Add Intel RAID Drivers to existing Windows 7 install BEFORE enabling RAID in BIOS?

I'm trying to:

Take a system image of my current WIndows 7 x64 setup, which is using IDE-mode storage

Enable RAID in the BIOS

Install two new drives and set up a RAID mirror

Restore my system image onto the new mirrored C: drive

The problem is - my existing Windows 7 install won't boot if the storage controller is set to RAID or AHCI mode (instead of IDE) in the BIOS.

The Windows 7 system recovery process works fine - will quite happily restore my old C: drive image onto the new mirrored C: drive - but then this won't boot, either.

I'm guessing that I need to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager RAID drivers - but if I try to do this with the BIOS configured to use IDE, the installer reports:

"This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software."

So - I can't boot with RAID enabled in order to install the drivers, and I can't install the drivers first in order to boot with RAID enabled.

Any bright ideas? Really rather not reinstall if I can help it.

Answer

This was by far the simplest solution I could find. The others involved reinstalling windows, downloading sketchy software or large registry hacks.

1) With RAID disabled, boot into Windows and start Regedit.exe

2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStorV

3) In the right-hand column, you should see a value named Start. Double-click this entry and change the data from 1 to 0.

4) Reboot with RAID enabled – Windows should load just fine. Now install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager as you usually would. This time around, it should detect your hardware and install without any issues.

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