Adding raid 1 to a raid 0

pattersons · 7 Mar 2006 at 08:23

Adding raid 1 to a raid 0?

Hi i have 2 x Sata 250 GB hard drives and am running them in a raid 0 setup. Is it possible to now buy either 1 500 GB or 2 x 250gb sata drives and set them to mirror the raid 0 (i.e. have them in raid 1 with the other 2 hard drives).
Can this be done without reinstalling windows on the original raid 0? and if i have to use a program to do this, which is the best to use

Thanks in advance

MikeOCUK · 7 Mar 2006 at 09:46

you can actually make another raid 0 array and then use windows to mirror the original raid 0 array. however this would be doen to the limitations of your hardware.

Admiral Huddy · 8 Mar 2006 at 11:42

Sounds like you want the benefits of RAID-0 with mirroring?.. If so, then this is possible. Raid-0 with parity is known as RAID 5.

You need 3 drives, two being identical.

You will have to re-format your drives nd re-install windows.

Messiah Khan · 8 Mar 2006 at 12:25

Mr Huddy said:
Sounds like you want the benefits of RAID-0 with mirroring?.. If so, then this is possible. Raid-0 with parity is known as RAID 5.

You need 3 drives, two being identical.

You will have to re-format your drives nd re-install windows.

I personally would go with RAID5, but you can also get RAID 1+0, which does exactly what the OP asked for. You'll have to check your RAID controller to make sure it supports this option. Im not sure but AFAIK you'll need to format all the drives and start from scratch once the RAID has been built.