Restore non-RAID image to RAID1?

[ninjayar]

I have a C: drive that I've been able to both clone and image using Macrium Reflect Free. I'd like to recreate a RAID1 for this disk but I'm not sure of the best approach. My system includes an on-board Intel RST Option ROM and P67 chipset. I'd prefer to use that rather than a software mirror in Windows 7 so that the RAID is independent of the OS. It seems like I should be able to create a RAID1 using the current bootable C: disk plus another empty disk but everything I read claims I'll lose everything on both disks when the RAID is created. Evidently the Intel Option ROM assumes you would only ever create a RAID1 just before installing Windows. If that's the case, how would you ever replace one failed disk in a RAID1?

OTOH, when I originally broke the RAID1 into 2 separate disks (long story), the Option ROM warned that I would lose all data but I didn't lose anything.

If it is true that I will lose everything on both disks by creating a new RAID1, is it possible to restore my C: image to the RAID?

I'd like to understand the risks before I create another set of problems for myself.

Thanks for any input you can offer.

 

[Shaun o]

Raid 0 and Raid 1 arrays are not designed in there nature to support restating the drive integrity if only two drives are used in a striped array.

If you chose an array mode with three or four drives then all you would of simply have to do is replace the bad drive and the spanned, striped array would of been created automatically on the new formatted drive.
Added to the array via the extended hardware bios raid options and setup menu.


The array is now invalid due to the fact as you say one drive is now non functional.
So it means you are forced to setup and create a new array if you still wish to use Raid 0 or Raid 1 modes again.

Raid 0 and Raid 1 are used to double hard drive throughput in relation to read and write speeds.
Your best off with at least a raid mode of three drives or more for data retention. Mirrored

 

[ninjayar]

Thanks, Shaun. RAID1 is just a mirror. To my knowledge, it always consists of two drives. I didn't have a drive failure, per se. I intentionally broke the RAID into two non-raid drives. I had previously and accidentally deleted the 100MB System Reserved partition that Windows had installed on D: rather than on C:. I didn't know that before I blew away D: and Windows stopped booting. I was able to rebuild the 100MB partition on one disk and get Windows to rebuild its boot information there. Now I can boot from the non-raid C: drive but I'd like to get back to a RAID1 for C:

 

[ninjayar]

I think I figured this out. I bit the bullet and just created a new RAID1 in the Option ROM using the previously bootable C: disk and another 1TB disk. As predicted, I lost the data and had to boot from my recovery disk. Windows saw the RAID as a single drive and I was able to recover my image back to the new C: array the same as if I was recovering to a new single drive. This was all as expected, given what I'd read, but I'm disappointed that Intel intentionally deletes or makes inaccessible all data on both drives when creating a RAID1. I can see it when creating a striped array where you need a blank slate to start from. But a RAID1 is a pair identical drives so you'd think they could give you the option of building the array by copying one of the drives to the other. Oh well, back and working now.