Retroactive RAID 1 array?

[Samione]

I've never setup a RAID array before and am looking to back up the data I have using this system.

I'm hoping to just pop in a new HDD into my tower and have it copy all the data across and then following that update it as new files are written to the original drive - this drive won't contain the OS or any software, just documents/files.

I've done a bit of research and it seems to suggest this might not be possible, or is difficult to pull off, dependant on OS/hardware combos. So I wanted to ask here before I start buying new hard drives.

My setup is

Core i7 4930k
ASUS® P9X79 WS
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE (i'll be RAIDing this driver)

I'm on windows 7 home premium.

Any advice/sources on setting this up would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Samione]

<broken record> RAID is not a backup </broken record>

The problem with RAID is that if you accidentally delete a file it's gone from the both disks. If something gets corrupted, its corrupt on both disks...

You'd be better off with an external disk that you can manually (or automatically via a scheduler) sync with your main disk using rsync, robocopy or another of the multitude of available tools.

I didn't even think of that actually... so cheers. I guess RAID isn't really what I'm looking for. Couldn't I pull off what you're talking about with another internal HDD? Wouldn't the write speed be faster than using NAS or an external USB drive?

 

[Samione]

Cheers. I imagine if my home gets hit by lightning and my NAS enclosure is plugged in it'll still be fried though.