I have a friend with W7 and 1 300GB SATA Hard drive. The PC has a bios based RAID controller ( It is a DELL ) and he wants to know if he can add a second hard drive and then create a RAID 1 array.
Will this be doable without losing the existing HD's data?


TIA

 

To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

Only if he backs up the data first. In other words, if you are asking if he can create an array and not have to install windows or the data again, the answer is no, not with hardware raid, with windows 7 software raid, yes. Software raid, you just need to make the drive dynamic, then you will get an option to mirror the drive. In hardware raid, part of the procedure in creating the array, is initialize the drives, and that formats the drives.

 He could perform a windows backup to a safe location, create the array, boot to windows dvd and choose repair the computer,choose load drivers, and load the raid drivers, and then restore the backup. But this is not for the faint of heart, or those not versed in doing a repair action with a restore. It's actually better to try this on 2 new drives, so you can always retain the original as the backup.

Thanks...Good to know  

To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

Actually, it is possible.  If you buy an adaptec RAID controller (and maybe others) and follow this procedure to clone the OS over to a hard drive connected to the RAID and then choose the option to build the RAID off the first drive.

Note that this is described for Windows XP and Server 2003 - both of which I have proven works (step 1).  It needs to be proven with Windows 7, but principle is be the same.  I did it with an Adaptec 1220SA controller.

Step 1
Move the windows installation over to a different controller without reinstalling.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/196922-32-switching-storage-controllers-reinstalling-windows

Step 2
Create raid 1 from a single hdd with OS on it.
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Download_Area/ATW_Library/Adaptec_RAID/Adaptec__1-How_to_create_RAID_1_mirroring_with_a_drive_that_already_has_an_operating_system_installed.pdf


So, I wrote all that and noticed, the "bios based raid controller".  So that might not work, but for $50, you can add in the Adaptec controller and get it done.

Thanks for the additional possibilities..I think I will recommend that the user think about why RAID at all and not just a good backup ( on and off-site) on a regular basis.

To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

Well, I always vote for RAID because it keeps you going (working) when one drive fails.  Without a good data backup AND an image backup of the O.S., it's a full reload of O.S., patches and apps - no fun and time consuming.

 

I agree but in this case, a timely restore is not a issue ( personal use PC, no really time-critical data just important to the user).
I think a Ghosted system and regular backups may serve his needs.
 

To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

Cloud Based Backup is the way.

http://www.xanadutech.com/CBB.html

 

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