Quick RAID 1 question

[agibby5]

I recently get a new 500gb SATA hard drive. I am replacing an 200gb ATA HD. My question is this:

Can I operate with all my essential data on the single disk and get an identical disk in the future for use with RAID 1 setup?

I don't want to loose any data when I move to RAID 1. I figured that since it is a mirror, I won't have a problem. Its not like I want to eventually use a striping RAID setup, where the information on disk that I currently have would be destroyed to stipe it across the multiple disks. I never used RAID before and wasnt sure if there was a utility that builds the disks into the setup you need.

Thanks in advance.

 

[agibby5]

Did my question make sense?

 

[AMD RULES]

It may depend on the raid controller, but i believe you won't loose any data since you are not stripping or reformatting.

But don't go by me...

 

[agibby5]

It may depend on the raid controller, but i believe you won't loose any data since you are not stripping or reformatting.

But don't go by me...

Thanks for the reply... Anyone else?

 

[oozish]

It's my understanding that you won't be able to do what you intend. The RAID 1 must be set up initially to preserve your data if a drive went bad (and then you could pop in another HD to restore the missing HD).

However, I'm not 100% sure. If you could do that it would be cool....more thoughts from more experienced people please!

 

[MrMike]

I've never had an issue doing what you want to do before.
However, it varies from controller to controller.
Some controllers have a specific function for this when creating a RAID1 array called "Create and Duplicate."
You must be 100% certain of which drive is which.

I have personally done this on three different occasions with promise IDE controllers.
It's easy, but it is DEFINITELY a start it and go to bed thing.
It will take many, many hours.

The best way to be certain the RAID controller you are interested in will do this for you or not, is to download the manual from the manufacturers website and verify that it supports Create and Duplicate.

Some RAID controllers require that all drives plugged into them be initialized(erasing all data once on the drive) and others let drives with data be supported as a 'legacy' drive, which allows you to read/write the data but not use them in a RAID array.

Edit:
I just realized this could very well be the only drive in your computer.
There is a chance you will not be able to boot to the new RAID volume without doing a Windows Repair install. The best process to make this work is to install the RAID card, do not plug any drives into it. Boot to windows, install the drivers, and then go ahead and plug the drives into it and configure it.
There is still a chance you will need to do a repair install of windows in this case, but that has worked for me before.

 

[agibby5]

I have the P5B Deluxe mobo. I'm just now starting the format of the 500gb hd that I have... After its done formatting, I want to put all my files that are currently spead over like 4 other hds. I'm considering getting another 500gb drive in about a month. I tried to run the JMicron RAID utility in windows, but I get an error: "JMicron RAID Device is not found". Do I first need to do something in the BIOS?

I think the setting for my SATA drives is on IDE... should it be set to RAID? Thanks!

 

[chrisf6969]

Revived this thread, b/c its exactly what I'm looking to help my noob friend (in a diff. city) do.

He has an older Dell 4550 (865 chipset) motherboard with a single 80GB harddrive (for OS/everything),
he's become paranoid about data loss so he's been thinking about getting an external harddrive an backing up regularly.

I suggested maybe just getting a 2nd 80Gb harddrive & cheap IDE raid card.

edit: Ok read the manual it looks like it supports creation of Raid from an existing drive.

For Existing Hard Drives with Data Recommended for one/two original HD with data to mirror with one/two fresh empty HD
1. As the BIOS boots press F3 when prompted to enter the RAID BIOS.
2. Press F2 to enter the RAID setup screen.
3. Press F2 to from RAID set 1.
4. Answer N to Automatic setup.
5. Assign Source drive, then assign Destination drive.
6. Press Y to copy from Source to Destination drive.
7. Press N to Offline copy.
8. Answer Y to enable Auto-Rebuild.
9. When asked Are You Sure?, press Y to accept.
10. Press ESC to exit the RAID BIOS.

Do you think I'm over complicating it (Raid 1), and should just let him go with an external HD for backing up?
Do you think this will be a problem since its his primary boot / OS drive ?

 

[chrisf6969]

bump - b/c he's looking for an answer to order something today.

Yes, I'm impatient. (really its him being impatient)

 

[sn3ak3rp1mp]

Chris,

I think you'll be fine. My HighPoint controller card supports non-destructive mirroring ... I think most controllers do. They just all call it something different. It will create a RAID-1 mirror set by copying the source drive to the destination. Just make sure to select the correct drive (i.e. the existing one) as the source drive.

Cheers!

EDIT: Windows MUST have the drivers loaded for the RAID card BEFORE you set up and boot off of the mirror. Just boot into windows with the card installed and no drives attached. Then you can reboot and create the mirror, after attaching both drives. In addition, you will probably need to tell the computers BIOS that you want to boot from SCSI or OTHER afterwards.

 

[chrisf6969]

Chris,

I think you'll be fine. My HighPoint controller card supports non-destructive mirroring ... I think most controllers do. They just all call it something different. It will create a RAID-1 mirror set by copying the source drive to the destination. Just make sure to select the correct drive (i.e. the existing one) as the source drive.

Cheers!

EDIT: Windows MUST have the drivers loaded for the RAID card BEFORE you set up and boot off of the mirror. Just boot into windows with the card installed and no drives attached. Then you can reboot and create the mirror, after attaching both drives. In addition, you will probably need to tell the computers BIOS that you want to boot from SCSI or OTHER afterwards.

Thanks, thats the important part that I wasn't sure about!

Boot first, no drives, just card!

Then do it!

 

[mrmag00p]

Chris,

I think you'll be fine. My HighPoint controller card supports non-destructive mirroring ... I think most controllers do. They just all call it something different. It will create a RAID-1 mirror set by copying the source drive to the destination. Just make sure to select the correct drive (i.e. the existing one) as the source drive.

Cheers!

EDIT: Windows MUST have the drivers loaded for the RAID card BEFORE you set up and boot off of the mirror. Just boot into windows with the card installed and no drives attached. Then you can reboot and create the mirror, after attaching both drives. In addition, you will probably need to tell the computers BIOS that you want to boot from SCSI or OTHER afterwards.

Not all controllers can take a single drive and turn it into an array. In fact most controllers I've used can't do this due to the way they store the RAID layout information on the physical disks. The way around this is to create a new, degraded array of 1 disk and boot off some form of rescue disk and do a low-level file copy (not just copy&paste) of the disk to the new degraded disk from the current hdd. Then you unplug the source drive and boot off your new degraded array. Assuming it all works out, you then re-add the first source disk to the array to make it healthy.

 

[chrisf6969]

I didn't think it would either at first, but after reading the manual for the controller it seems like it can duplicate with out destroying the original disc. (see the quote, up a few posts)

I presume (just total guess here) that it just copies the data disc 1 to disc 2 in the proper raid format so disc # 2 good, then maybe rewrites disc 1 properly.