should be the Primary drive and the drive that’s unallocated should be the Mirror drive in the RAID1 array that we’re creating?
I know these integrated Intel RAID controllers like those in his Intel Z77 Express Chipset can set up a RAID array after the fact without destroying the existing data, but I want to make sure we do this right. I know he should back up all his data to an external drive before doing anything like this, but he's away at college and does not have the necessary equipment to back up.