[SOLVED] Raid 1 on my hard drive

TwentyPastFour

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Aug 8, 2014
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Hello Guys,

I have constant hard disk failure from overworking my HD way too much on a daily basis so this year I've decided to do a motherboard BIOS Raid 1 for the first time.

I understand that I do need 2 new formatted HD in order to do Raid 1. So my questions are as below.

1. Would it be possible to buy 2 new HD and turn them both into Raid 1 and clone my old D drive into the Raid 1 HD?

2. Knowing that I need clean formatted HD, if one of my Raid drives fails and I want to replace it with a new formatted HD into the old existing Raid 1 again, do I need to buy 2 new HD again and clone the old data back into the 2 new Raid drives?

I hope I'm clear enough on my issues.

Thank you for reading and helping me out
 
Last edited:
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no I'm saying you cannot have windows on the RAID array as it will not be bootable.
windows can setup any other drive but the C: with RAID1 using storage spaces.
putting on RAID on drives D:-Z: is fine but the C: HAS to be bootable and for the RAID to be bootable the BIOS must support booting to an ARRAY.

you could also look to a drive that is made for continuous writes, like a security system drive. always writing/writing/writing.
You should be able to create an image of the OS drive using backup software, then copy this to the new RAID array as long as you have a separate means of holding the image data (think USB stick or a drive that will not be in the array).


If one drive in a RAID-1 fails, then you should be able to obtain a replacement disk, plug it into the system, and have it rebuild the array from the data preserved on the other disk. However, it's important to know that RAID is not a backup, it's a means to prevent downtime in a system. It's best to follow the 3-2-1 method: Keep 3 copies of your data, 2 locally but on different mediums, and 1 offsite in case of disaster.

It would be best to have something like an external HDD you back your data up to as well, then keep somewhere offsite.
 

R_1

Expert
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RAID 1 will not lower the wear and tear on the drives, it will duplicate it.

1 yes if the BIOS raid array is bootable. software RAID 1 is not bootable and will not work as you wish.

2 no the remaing drive will be the source of data, so when the second drive is installed and the array is rebuilt, data will be duplicated from the source to the fresh drive. once both drives are synced the array will be rebuilt and ready to go.

if you are destroying mechanical drives I suggest an SSD and using the HDD for mass storage if possible.
 

TwentyPastFour

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Aug 8, 2014
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Can you better describe what you mean by "overworking"? Continuous writes? Physical shocks? Random seeks?
My D drive dies from continuous writes.

I'm trying to find a solution to being able to back up mirror my D drive so if my D drive dies, I have a constantly cloned back up HD which I can use to recopy into a replaced new HD

Any easier solution?
 

TwentyPastFour

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Aug 8, 2014
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[/QUOTE]
RAID 1 will not lower the wear and tear on the drives, it will duplicate it.

1 yes if the BIOS raid array is bootable. software RAID 1 is not bootable and will not work as you wish.

2 no the remaing drive will be the source of data, so when the second drive is installed and the array is rebuilt, data will be duplicated from the source to the fresh drive. once both drives are synced the array will be rebuilt and ready to go.

if you are destroying mechanical drives I suggest an SSD and using the HDD for mass storage if possible.
Apologies, I meant to say D drive.

So are you telling me on your answer number 1 that I'm not able to play my backed up games on RAID 1?
 

R_1

Expert
Ambassador
no I'm saying you cannot have windows on the RAID array as it will not be bootable.
windows can setup any other drive but the C: with RAID1 using storage spaces.
putting on RAID on drives D:-Z: is fine but the C: HAS to be bootable and for the RAID to be bootable the BIOS must support booting to an ARRAY.

you could also look to a drive that is made for continuous writes, like a security system drive. always writing/writing/writing.
 
Solution

TwentyPastFour

Distinguished
Aug 8, 2014
19
0
18,510
no I'm saying you cannot have windows on the RAID array as it will not be bootable.
windows can setup any other drive but the C: with RAID1 using storage spaces.
putting on RAID on drives D:-Z: is fine but the C: HAS to be bootable and for the RAID to be bootable the BIOS must support booting to an ARRAY.

you could also look to a drive that is made for continuous writes, like a security system drive. always writing/writing/writing.
Thanks for the help!