Question Advice on installing a Raid 1 array on my C drive with Windows already installed

[Andromeda_Collision]

Alright so I have absolutely exhausted myself questioning Chat Gtp, Bing AI, and Bard AI, over this topic and it's time to try and get a real human response. Late last month I got a new build.

Specs
Motherboard MSI Tomahawk Z790 motherboard
Intel i9-14900k
Two 4TB Samsung 990 pro SSD'S
Asus NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
Ripjaws s5 DDR5 64 gb ram
CORSAIR - iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT 120mm Fans + 360mm Radiator Liquid Cooling System
850 gold power supply

I am a photographer and do a ton of photoshop and now even some video editing.


Question/ Conundrum

As seen in the specs I have two 4tb Samsung 990 pro SSD's one of which is the C-drive with Windows 11 installed on it and I was hoping that I could set up a raid 1 on the C drive without reinstalling windows, which according to my research is very much possible, albeit there are some risks and drawbacks. I have used disk management to set up storage raid 1 arrays before as well as Intel Rapid Storage( which is apparently discontinued and has been replaced with Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management which I have never used) the only reason I would consider using Intel software over native Windows software is because the program apparently automatically copies the EFI Partition to the 2nd drive in the Raid 1 array where as Disk Management and Windows Storage spaces apparently do not. I know you can set up raid in the bios but for raid 1 there doesn't seem to be any added benefit to that though I could be wrong.

I am wondering what the easiest way to go about doing this would be?

Additionally I am wondering what the pros and cons are to this process are as well as the pros and cons to having the OS in a raid 1?

I'd rather not reinstall windows but if reinstalling windows is the best option to set up the raid 1 on the drives then maybe that is the route to take? Worst case scenario I might get another Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB SDD and reinstall windows on that although that entails a bunch of extra work and Id rather not spend money on something I basically already have. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated, Jeff

 

[kanewolf]

Alright so I have absolutely exhausted myself questioning Chat Gtp, Bing AI, and Bard AI, over this topic and it's time to try and get a real human response. Late last month I got a new build.

Specs
Motherboard MSI Tomahawk Z790 motherboard
Intel i9-14900k
Two 4TB Samsung 990 pro SSD'S
Asus NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
Ripjaws s5 DDR5 64 gb ram
CORSAIR - iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX XT 120mm Fans + 360mm Radiator Liquid Cooling System
850 gold power supply

I am a photographer and do a ton of photoshop and now even some video editing.


Question/ Conundrum

As seen in the specs I have two 4tb Samsung 990 pro SSD's one of which is the C-drive with Windows 11 installed on it and I was hoping that I could set up a raid 1 on the C drive without reinstalling windows, which according to my research is very much possible, albeit there are some risks and drawbacks. I have used disk management to set up storage raid 1 arrays before as well as Intel Rapid Storage( which is apparently discontinued and has been replaced with Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management which I have never used) the only reason I would consider using Intel software over native Windows software is because the program apparently automatically copies the EFI Partition to the 2nd drive in the Raid 1 array where as Disk Management and Windows Storage spaces apparently do not. I know you can set up raid in the bios but for raid 1 there doesn't seem to be any added benefit to that though I could be wrong.

I am wondering what the easiest way to go about doing this would be?

Additionally I am wondering what the pros and cons are to this process are as well as the pros and cons to having the OS in a raid 1?

I'd rather not reinstall windows but if reinstalling windows is the best option to set up the raid 1 on the drives then maybe that is the route to take? Worst case scenario I might get another Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB SDD and reinstall windows on that although that entails a bunch of extra work and Id rather not spend money on something I basically already have. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated, Jeff

What benefit do you believe you will get from RAID?
99.99% of the time, RAID is not the best answer. Automated backups protect data much better than RAID.

 

[Andromeda_Collision]

I have about 10 Tb's of data amassed at this point, all of which is backed up on another raid 1 array, external hard drives, and the cloud. I simply like having physical copies of all my work and data. These 4 TB SSD'S are reserved exclusively for current client projects and its just a matter of covering all my bases so that no matter what happens the data is safe.

 

[Andromeda_Collision]

Also now that I am looking into I have never really used automated backups. Are you saying that I could use software to automatically backup one of 4tb SSD drives to the 2nd? What program/ method would you recommend?

 

[USAFRet]

As seen in the specs I have two 4tb Samsung 990 pro SSD's one of which is the C-drive with Windows 11 installed on it and I was hoping that I could set up a raid 1 on the C drive without reinstalling windows

You can't just add a new drive to the OS drive, and make it a RAID 1.

This WILL require a full reformat and reinstall.

 

[USAFRet]

Also now that I am looking into I have never really used automated backups. Are you saying that I could use software to automatically backup one of 4tb SSD drives to the 2nd? What program/ method would you recommend?

Absolutely!

This is MUCH preferred over any RAID config.

RAID 1 only gives you continued uptime in the face of physical drive death.

An automated backup routine is pretty easy.
I use Macrium Reflect. But, that is now a fully paid product.
Monthly subscription, or one time $80 lifetime.
There are other applications for this as well.

And at that, I have the paid Macrium on my main system, older version of Free on all the others.


Once you're schedule is set up, its all hands off. It does its thing on your schedule.

My systems back up to my NAS every night, or once a week, depending on that systems needs.

My main system, each of the 6 drives individually, every night between midnight and 4AM.
Full drive images, keep the Incrementals for a rolling 30 days.

 

[Andromeda_Collision]

Absolutely!

This is MUCH preferred over any RAID config.

RAID 1 only gives you continued uptime in the face of physical drive death.

An automated backup routine is pretty easy.
I use Macrium Reflect. But, that is now a fully paid product.
Monthly subscription, or one time $80 lifetime.
There are other applications for this as well.

And at that, I have the paid Macrium on my main system, older version of Free on all the others.


Once you're schedule is set up, its all hands off. It does its thing on your schedule.

My systems back up to my NAS every night, or once a week, depending on that systems needs.

My main system, each of the 6 drives individually, every night between midnight and 4AM.
Full drive images, keep the Incrementals for a rolling 30 days.

So all 5 of your extra drives are just set up on automated backups for your C drive? Are the backups instantly accessible data that you can see and interact with through This PC like a normal drive or is it some type of compressed image of your data that is basically a carbon copy of the original disk/ data with the added ability to retrieve lost, deleted, or corrupted data? Either way this sounds like the way to go and I am definitely going to try it out. I might try out Aomei for free first to get a feel for the process then move on to the Primo service offered by Macrium Reflect. It seems like Raid is just kind of obsolete at this point under most circumstances?

 

[Andromeda_Collision]

This is my first time actually posting on Tom's, you guys are on point, thanks to both of you for the quick and insightful responses.

 

[USAFRet]

So all 5 of your extra drives are just set up on automated backups for your C drive? Are the backups instantly accessible data that you can see and interact with through This PC like a normal drive or is it some type of compressed image of your data that is basically a carbon copy of the original disk/ data with the added ability to retrieve lost, deleted, or corrupted data? Either way this sounds like the way to go and I am definitely going to try it out. I might try out Aomei for free first to get a feel for the process then move on to the Primo service offered by Macrium Reflect. It seems like Raid is just kind of obsolete at this point under most circumstances?

Each of the 6 drives has their own data.
OS + applications
CAD
Photo work
Video work
Games
random junk

The nightly backups go to a folder tree on my NAS.
This is the last few days of my C drive, Full and Incrementals.

Each physical drive (or system) has its own subfolder and its own schedule in Macrium.

Incrementals in Macrium are only those files that have changed since the last Full or Incremental.

 

[Andromeda_Collision]

Each of the 6 drives has their own data.
OS + applications
CAD
Photo work
Video work
Games
random junk

The nightly backups go to a folder tree on my NAS.
This is the last few days of my C drive, Full and Incrementals.

Each physical drive (or system) has its own subfolder and its own schedule in Macrium.

Incrementals in Macrium are only those files that have changed since the last Full or Incremental.

I'm going to have to download the software and mess around with the program to get a better feel for it, but it seems like a great solution. Anyways thank you for the help I really appreciated it.🤜🤛