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My system is asus p5k-e/wifi-ap with ich9r chipset.
I am running windows7 64-bit ULTIMATE on my boot drive.
I recently got an identical drive.
I want to enable raid 1 without reinstalling windows.
Is this possible? And what would be the best way to go about it?
edit: i did the software raid 1 thing: converting disks to dynamic + mirroring.
windows will not boot now from any of the drives...
eyaler
Posted 2013-02-27T18:43:24.270
Reputation: 103
2
You have two options:
As Chris wrote, this last is not to be possible without reinstalling, but you can make a backup and avoid most of the hassle.
The other option in is disk management. Right click on the new drive and use 'Add mirror'.
However:
Hennes
Posted 2013-02-27T18:43:24.270
Reputation: 60 739
1
If you are using Windows 7 Ultimate, you can using the built in imaging to create an image and store that on an external device.
You can then set up the RAID set in the system BIOS and then restore the image.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Back-up-your-files
Chris E. Avis
Posted 2013-02-27T18:43:24.270
Reputation: 1 637
1
You can do this using the motherboard RAID or in software using a Mirrored Volume in Windows. To use the motherboard RAID (assuming your BIOS is currently using ACHI) you will need to fix download and install the Intel Matrix RAID drivers. Then switch the BIOS to RAID mode. Last time I did this it required a couple of reinstalls and reboots for it to work correctly.
For a Mirrored Volume you can go to the Control Panel -> System and Security and click on 'Create and format hard disk partition'. On the new Disk right click and select 'New Mirrored Volume...'
Brad Patton
Posted 2013-02-27T18:43:24.270
Reputation: 9 939
0
This will work but you temporarily need a third drive.
Add two identical drives to be used as your new RAID volume that you want to boot from. Leave the original boot volume intact for now. Set up the 2 added volumes as a single mirrored raid volume and format them. I would suggest a low level format; this is a very slow process prior to the actual formatting that writes zero's to the entire drive.
(You can typically get by without doing this on a Mirrored volume but on a raid 5 or 10 etc it's pretty much a must do or you'll have disk errors down the road.)
Then "clone" (freeware clone software is available for both Macs & PC's) the boot drive to that new mirrored volume. In doing it this way the boot sector etc are copied to the new volume.
Now remove the original boot volume and you'll be able to boot from the new mirrored volume. This works great on both Macs and PC's.
As a further note 2 drive and 4 drive Raid enclosures are available to day for 200 bucks or less that are decent but not enterprise.
jimbo
Posted 2013-02-27T18:43:24.270
Reputation: 9
its windows 7 64 ultimate – eyaler – 2013-02-27T19:17:22.277
Win 7 ultimate has that option. I will add a screenshot showing its location. – Hennes – 2013-02-27T19:18:32.113
i know how to do it :) – eyaler – 2013-02-27T19:19:54.987
Ah, good. Still added since it still makes it easiest for other who may find this post at a later time. Also, I am suggesting Chris' answer if you need a full backup (including boot-sector etc) and if you have a spare system which understands IRST in case of a motherboard failure. If you do not that the generic 'add mirror' will work on any win7 version without motherboard support. – Hennes – 2013-02-27T19:25:11.200
@Hennes Hi there, I happen to be looking for this as well, and I have a little question: Is the "Add mirror" option what you call "Fake RAID" and how does this compare to a "Normal RAID" in terms of performance? – riseagainst – 2013-02-27T19:58:56.533
Fake RAID is fully software based and should be as fast as normal software RAID. It is just called 'fake' since with support in BIOS menu's it looks like 'real hardware RAID', which uses extra hardware and thus can be faster. I stress can since good software RAID and outperform bad hardware RAID and vice versa. Also software RAID (both forms) do use some CPU. Not much by today's standards, but if you are using a HPC cluster where your CPU's are running at 100% for weeks at an end then it matters. For home usage it usually does not matter. – Hennes – 2013-02-27T20:12:41.847
As to clarify, I call IRST fake RAID, not the software version in 'add mirror'. (Just to make things clear: I am not nitpicking on Intel. Highpoint had some similar 'RAID' options with BIOS setup and software implementation. I find those just as misleading). – Hennes – 2013-02-27T20:15:21.143
1unfortunately after converting to dynamic windows will not boot. any experience with this? – eyaler – 2013-03-04T09:25:12.533