Setting up disc mirroring - can/how should I ?

[Tigger2112]

Hi, at the moment I've got 1 HD and back that up occasionally to an external drive with data backup to DVD in between. I want to be able to mirror the HD (RAID 1) as well as the external backup but am unsure if/how to do it.

System:
PC - Dell 5150/E510
Motherboard - Dell 0RD203 - can't find any info on line on this.
HD - Seagate Barracuda ST3160023A Plus 160GB

Any advice would be great - in particular:

- does the motherboard support RAID or do I have to get a separate controller
- should I get the same model HD for the mirror ?
- do I have to completely reinstall windows/applications etc. or can I "bolt in" the new HD, set it up for RAID with no reinstallation. Have looked around but haven't been able to find a guide on how to set it up.

tks
Dave

 

[GeezerButler]

You will need to reinstall the OS.

Use a matching drive if you can. At least try to make sure spindle speed and cache size match.

Set up by going into BIOS (F2) and under disks make sure RAID is set to ON under SATA operation.

If you then look at the two hard drives details in the BIOS they should say 'controlled by RAID BIOS'

Power on machine and hit Ctrl-I to enter the RAID BIOS when prompted then choose create array and make sure RAID type is set to mirroring (default is striping). Then come out of the RAID setup.

If you are installing from the Dell Windows CD it should have the RAID controller drivers slipstreamed on the disk, so it should see the RAID array as a hard drive. From then on it's a normal windows install.

Once windows is installed you should install the Matrix Storage Manager from the Dell resource CD (or download it from Dell or from Intel) as this will show the RAID array status in Windows in case there's a failure.

Good Luck.