Move Storage Hard drive to new PC

[Kevin_THardware]

So I want to move 2 Hard drives that are in a mirror configuration over from my old PC to my new PC. These drives are NOT boot drives, only storage drives (there is no OS installed to these drives).

When I plugged them in and ran Disk Management, it sees them both as mirror drives but it says failed. How do I get this new PC to recognize them?

I am running windows 10.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Kevin.

Did you have those drives setup as in a mirror RAID configuration with your old PC? Because if you did, you can't just move them from one system to another in most cases and expect them to work properly. I'd suggest that you connect them to the old PC again and backup your data (if you haven't done so already). After that connect them to your new PC and setup the RAID 1 configuration with the RAID controller of your new motherboard.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Kevin_THardware]

Yes I did have them setup as Raid 1 mirroring.

Ouch, so I'd have to transfer the data off the hard drives then put them in the new pc and reformat them to put the data back on?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well if it was hardware RAID - most likely. If not and if you have used a program to make a software RAID configuration you might be able to access them again if you make the setup on your new system. Just don't format them if you are prompted to do that.
Aren't you able to see the data in any of the drives if connected separately (since it was a RAID 1)?

 

[Kevin_THardware]

I'm using software raid. Just the windows Disk Management setup to do the mirroring.

I haven't tried running just one disk, but I would like to ensure both are running in a mirror config.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

I see. Check if moving them back to your old system would make it recognized the drives and the RAID setup properly. You could also get in touch with Microsoft's customer support to see if the guys there have a solution for this issue.

Please keep me updated.

 

[Kevin_THardware]

So it's finally fixed.

1. Had to put both drives back into my old computer and let them resynchronize
2. After they finished, I told it to break the mirror
3. Moved the hard drives to the new computer
4. Ended up just leaving them as separate drives instead of mirroring, figured it wasn't really worth it

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Good to know that everything went OK. It's really important to always have a backup of your most important data. RAID 1 is not really a backup solution since both drives are exposed to the same possible issues as they are in the same system/NAS enclosure. I'm talking about power surges, flooding, fires, viruses, etc. I know that most of those sound like pretty grave situations, but one can't be too careful with non-replaceable data.
I'd recommend that you keep a regular backup (on separate location like cloud service or an external drive) of your valuable files, just to be on the safe side.

Good job with the troubleshooting! Cheers!