Setting up RAID 1 array?

[[FETT]Cupcake]

I want to set up a raid 1 array on my system and I just had a question. Is there a way to create the array without having to start with a fresh install of windows?

I already bought and installed a second hard drive identical to the one already installed. At the moment it is just unused space, I have not formatted or partitioned it yet.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Digger[NJLP]]

Well, I have some bad news, sorta..

Dynamic Disk Storage
Dynamic storage is supported in Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional. A disk initialized for dynamic storage is called a dynamic disk. A dynamic disk contains dynamic volumes, such as simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes.

NOTE: Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers or on Windows XP Home Edition-based computers.

You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers. However, you can use a Windows XP Professional-based computer to create a mirrored or RAID-5 volume on remote computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. You must have administrative privileges on the remote computer to do this.

Storage types are separate from the file system type. A basic or dynamic disk can contain any combination of FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partitions or volumes.

A disk system can contain any combination of storage types. However, all volumes on the same disk must use the same storage type.

Microsoft Technet web page where article above is.

If it was supported by the OS then you could have setup the RAID mirroring within the Drive Manager and the OS would mirror the data across the span itself, hopefully removing the need for a reinstall.

So the only way to actually get RAID 1 working is only if the RAID controller card itself supports RAID 1 and is configurable in the RAID cards bios. I assume you talking SATA and some of those cards/MB controllers do support RAID 1.

Within the config of the array you might be able to get RAID 1 setup but considering how the data is mirrored across the drives it will probably screw up your os anyway.

[[FETT]Cupcake]

Thanks Digger. My mobo does support raid 1. It supports 0,1,5, and 0+1. I don't have enough space to do anything other than 0 or 1. 5 and 0+1 requires more than 2 drives.

The raid is configurable in the bios as well. I'm pretty much set on doing a fresh install anyway. Things just go bad when you mess with windows. I've never done a raid array before. I have the raid driver downloaded from the mobo company. I just have to put it on a floppy.

Do you know if the install is difficult?

[Digger[NJLP]]

Well most of my experience with RAID has been on Dell Servers running SCSI cards and I haven't had the opportunity to setup RAID with SATA. But I can't beleave its much different.

When your starting from scratch its simple since you don't have any data to worry about. Their will be the usual interface that asks what type of mirroring you want and then it will apply it to the drives. Once the drivers are mirrored you might be able to continue to boot or you may have to reboot. But in the end your partition is simply their waiting for an install.

You should be able to partition it just like a normal drive since all the mirroring is being done by the card.

We have Dell Servers using the Perc SCSI Raid cards and once you actually setup the mirroring, we just boot of the install CD and the OS just sees the unpartitioned space.

[Digger[NJLP]]

We had a back plane fail on one of our Dell Servers. I was at a week long training and the staff called in a Dell ticket who sent out the contracted service tech to the site. He was not an MCSE or anything like that, since this just a simple hardware replacement.
Well he powered off the server yanked all 6 Harddrives out of the hot swap bays and stacked them, in order, next to him. he then proceeded to replace the back plane.
Once done he put everything back, turned the server back on, checked the bios to confirm the backplane was working and left.

But from what I could figure out he literally put them all back backwards. I figure he stacked them next to him 0 on the bottom, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 at the top and when he put them back, 5 went in to the first slot where 0 was.
Well that completely fried the array itself. I had to completely wipe/reconifg the array, reinstall the OS, and restore the shares and data from backup.

In that case I realized that all my servers will have the chassi locks on and no one will do that work anymore. The techs get insulted when I tell them to leave the hardware and go.