Covert single disk to RAID and vice versus

[Winuser]

Hello,

Lets imagine three situations:
1)You have two hard drives in your PC. Drive A contains Windows installation and other files. Drive B is an empty drive. Your Motherboard supports RAID 1(additionally 0 and 5) and you want to setup hardware RAID 1.
Is it possible to switch HDD to RAID mode, enter RAID BIOS, create array using drive A, copy drive B content to drive A and run RAID 1 using two drives(drive A should rebuild array on next restart and copy mirror drive A on drive B)

2)You have two drives, drive A and drive B running in hardware RAID 1.
You need to format drive B, copy drive A's content oto drive B(which should be non-raid drive now) and install non-raid drive B on another PC.

3)You have three drive A, B, C.
Drive C contains Windows and other files. You need to setup RAID 1 using drive A and B and then copy Windows from drive C to newly created array consisting of drive A and B.

All three scenarios require no Windows re-installation.

Can anyone please post step by step tutorial for all three scenarios or point to already posted appropriate tutorials?

 

[alphanumeric]

Good luck with any of those scenarios. That isn't meant as a flame but more as a reality check. Some (expensive) dedicated RAID cards will rebuild an array etc but most motherboard onboard RAID setups will make you start from scratch if a drive fails. I'm no expert but my advice to you is to backup, make an image, before you try to do what you proposed.

 

[gregrocker]

Why do you want to RAID your Win7? We see nothing but problems with RAID here.

 

[Winuser]

Good luck with any of those scenarios. That isn't meant as a flame but more as a reality check. Some (expensive) dedicated RAID cards will rebuild an array etc but most motherboard onboard RAID setups will make you start from scratch if a drive fails. I'm no expert but my advice to you is to backup, make an image, before you try to do what you proposed.

I have a tutorial to create array with two new HDDs, copy an image of the existing drive to it and then boot from RAID array, but that is seems to be the only scenario that is going to work.

Why do you want to RAID your Win7? We see nothing but problems with RAID here.

I am hearing controversial opinions about RAIDs these days and not really sure yet.
What I need to do is have a copy of my HDD in case my current HDD fails so I can boot from the mirror drive asap without rebuilding anything.

Is there any other option available except RAID 1?

 

[alphanumeric]

RAID 1 "should" do what you want. About the only thing it will protect you from is "a" hard drive failure. If your file system gets infected or mangled, it gets mangled on both drives simultaneously. The big thing is, "how easy is it to rebuild the array" when you replace the dud drive. You need to read up on your motherboards RAID capabilities. Even if it can do a rebuild on the fly your PC is probably going to take a performance hit while it does it. You may have to buy an off the shelf card to do what you want.
I think most people setup a stripped RAID 0 array thinking its going to boost performance only to be disappointed. In the short time I played around with it I spent more time rebuilding the array and re-installing windows than getting any productive use out of it. For me and a lot of other people it was more trouble than it was worth.

 

[Winuser]

RAID 1 "should" do what you want. About the only thing it will protect you from is "a" hard drive failure. If your file system gets infected or mangled, it gets mangled on both drives simultaneously. The big thing is, "how easy is it to rebuild the array" when you replace the dud drive. You need to read up on your motherboards RAID capabilities. Even if it can do a rebuild on the fly your PC is probably going to take a performance hit while it does it. You may have to buy an off the shelf card to do what you want.
I think most people setup a stripped RAID 0 array thinking its going to boost performance only to be disappointed. In the short time I played around with it I spent more time rebuilding the array and re-installing windows than getting any productive use out of it. For me and a lot of other people it was more trouble than it was worth.

Hard drive failure is my main concern.

 

[whs]

Make an image or a clone. That is much easier.

 

[Winuser]

Not when you need up to the hour data.

 

[Winuser]

I will probably go with Windows software RAID.

 

[alphanumeric]

Performance wise I would think that would be the worst of all options. Likely the easiest to setup though.

 

[Golden]

Not when you need up to the hour data.

Hi,

If its a hard drive failure that concerns you, then I agree a hardware RAID1 (built from the BIOS) is the tool you need.

As for rebuidling a RAID1, keep in mind it can take far more than an hour to rebuild depending on the disk size and controller, so your 1 hour "update" window may not be achievable.

Regards,
Golden

 

[Winuser]

Can anyone finally post some benchmarks or are we all just guessing here?
Google didnt help.

 

[alphanumeric]

IMHO software RAID will always be slower than hardware RAID, if that is what you are wondering.

 

[Winuser]

How about software RAID vs single disk?

 

[Golden]

How about software RAID vs single disk?

Hi,

Any RAID is preferable to none at all if its your primary means of backup, of course. But in my own opinion, a hardware RAID beats a software RAID any time of the day.

Your aren't googling hard enough: try DuckDuckGo

RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
If performance is not a issue software vs hardware raid - Server Fault
Software RAID Vs Hardware RAID
Hardware RAID Vs Software RAID Comparison - A Detailed Explanation - Windows Admin Guru BLOG
Difference Between Hardware RAID and Software RAID | Difference Between | Hardware RAID vs Software RAID

And the list goes on. Happy reading.

Regards,
Golden

 

[Winuser]

How about software RAID vs single disk?

Hi,

Any RAID is preferable to none at all if its your primary means of backup, of course. But in my own opinion, a hardware RAID beats a software RAID any time of the day.

Your aren't googling hard enough: try DuckDuckGo

RAID Hardware Vs RAID Software - What is your best option?
If performance is not a issue software vs hardware raid - Server Fault
Software RAID Vs Hardware RAID
Hardware RAID Vs Software RAID Comparison - A Detailed Explanation - Windows Admin Guru BLOG
Difference Between Hardware RAID and Software RAID | Difference Between | Hardware RAID vs Software RAID

And the list goes on. Happy reading.

Regards,
Golden

I couldnt find direct performance comparison benchmarks ICH10R based RAID vs Windows 7 software RAID, but thanks anyway.

As far as I see the chances of RAID array failure in case of power outage are about the same for both scenarios.