Temporary removal of Raid 0 drives

[ASalc3]

If I temporarily remove three SSD PCIe drives on a bootable Raid 0 array created with Intel Rapid Storage Technology, install a new drive without raid (where I will install the operating system) and then reinstall the same old three drives, unchanged, will I keep the data in the old drives? That is, will the Intel Raid controller recognize the old Raid Array and boot up?

I believe so, since the array info is stored on the drives themselves in the GUID/MBR of each drive in the set. But, I want to make sure because I cannot lose the old data.

Thanks,

[n_scott_pearson]

Do you mean you want to remove the array, work with some other drives for a while and then restore the array? Provided you do not touch the BIOS or RST configuration parameters and you restore the drives to the exact same connectors, yes, this should, in theory, work without issue. I would make sure you have a complete backup of the array before doing anything like this. Using RAID is not an acceptable excuse for skipping the regular preparation of backup media. Using RAID1 is not a safe backup methodology (better than nothing but not by much).

Hope this helps,

...S

[ASalc3]

Hi Scott, I will have to change the RST configuration because the new drive will not be in a Raid array. But I will change it back to how it was. Do you still think that the old array will be preserved? Thanks.

[n_scott_pearson]

Why would you have to change the configuration? You can leave it in RAID mode and still access a single drive (and install to it). You'd be touching nothing; just removing the array for a while. This should be ok - but I have never tried it, so I can't say for sure.

...S

[ASalc3]

Hi Scott. As expected, it works fine. Even setting the BIOS to AHCI and then back to RAID. Thanks.