Which software raid modes does each version of Windows 7 support?

Question

Being familiar with the software raid modes and dynamic disks from the server versions, I was wondering if there is a document or even just common crowd knowledge that indicated what software raid support was available for each version of Windows 7.

Also - all the various raid levels supported for booting or just a data recovery mechanism (e.g. you can connect three RAID-5 dynamic disks to an already booted system).

I would prefer to stay away from modified/copied DLL's from the server variants, as well - please note - this is Windows software RAID - not fake-raid from your BIOS or an add-on card.

Solution

The Professional/Enterprise/Ultimate editions of Windows 7 officially support the following dynamic disk modes:

• Simple
• Spanned
• Striped (RAID-0)
• Mirrored (RAID-1)

These are the officially supported modes. It has been possible in previous Windows releases to enable unsupported modes through DLL modifications and/or registry changes, and this will probably be the case in Windows 7 as well. At your own risk, of course.

RAID-5 dynamic disks are only available in Windows Server editions.

Note that dynamic disks are not available in the Standard/Home editions of Windows 7.

Comments

[Goyuix]

I think you have your RAID0 and RAID1 backwarwds. RAID1 is mirror. Also, does it supporting booting from a software RAID volumee?

[TheTXI]

goyuix: I am just quoting the article :)

[asjo]

Why are you quoting an article that is clearly wrong? RAID0 is striping: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_0 RAID1 is mirroring: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_1

[ChrisInEdmonton]

This is misleading. Windows XP did not do software RAID5, though there were a number of sites (for example, windowsreference.com/windows-xp/…) that showed you how.

[Axxmasterr]

You needed to use SCSI disks for it to work. At least every time I set it up it was on UUW SCSI drives.

[Ivo Flipse]

Because like most people do, we assume Wikipedia is correct and we're only trying to be helpful by quoting it

[David Spillett]

You should be able to use any fixed (non removable) disk fro RAID under windows. I currently have a SATA drive and a PATA drive acting as a RAID0 (stripped) volume on which I have my games installed. MS generally includes R0 and R1 in all editions apart from those explicitly marked as "home" with the addition of R5 in "server" and "datacentre" editions. You can hack XP to allow RAID5, but it isn't supported and could be broken by the next patch you download so isn't recommended.

[Goyuix]

Is there documentation to reference this against? Also, does support include booting from those different dynamic volume types?

[Goyuix]

I had some more time so I created a striped volume in Win7, then shutdown and detached the original virtual HD leaving only the two drives in the striped volume. Booting off the the Win7 ISO gave me a notice I needed to format the two drives because "The partition contains one or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation."

[Mircea Chirea]

Most mobos use a JMicron controller to offer RAID. This "fake" hardware RAID still does the calculations on the main CPU but only works with that specific controller; change your motherboard and you lose the array. Software RAID is much better than this fakeRAID.

[Mircea Chirea]

@Ivo, but he wasn't quoting Wikipedia.

[Ivo Flipse]

@iconiK, but @asjo was ;-)

[Antti Rytsölä]

According to blogs.withalan.com/a-few-notes-on-windows-7-software-raid Home version would be able to Span/Concatenate.