Moving from non-RAID to RAID 1

[captainoats]

I have two identical western digital hard drives both 500gb each.

I am currently recovering data from one of them.

To save time, I plan on installing XP on the second drive then hoping to put them into RAID 1 configuration when im done recovering data.

Is this even possible?

RAID 1 = mirroring ..so I thought copying the HDD with the OS installed would do the trick.

I use a Silicon Image SATA RAID Controller 3112 and I have seen the option where it lets you copy from another HDD.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Paperdoc]

Read the instructions on your Silicon Image RAID controller system. I have a RAID1 array set up on a machine that uses built-in controllers in the mobo's Nvidia chipset, but yours may have similar tools.

Lots of RAID1 control systems have tools for just this purpose of setting up the array. You want the tools used to convert a non-RAID system into a RAID1 array by adding a second hard drive. There should be built-in tools for this. What it simply has to do is adjust the MBR and Partition data on each drive to mark the two as part of a RAID array (and identify each drive's role in the array), then make a complete copy of absolutely everything from the original Source drive to the companion drive. That is not a complex operation. Once it's done, your RAID array is all set up and working. Well, maybe you want to reboot the machine and prove to yourself it is working.

Since you plan to do this using the Silicon Image RAID controller, do not get involved or confused with the RAID tools within Windows. Let your controller do it all, and Windows will just think it has a single hard drive as usual.

While you're doing this, read up also on the other tools your controller has. Often there are automatic monitors running in the background to check the RAID operation and take corrective action when trouble shows up. This may well involve putting on the screen a window that warns you it is running in some backup mode and you need to fix the original problem. Then it will have tools for you to solve the problem and restore the normal RAID1 operations again. These are handy to know about when an error message appears!