Having backup operating stems

[skunkwrks]

So i had an issue where my computer did not display windows, in fact i was getting a no BOOTMGR display and the BIOS was not seeing my internal HD, finally it worked and it came on but how would one go about installing having 2 HD that are mirrored so if one fails the other is here to take over.

 

[jakjawagon]

What you're looking for is called RAID 1. If your motherboard supports it, you may be able to enable it in the BIOS. If not, you'd have to get a RAID card, and those tend to be expensive.
Make sure you have a backup first though. I've set up a RAID 1 system before with the drives in the wrong order, so it copied the blank disk over the top of my existing install.

 

[skunkwrks]

I'm familiar with RAID , but in this case it seem my system didn't see the HD, so in RAID 1 if it doesn't see 1 of the HD's will it see the other and work ?

 

[skunkwrks]

Also i've heard i cannot just add another HD and have it lone, i would need to start fresh as it will format my drive i already have ?

 

[jakjawagon]

If a RAID 1 array loses one of the drives, it will still work, but should inform you that a drive has failed/could not be found.

If you have an external disk big enough, you could make an image of your existing installation and restore it to the array.