want to setup raid 1

[Shane]

hi, i want to set up raid 1 on p5b-vm board with 2 maxtor 500gb drives.
i already have OS installed on one drive, do i need to format both drives and start from fresh or can i setup raid 1 without the need to re-install the OS.

All help will be appreciated as i have no idea where to even start.

thanks

 

[Deleted member 77746]

hi, i want to set up raid 1 on p5b-vm board with 2 maxtor 500gb drives.
i already have OS installed on one drive, do i need to format both drives and start from fresh or can i setup raid 1 without the need to re-install the OS.

All help will be appreciated as i have no idea where to even start.

thanks

You do no raid 1 is mirror yes? You can't set up raid without a full install of windows.

Raid can be controlled by hardware or software and you normally set up raid within the bios. Once the bios has been configured you will get a new menu after the post screen to allow the configuration of raid.

 

[gordan]

It depends on your OS. If you're running Linux, you can switch to Linux software (md) RAID without reinstalling. For dm RAID (device mapper, done by the BIOS on the ATA controller, no notable performance advantage over md RAID) it gets more tricky and I wouldn't recommend trying it, as results could be unpredictable. However, you could minimize the risk by making both disks identical copies of each other. If you do that, it doesn't matter which disk gets synced from the other.

In Windows, however, it's likely to be more difficult if it is even possible. I'm not a frequent Windows user so can't really advise on that subject.