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

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 1:

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.