How to configure a RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device in a Windows 7 computer

In order to have a RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device configured and functional in a Windows 7 system, please follow the instructions below.

Requirements:

• RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device.
• Thunderbolt Cable and Power Supply.
• Thunderbolt supported Motherboard.

  Note:

  Please make sure to flash the system's BIOS as to have the latest version for it. This can be done through the support website of the Motherboard's manufacturer.

  
  
• Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System (OS).
• Intel approved ASMedia Thunderbolt Driver for surprise removal support.

Instructions:

1. Connect the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device to the power outlet and to the computer. Then, power on the computer.
2. When the computer starts the boot up process, make sure that the following devices are seen during the PC boot up screen:
   • Asmedia 106X SATA Controller.
   • SATA PM 0 Port 0 WDC Drives.
   
   

   

3. When in Windows, click on Start and right click on Computer. From the drop down menu, click on Manage.
   

   

4. In the Computer Management screen, click on Device Manager from the left side pane. When there, expand the Disk Drives and IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers items to confirm the correct recognition of the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device and the Serial ATA Controller.
   

   

5. Install the ASMedia SATA Controller Driver. Be aware that when the driver is installed, the SATA Controller name will be changed to Asmedia 106x SATA Controller.
   

   

6. When that's completed, open Disk Management located on the left side pane. This will display all the hard drives that are currently connected to the system.

   Note:

   The RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device comes formatted in HFS+J file system for Mac usage. Because of this it will not have a drive letter assigned to it by Windows until the drive is re-formatted to NTFS file system.

   
   
   

   

7. Using Diskpart command in Command Prompt, both disks need to be Cleaned before formatting them to NTFS. To do that, please disconnect any other external hard drive to avoid formatting the wrong drive and follow the next guidelines:

   Critical: The following instructions are designed to help delete the partition of the hard drive. This process is Data Destructive and cannot be undone. Once the process begins, ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WILL BE LOST!

   
   
   • Open Command Prompt (CMD) located in Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
   • In Command Prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.
   • Type list disk and press Enter. This will display a list of the hard drives connected to the computer, both internal and external ones. Identify the correct drive that needs to be formatted by the capacity that is displaying. Both internal drives of the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device will display in that list.
   • Once the drives of the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device are identified, select the first one of them by typing select disk #, # being that particular disk's number, and pressing Enter.
   • A notification will display saying that the disk has been selected. After that, type clean and press enter.
   • Repeat the same process with the second disk of the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device, selecting it and then cleaning it.
     

     

8. Back in Disk Management, both drives will display a black bar and will say Not Initialized and Unallocated. Right click the first disk that says Not Initialized and initialize it as a GPT (GUID Partition Table).
   

   

9. Now, right click the disk's Unallocated portion and select New Striped Volume."
   

   

10. Select both disks from Available to Selected area and click on Next.
    

    

11. Now the drive has been successfully formatted for Windows usage and is ready to be used.
    

    

How to swap between multiple RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage devices in Windows 7.

After a RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device is hot or cold swapped (the drive is switched with a different RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device while the computer is on or off), Windows will not recognize the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device properly. The cause for this is, at this time, being investigated by Intel for a resolution. Should this happen, then the instructions below need to be followed in order to use the newly connected drive.

Note:

These steps will need to be taken every time that a RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device is disconnected and swapped with a different Thunderbolt device in RAID configuration.

1. Click on Start and right click on Computer. From the drop down menu, click on Manage.
   

   

2. In the Computer Management screen, click on Disk Management from the left side pane. When there, the RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device drives will display as Dynamic and Foreign.
   

   

3. Right click Disk 1 (the Dynamic Foreign Disk) and select Import Foreign Disks.
   

   

4. Click Ok after verifying Foreign disk group (2 of 2 disks).
   

   

5. The new RAID-enabled WD dual-drive storage device drive will be ready to be used.
   

   

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In case the answer did not answer your question, you can always visit the WD Community for help from WD users.