Can I RAID partitions?

[Bednish]

Hey,
I have one big drive and have one partition with data and system and I want to buy one smaller drive and put one partition and the small drive in RAID 1.
Is it possible to do this, and without losing the data on system drive?
I am currently running on Win 10.
Thanks a ton!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Bednish!

Unfortunately, this is not how RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) works. 🙁 When you want to configure a RAID storage setup, you need at least TWO identical hard drives. Moreover, you always need to have a specific purpose for such a configuration. RAID 1 does provide redundancy for your files, but it should never be considered a BACK UP solution!
In order to set it all up you will have to format both drives. RAID-ing different capacities will bottleneck the whole array! Meaning that the capacity on your massive HDD will be limited only to the one on the smaller HDD. For example, if you RAID 1 x 4 TB HDD and 1 x 1 TB HDD, you won't be able to use 3 TB of the capacity on your 4 TB HDD.

RAID-ing for no particular reason is definitely not a good idea. RAID 1 is not a backup solution, because you still have all the files duplicated inside the desktop PC. If by any chance the whole system fails (power surge, natural disaster, failed & fried hardware, etc.), you will lose all your files because all the copies of your files had been inside (on-site).

Always remember that "backup" means that you have your data stored in at least two independent locations. Moving data from your system drive to an external hard drive or another internal one is not a backup, unless there is already a duplicate of the file on a different drive elsewhere. The more data copies you have in multiple locations, the safer you will feel. RAID-ing is not necessary, though.

Let me know if you have more questions! I hope I was helpful.
SuperSoph_WD