Trying to mirror data drives, but I dont have the "drive mirroring" option in my disk management dropdowns..running 8.1

[RichReed]

Found a procedure on this site, but the instructions lead to an option which I don't have..

 

[USAFRet]

1. Link to this 'procedure', please.

2. What are you actually trying to do? Mirror what? And how?

 

[RichReed]

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-1838899/windows-hard-drive-mirroring-data-redundancy.html This tells me to right click on the drive I want to mirror and choose the mirroring option in the dropdown, but I don't have that option. I am running a fresh oem install of 8.1. I want to mirror 2 2tb drives for data storage

 

[RichReed]

both drives are new also
Also, the o/s is not involved with these drives, but is installed on a separate ssd

 

[USAFRet]

I believe there is a missing step 0 in there:

Step 0. Enable RAID mode in the BIOS.

I *think* that is the problem. I just looked at mine, and that option is greyed out for me as well.

However, there are other, possibly better ways to accomplish what you want.

 

[RichReed]

can you enlighten me on "other/possibly better ways"?

 

[USAFRet]

can you enlighten me on "other/possibly better ways"?

Is this for the OS drive? Or secondary data drive(s)?

 

[RichReed]

I updated earlier above, but no it is not for the O/S drive..both 2 t/b drives are secondary

 

[McHenryB]

I've got a feeling that software RAID is only available in Professional versions of Windows 8. All versions do, however, support something called Storage Spaces (Google it) which provides similar facilities. Personally, if I have a spare 2TB disk I prefer to use it for backups of data rather than mirroring. This, to my mind, provides much better data security and also allows for the fact that you may not really care too much about some data (or it can easily be recreated). And, as an added bonus, you don't need dynamic disks for it to work.

 

[USAFRet]

I updated earlier above, but no it is not for the O/S drive..both 2 t/b drives are secondary

Well, a true 'mirror' (RAID 1) does exactly that. Mirrors data across 2 or more drives. It also faithfully mirrors corruption, accidental deletions, and other weirdness.

RAID 1 is not a backup.

Alternatives:
Option 1. A file copy utility. Copies files and folders to a different drive, often can be scheduled to run unattended.
Currently, I use SyncBack Free. Give it Source and Targt folders, and it copies over anything new or changed, on a schedule you set.
Can go to multiple locations, on different schedules.

I have a couple of different schedules. Every 12 hours, to another internal drive. Every 24 hours (@3am) copy to a whole other PC on the LAN.

Option 2: Drive imaging. I'm also integrating a new )to me) application, that does drive imaging on a schedule. Casper. Not free, but so far it seems to be pretty good. 3 license purchase for $70.
Can do daily (or weekly) images, and keep multiple days of images. So...if you notice an issue, and don't know exactly when it happened, you can go back a couple of days to an earlier image....before the problem occurred. Restore that good data.


With a mirror, once the damage is done, it is done. There is no going back.

 

[RichReed]

Thanks so much...I like the back up alternative better than mirroring. I have currently set up both drives as basic volumes with GPT partitioning. I assume that is correct for this type of use. Can you verify that please?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks so much...I like the back up alternative better than mirroring. I have currently set up both drives as basic volumes with GPT partitioning. I assume that is correct for this type of use. Can you verify that please?

Yes, that's fine.