Help me set up RAID 1

[Magnj]

Hey guys, I have decided that a lot of my stuff is very valuable to me and I can not afford to lose it, so I would like to set up RAID 1. I have 2 Seagate 320G drives, same model in addition to a 120 gig drive where XP is installed. Can I set up RAID with stuff on one of the two disks and have the other one just mirror the first or am I gonna have to reformat them both?

Either way could someone direct me to a guide on how to do this?

[momoceio]

You can use software RAID in XP/Vista to do a RAID1 setup. Just convert the discs to dynamic then it will let you setup a volume. I'm not sure if you could setup the RAID 1 using your RAID controller without losing the data. Do you have an external drive you can back up your data to while you create the RAID volume?

[dsturner]

As far as I know that cant be done as it writes to both at the same time, you need to back up that disk,format it and then put it into raid 1. Raid is finicky and wouldn't take the chance as it may overwrite everything there. Any time ive set up raid systems weater it be striped,1,5 etc there always fresh or formated and as you say its important data so why take the chance.

LOL no sense in making a back-up system and loose all the data you want to back up.

[Magnj]

As far as I know that cant be done as it writes to both at the same time, you need to back up that disk,format it and then put it into raid 1. Raid is finicky and wouldn't take the chance as it may overwrite everything there. Any time ive set up raid systems weater it be striped,1,5 etc there always fresh or formated and as you say its important data so why take the chance.

LOL no sense in making a back-up system and loose all the data you want to back up.

I'm gonna have to borrow one or spread it between my install drive and my laptop

[Nick04263]

I'm gonna have to borrow one or spread it between my install drive and my laptop

This is why it pays to have a lot of extra storage drives sitting around. Especially as the mid-range drives prices continue to drop.

[Lloyd]

You need to back up everything first as it will delete all data when u create the RAID array.
Hope this helps

[deees]

Without knowing which RAID controller you’re using I can't give you step-by-step instructions. However, my experiance with Intel chipsets, is that you can mirror the existing volume anytime. In fact, I usually split my RAID set before upgrading my system and then remirroring them after I am happy with the new configuration, (after zeroing out the second disk). The inexpensive RAID controllers usually store their configuration on the media itself, so they’re fairly tolerant to bumbling. Most ATA drives can function stand-alone if they’re attached to a non-RAID controller, although some knowledge of editing the boot.ini may be required to pull in off.

One issue you should be concerned with is how you designate the master drive for the mirroring operation, assuming you want to preserve the data on one of them. Most let you pick the source and target. Some however, (like some LSI), use the most current image as the master. This can lead to a mirrored empty drive if you’re not careful.

In your case, it should be easier because your system drive isn't mirrored. Some controllers wouldn’t let you install the RAID drives until you enabled the RAID mode. This can lead to an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error, necessitating an in-place grade to recover the system. Another solution can be moving the OS drive to a non-raid controller that has drivers installed in the image and enabling RAID on the empty controller, so you can install the RAID drivers before you attempt to boot from it.

P.S. Of course all of this if specific to Windows2000/WindowsXP/Windows2003, since no one is currently using Vista.