Raid 1

[rmartin8]

Want to set up Raid 1 for two identical drives, not boot. One has some data on it, other empty.

Have vista ultimate 64.

Do I have to reinstall?

Thanks.

 

[rive0108]

Want to set up Raid 1 for two identical drives, not boot. One has some data on it, other empty.

Have vista ultimate 64.

Do I have to reinstall?

Thanks.

There is software RAID, and as for RAID 1 you can take a "broken array, and rebuild it to mirror a second HDD (usefull for redundant data backup)

So you are saying that you do not wish to miror the HDD Vista is on, but just create a data array using two backup drives?

 

[kavita]

Is that an Intel Raid or Nvidia RAID?

 

[rmartin8]

i want to mirror the array; it is an intel board and an nvidia video card; wouldn't it be a hardware raid?

 

[rive0108]

i want to mirror the array; it is an intel board and an nvidia video card; wouldn't it be a hardware raid?

Hardware RAID is best.

Want to set up Raid 1 for two identical drives, not boot. One has some data on it, other empty.

Have vista ultimate 64.

Do I have to reinstall?

Thanks.

In your first post you said "not a Boot [drive]" Are you inquiring on how to mirror Windows (which usually contains the boot files), or non-Windows "Data drives"? To use the RAID hardware and EXCLUDE the boot drive, you will need a minimum of 3 HDD's.

You do realize that a "mirror Array", is not meant to be used as a Windows backup method right? It it primarily designed to keep a a system up and running in the event of a hard drive failure, and is used mostly for servers (redundancy)

The problem with using it as a backup like you want to use it is that any errors/corruption/or malware will automatically and instantly be copied to the image.
Essentially, If you have any failure EXCEPT hardware failure all your data will be lost, or corrupted on BOTH Hard drives.

It is best to make "static" image backups of your PC with Ultimate's Complete PC backup and restore Utility every six months, and Use the User data file backup Utility weekly. These can be stored on a non-O/S HDD or external (as well as DVD's). They cannot be backed up to a Windows Drive Partition that is on the same drive as Windows.

If you backup the Image to disk, make sure to mark the last disk as "boot" as this disk contains all the required Info for the backup.

To access RAID restart and boot into RAID setting (it will show you what keys to use)

To use Vista Backup Utility, type backup in start search, click "Backup and Restore Center":