AOMEI Partition Assistant
Before Creating A RAID Array to Disk Need Format?
Find out if you need to format disk before creating a RAID array. Learn the correct pre-setup steps and avoid common mistakes when creating a RAID array for your storage needs.
By Lucas / Updated on April 25, 2025
Consider setting up a RAID array to boost your computer's speed or protect your valuable data. RAID technology is a powerful way to combine multiple physical drives into a single, more resilient, or higher-performing storage unit. As you gather your disks and prepare for installation, a crucial question often comes up: before creating a RAID array, do disks need formatted? Understanding the correct procedure for disk preparation is vital for a smooth and successful RAID configuration.
Understanding RAID: Performance & Data Safety
At its core, RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a method of combining multiple physical storage drives (HDDs or SSDs) so they function as a single logical unit. This is handled by a dedicated RAID controller, either hardware or software-based. The primary reasons individuals and businesses use RAID are:
- Increased Performance: Distributing data across multiple drives allows for faster reading and writing speeds by performing operations simultaneously (e.g., RAID 0).
- Enhanced Data Redundancy: By duplicating data or using parity information across drives, RAID provides fault tolerance, meaning the system can continue to operate and data remains accessible even if one drive fails (e.g., RAID 1, RAID 5).
The choice of RAID level depends on whether performance, redundancy, or a balance of both is the priority. Regardless of the level, proper disk preparation is a necessary prerequisite for setting up the array.
Before Creating a RAID Array, Do Disks Need Formatted?
The definitive answer is no. You should generally not format the individual physical disks with a file system, such as NTFS for Windows or ext4 for Linux before you proceed to create the RAID array itself using the RAID controller's configuration utility. Attempting to apply a file system format to the raw drives beforehand can prevent the RAID controller from correctly recognizing and incorporating them into the array.
The RAID controller requires access to the raw, uninitialized disk space to manage the way data is striped, mirrored, or distributed with parity across the member drives. A pre-existing file system on an individual drive would interfere with the controller's low-level management of the array.
How to Prepare Your Disks for RAID
While file system formatting of individual drives is not needed before creating the array, the disks do need to be in a clean state. This means they should ideally be uninitialized and free of any existing partitions or file systems.
New, out-of-the-box hard drives or SSDs are typically in this state. However, if you are reusing drives that were previously used for other purposes, they might contain old partitions or data. In such cases, you need to clean or wipe the disks to remove any old partition information.
While tools like Windows' built-in Diskpart utility can perform this task, it requires complex commands, the dedicated third-party tool can often provide a more user-friendly way to ensure your disks are ready. For instance, AOMEI Partition Assistant, an overall tool for Windows, offers a "Wipe Hard Drive" function that can effectively clean a disk, making it suitable for use in a RAID array before you enter the RAID configuration utility.
100% SecureStep 1. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, click the "Wipe" main tab and select the "Wipe Hard Drive" option.
Step 2. Select the disk you want to wipe and click "OK" to continue.
Step 3. Select a wiping method to wipe the selected hard drive and click "OK". By default, the wiping method is Fill in 0.
Step 4. Return to the main user interface, check the pending operation, and click “Apply” > "Proceed".
Then, you will wipe an HDD successfully and completely.
➢ It could be a long time to wipe hard drive and your data are unable to be recovered after this operation.
➢ If you want to wipe a system disk and the system is running, you need to create a bootable device, boot from the device, and then wipe the disk in Windows PE.
If your target disk is an SSD, the erasing method will be different because HDD and SSD are different. To erase SSD, you need to use the "Secure Erase SSD" function which requires a Windows 7 PC.
Step 1. Hook up your SSD to a computer running Windows 7 and ensure that it can be detected by your OS. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant, click the disk that you need to securely erase, and choose "Wipe"> "SSD Secure Erase".
Step 2. Choose the SSD that you want to blank and click Next.
Step 3. There are chances that you will be trapped in the situation that your SSD is in a frozen state. At this point, you need to make hot swap to unfreeze the SSD.
The tutorial to make hot swap:
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Open case, rear cover or drive shell and locate the position of the SSD that you need to erase.
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Disconnect the power cable and SATA data cable form SSD in order.
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After a few seconds, plug the SATA data cable to the SATA port, and then reconnect the power cable.
Step 4. Click "Next" to start the SSD Secure Erase.
➤ Notices:
✔ It is not advised to securely erase SSD frequently as this operation can affect its lift while improving its performance.
✔ This software allows you to migrate OS to SSD, converting MBR system disk into GPT without data loss, and so on.
How to create RAID array on your disk
After we clean the disk, you can create RAID array on your computer. Creating a RAID array involves combining multiple physical hard drives or solid-state drives into a single logical unit to improve performance, provide data redundancy, or both.
1. Choose Your RAID Level
Different RAID levels offer varying balances of performance, redundancy, and usable capacity. Common levels include:
- RAID 0 (Striping): Improves performance by splitting data across drives. Offers no redundancy; failure of one drive loses all data in the array.
- RAID 1 (Mirroring): Provides redundancy by writing identical data to two or more drives. It offers excellent data protection but reduces usable capacity by half (for two drives).
- RAID 5 (Striping with Parity): Balances performance and redundancy by striping data and distributing parity information across drives. Can withstand the failure of one drive. Requires at least three drives.
2. Convert Disks to Dynamic
First, we need to convert your disk into Dynamic.
Step 1. Open Disk Management: Search for "Disk Management" in the Start menu or type diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog (Windows Key + R).
Step 2. Identify the disks you want to use.
Step 3. Right-click on the disk name (e.g., "Disk 1", "Disk 2") on the left panel where it says "Basic" and select "Convert to Dynamic Disk...". Select the disk(s) you want to convert and click OK.
Step 4. Click "Convert". You will receive a warning that you cannot start operating systems from partitions on the dynamic disk (unless it's the system boot volume itself, which you generally don't convert to dynamic for RAID purposes). Confirm if you understand.
The disk(s) will now show as "Dynamic".
3. Create a RAID Array using Disk Management
You can create the RAID volume once your disks are dynamic and have enough unallocated space. Here, we use RAID 5 as an example.
Tip: Requires at least three dynamic disks with unallocated space. But, remember, the performance can be poor on desktop Windows.
Step 1. In Disk Management, right-click on an Unallocated space on one of the dynamic disks you want to use. Select "New RAID-5 Volume..." Click Next in the wizard.
Step 2. In the left pane, select the additional dynamic disks you want to include (at least two more). Click the "Add >" button. The wizard will show the total volume size, which will be approximately the size of the unallocated space on the smallest disk multiplied by (Number of disks - 1) because one disk's worth of space is used for parity information.
Step 3. Click Next. And assign Drive Letter or Path: Choose a drive letter or mount point. Click Next.
Format Volume:
- Select File system (NTFS).
- Allocation unit size (Default).
- Volume label (Optional).
- "Perform a quick format".
Step 4. Click Next, review your settings, and click Finish.
Windows will create and format the volume. It will then start the process of calculating and writing parity information across the disks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you've wondered before creating a RAID array, do disks need formatted, the answer is clearly no – you do not format the individual physical disks with a file system beforehand. The RAID controller handles the necessary initialization of the raw disks during the array creation process.
File system formatting is a crucial step, but it's performed after the RAID array has been successfully created, and applied to the single logical volume that the array presents to the operating system.
Tools like AOMEI Partition Assistant, can be incredibly helpful throughout this process, assisting with ensuring disks are clean before setup and providing a user-friendly way to initialize, partition, and format the final RAID volume after creation. It's a handy tool to have in your arsenal for managing your Windows storage effectively.
100% SecureBesides wipe and format, this tool also has Dynamic disk management function, you can use it to directly resize your Dynamic disk drive.
