Goin from no RAID to RAID 1

[mashew]

I bought two 500GB HDD's(identical) when I got my comp a while ago and now I am thinking about going to RAID 1 for peace of mind. I have NOTHING on my second HDD. Is it possible to do?

I run XP Pro SP3 so I need a floppy disk drive right?

I really dont know much of what to do for this so any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[goobaah]

First read through this to find out what you have to do as far as drivers. This is if you dont want to do a re-install.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/196922-32-switching-storage-controllers-reinstalling-windows


I think with your soutbridge you can create a mirror from an existing drive. So, if you get your drivers setup right you can switch your BIOS SATA controller setting from IDE (or whatever it is in your BIOS) to RAID. If your computer boots then install the RAID software that comes with your motherboard. Once inside here you will find options to create the mirror. I'm not sure the exact steps, but I know it is somewhat intuitive with my motherboard.

 

[saint19]

Yes, you need a floppu disk driver for the RAID drivers.

And not, isn't posible do the RAID 1 without install the O.S. In this case, you need install both HDD, start to install XP again, and load the drivers for the RAID 1.

 

[mashew]

Thank you very much guys. I have a M3A78-T with a 9950 and I have two Seagate 72000rpm 500BG (32MB cache) SATA 2.0 drives if that means anything to anyone I really should have told you earlier, my bad.

If I really must re-install then I will wait until I upgrade to 7 ultimate(after the first SP for it).

Once again TY for all the info I will look into making a mirror and hope that I can without re-install.

 

[saint19]

Yes, you can wait till the Win 7 SP1. But IMO the Win 7 now, is a good option for RAID and upgrade for your system.

 

[Boxa786]

+ for win 7

Anyways, you will loose all data on your current 500GB hard drive. So backup what you need first!

Install harddrives into pc (physically)

Setup raid using bios (set HD's to raid), then bios utility for raid - raid 1

Insert Win XP CD along with floppy disc with raid drivers (download and make this raid floppy disc before you start anything, get the latest from Asus's site)

Rest is just the normal os installation.

Enjoy,