RAID setup on running PC

rodders

rodders

rodders

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Hi all,

I wanted to set my two 1TB HDD's to RAID 1 mirror for a safer backup and so I don't have to double copy everything.

So I went into BIOS and set RAID instead of ACHI.

Then my PC wouldn't boot, it said 'inaccessible_boot_(something)' I forgot exactly.

So it appears I cannot do this, so do I have to reinstall windows?

Also, SSD's are suppose to work better in ACHI, so is putting it to RAID going to slow my SSD's I use for the OS and games?

Is there another way to RAID 1 without doing it in the BIOS?
 
Repeat after me -

RAID is not a backup
RAID is not a backup
RAID is not a backup
RAID is not a backup
etc.

All it does is protect against a disk failure and can affect performance for good or bad depending on settings.

As for you actual arrangement, not sure as I use hardware RAID controllers installed before the OS.
 
AHCI will be fine, just enable software RAID via your OS.

As above though, RAID is not a backup, if you get data corruption on one disk it'll be copied over to the other for example.
 
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I'm confused, whats the point of RAID 1 then? I thought it was a backup if one disc failed, lol
I just want something to automatically make a copy of one disc, so I dont have to keep doing it all the time. Sounds like software will do this?
 
rodders said:
I'm confused, whats the point of RAID 1 then? I thought it was a backup if one disc failed, lol
I just want something to automatically make a copy of one disc, so I dont have to keep doing it all the time. Sounds like software will do this?
Click to expand...

Fault tolerance, it is not backup, you get people that talk like that... if you truly want to backup you backup to offsite...

Stelly
 
It's not a backup because at the same time you accidentally delete a file from one disk, it will of course delete it form the second etc.
 
I ran RAID 1 for many years. I didn't think you could change to RAID without having to reinstall windows, but I just googled it and you can it seems. I am not sure if it works and have no need to try it though.

The others say its not a backup, which is correct in most backup type scenarios. For me, I had 2x WD Blacks 640GB in RAID 1 for my windows drive many years ago. It was a backup for me in that if one of my drives failed, I wouldn't be without a windows install. Lets face it, fresh installs on a mechanical hard drive are very slow!
 
RAID is the same as having two tyres per side on a truck trailer.
If you get a puncture in one, then the truck doesnt fall over and kill you.,
But you still need to replace that tyre as soon as possible.

:)
 
Set bios back to AHCI boot up and carry on as you where, if you want an extra backup use a offsite one of some description i.e dropbox or onedrive.
 
Are two separate HDD's in the same PC considered a safe back up, or can something happen that will damage them both?
 
Yup. Virus, power surge etc.

A good definition of a backup is a 3-2-1 rule:

3 copies on 2 formats 1 off site.
 
Currently backing up off site, was just wondered about the 2 hdd's I have. Guess they are kind of pointless, but at least if I delete something, I can backup quickly.
 
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