Quick Raid1 Mirroring Question - System Reserve

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beastyben1

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Dec 18, 2007
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I've set up my wife with (2) WD Scorpio Blacks 250GB.

Disk 0: 232.88GB unallocated
Disk 1: 100MB System Reserve, 232.79GB (C: ) with the OS

Do I have to mirror both the System Reserve and the partition with the OS on it? Both the System Reserve and the (C: ) partition when right-clicked allow me to "Add Mirror".

Just making sure if I mirror only (C: ) that it won't need the system reserve to work should the mirrored Disk 0 failed. Thank you!
 
It sounds like you're doing RAID within the OS? Or are you doing RAID on an actual RAID controller of some sort?
 
Eulogy said:
It sounds like you're doing RAID within the OS? Or are you doing RAID on an actual RAID controller of some sort?
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Just software Mirroring/Raid1 through Win7 Professional. I've never done any sort of Raid before and none of the "guides" address this issue.
 
Most of the time (AFAIK, anyway) RAID is done at the disk level, not the OS level. I'm not sure what motherboard you have, but it's on-board controller likely does some sort of RAID, which you would setup before loading the OS at all. Then you build your partitions on top of the logical disk. I honestly wouldn't know what to do for partition level RAIDing as I've never done it or known anyone who has.
 
It's kind of pointless to use RAID 1 for mirroring as backup. Any problems with one drive and it's data get copied to the other. Waiting for the arrays to rebuild sucks. You're better off running automated incremental backups. (Backup and Restore in the higher editions of Windows 7 works well for this). Ask just about any experienced user here and they will tell you that RAID isn't for backup.

Just my opinion though.
 
timta2 said:
It's kind of pointless to use RAID 1 for mirroring as backup. Any problems with one drive and it's data get copied to the other. Waiting for the arrays to rebuild sucks. You're better off running automated incremental backups. (Backup and Restore in the higher editions of Windows 7 works well for this). Ask just about any experienced user here and they will tell you that RAID isn't for backup.

Just my opinion though.
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Thank you and the previous poster. I also have a WD 1TB Scorpio Blue that Norton Ghost does incremental and full backups to. Guess I'll reconsider my plan. I was really looking for redundancy in case of hardware failure and to not have to use the backups if one hdd died. This is for her business, little down time is extremely important.
 
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beastyben1 said:
Thank you and the previous poster. I also have a WD 1TB Scorpio Blue that Norton Ghost does incremental and full backups to. Guess I'll reconsider my plan. I was really looking for redundancy in case of hardware failure and to not have to use the backups if one hdd died.
Click to expand...

Redundancy in case of hardware failure is pretty much what RAID is for, so I'd consider you headed down the correct path. You just need to keep in mind, that what is written to one disk is almost immediately written to the other parts of the mirror as well (hence the name). So, while RAID 1 will protect you from hardware failure long enough for you to get a replacement drive in, it won't save you if some piece of software horks your Windows, or if you get infected with a virus. This is where your backup with Ghost comes in to save the day.

As far as the System reserve partition, the Windows 7 installation only says that "To ensure that all Windows features work correctly, Windows might create additional partitions for system files." If I had to take a guess, this is probably the recovery partition you can use to repair the system from the F8 boot menu. I would probably err on the side of caution and mirror that as well tho. :)

For your board, you'd have to get the exact model number and either look online, or if you still have the manual check the specifications of the board under storage and see if it offers built in RAID (or poke around in the BIOS as another option). I highly doubt an ECS cheapo H61 board does, but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong. :p
 
Thank you palaciav for the detailed reply. I just wonder if I mirror the C: drive adn the System Reserved if it'll show up on the mirrored drive the same way...like 100MB partition and 232.79GB partition so if one drive fails it'll automatically continue running. I'll give it a shot! I appreciate your response very much.

Update: I added a mirror of the System Reserved then added the mirror for the C: drive and the Disk0 (drive that is mirroring OS) looks just like Disk1 and it is currently "Resynching". Great!
 
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I would try to unplug the disk1 after that to see if it works.
 
Aesma said:
I would try to unplug the disk1 after that to see if it works.
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I've been reading, don't think it is meant to mirror an OS drive either. I'll test it shortly. :eek:

Update: unplugged the main OS drive, disk1, and there was no interruption. Sweet.
 
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IMO there isn't a reason to mirror disks on a desktop. I keep a cold spare around and have a system recovery backup (windows 7 includes this now).

Anyway you should always have a backup even if you do use a mirror.
 
The primary purpose of a RAID 1 is to avoid downtime, and the OP clearly understands the difference between hardware failure and copying viruses to the array.

That said, an H61 mobo is not going to support firmware RAID. See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA1155
Intel Rapid Storage Technology is not supported on the H61 chipset.

But it looks like you got your software RAID working!
 
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