Setting up RAID 0 on pre-existing HDD

[Paolo Solari]

I have a system with a 120GB boot SSD and a 1TB HDD. I want to setup a RAID 0 config on my HDD but it already has about 600GB of data on it.

Is it possible to setup this config without losing my data and if it is do i need to do anything differently from setting up a RAID 0 config from scratch?

Thanks

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, Paolo!

There's no way to avoid reformatting the HDDs when configuring RAID arrays. 🙁 You'd need another identical 1 TB HDD to the one you already have in order to set it up as well. If you try configuring RAID 0 with the SSD and the HDD, you'd bottleneck the performance of the SSD and limit the capacity of the HDD to the one of the solid-state drive (120 GB).
Once you have two identical 1 TB HDDs, you'd need to reformat both of them, so you should definitely backup those 600 GB of data somewhere else. Doing backups is essential when tampering with the storage and especially with RAID 0 because it has no redundancy. If one of the drives fails, you'd lose the data stored on the whole array, so be careful. I think that this thread from the community might be able to assist you with the setup.

Good luck! Hope I helped.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Paolo Solari]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, Paolo!

There's no way to avoid reformatting the HDDs when configuring RAID arrays. 🙁 You'd need another identical 1 TB HDD to the one you already have in order to set it up as well. If you try configuring RAID 0 with the SSD and the HDD, you'd bottleneck the performance of the SSD and limit the capacity of the HDD to the one of the solid-state drive (120 GB).
Once you have two identical 1 TB HDDs, you'd need to reformat both of them, so you should definitely backup those 600 GB of data somewhere else. Doing backups is essential when tampering with the storage and especially with RAID 0 because it has no redundancy. If one of the drives fails, you'd lose the data stored on the whole array, so be careful. I think that this thread from the community might be able to assist you with the setup.

Good luck! Hope I helped.
SuperSoph_WD

Thanks a lot SuperSoph_WD, you helped a lot. Just a couple more questions though

When you say to reformat both of them what exactly do you mean? I've got a new 1TB HDD as well as the used one and I've just backed up all my files onto an external hard drive so do i need to do anything else before setting up the RAID array?

Thanks again,
Paolo Solari

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Good job with the upgrade and the backup, Paolo Solari!
Can you share some more details about your system, though? More specifically the motherboard.
The best case scenario would be if it incorporates two SATA controllers so that you'd have your SSD set to AHCI SATA mode as it is now most probably, and connect the HDDs to the other SATA controller (Whichever enables you to configure RAID). You can check a couple of more solutions/recommendations about the setup here and here.

When you are configuring RAID with the two HDDs, you'd need to reformat both of them. This basically will erase all the data you already have stored on the (previously secondary) HDD. Once the RAID setup is configured, you'd be able to transfer back the data from your external drive. However, always make sure you have a backup of it on the external and/or somewhere else. This is the best way to avoid any potential data loss. RAID 0 tends to be risky due to the lack of redundancy. I believe all your questions could be answered from the threads I shared.

Keep me posted if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Paolo Solari]

Good job with the upgrade and the backup, Paolo Solari!
Can you share some more details about your system, though? More specifically the motherboard.
The best case scenario would be if it incorporates two SATA controllers so that you'd have your SSD set to AHCI SATA mode as it is now most probably, and connect the HDDs to the other SATA controller (Whichever enables you to configure RAID). You can check a couple of more solutions/recommendations about the setup here and here.

When you are configuring RAID with the two HDDs, you'd need to reformat both of them. This basically will erase all the data you already have stored on the (previously secondary) HDD. Once the RAID setup is configured, you'd be able to transfer back the data from your external drive. However, always make sure you have a backup of it on the external and/or somewhere else. This is the best way to avoid any potential data loss. RAID 0 tends to be risky due to the lack of redundancy. I believe all your questions could be answered from the threads I shared.

Keep me posted if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD

It's all setup and working perfectly now, so thanks a lot man you really have helped

All the best,
Paolo Solari