How do I set up Raid1

Gepetto

Gepetto

Gepetto

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Right, I'd like to have a Raid1 setup to safeguard all my pics, having just had a HDD die on me. Luckily all my pics were saved to disc, but I lost all my e-mails.

Never having done this before i need some advice on how to actually achieve it. I have two identical HDD's, and I believe my motherboard (P5Q-P45) supports Raid, so I need to know how to get started, or where to find a guide.

My OS is already on one of the HDD's so do I need to Ghost (Acronis) that drive to the other drive before I start? There are no partitions on it.

Any advice would be welcome. :cool:
 
Are you using your 2 identical HD's for you OS and your data. If so then you will lose your OS as the RAID controller will wipe the 2 HD's when you put them into RAID.

The best thing to do is save all your personal data onto a DVD/CD. Image your OS if you feel you need to using Acronis/Windows Backup. Then reboot your PC into BIOS and change IDE/AHCI to RAID (I am not sure of your BIOS setting so you may have to look around for this).

Then reboot your PC and by pressing Ctrl I you need to go into your RAID controller settings. Here is where you set your HD's up for RAID.
 
Thanks guys.

Could I ghost my existing HD to a spare one (I have a little raptor I was using as a boot disk which has my OS on it) and do I then format both the HDD's I want to use in my Raid.

Thereafter set up the Raid in the BIOS and, after that is done, ghost the Raptor onto one of the Raid drives? Or both? Is there a boot drive in Raid1?
 
why dont you use your raptor as a single drive with your OS installed on it and use your other 2 as RAID1
 
JaseUK said:
why dont you use your raptor as a single drive with your OS installed on it and use your other 2 as RAID1
Click to expand...

Too noisy basically. I may still get a separate boot drive, one day, but it will have to wait until the SSD's come down (way down) in price.
 
Your problem with setting up a raid array (raid 0 or raid 1) after having installed windows is a chicken and egg problem.

If you set the bios to raid then you current OS will not boot because it does not have the necessary raid drivers.

If you try to first install the necessary drivers it will not let you do so because you have not set the bios option to raid.

The link I gave you before explains this problem and also offers a work round - if you read through the comments to the original post there is also a latter work round that seems easier than the first one posted.

No amount of 'cloning' your exisiting OS around will solve this issue. You either have to use a hack to get the raid drivers to install even though raid is not set on bios or reinstal from scratch having first set the bios to raid.
 
Thanks Steve. That did help, a lot.

Due to the complexity involved (as my OS is already in place) I've decided to get an external HD for backup purposes. :o

I may try Raid when I eventually go i7.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll be able to refer back to this when necessary. :cool:
 
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