Adding raid to existing system.

Forum Storage : NAS/RAID Adding raid to existing system.

I built my pc this past March wth Win 7 64bit and now I would like to do a raid setup, do I need to rebuild my pc all over again or can I just add the second hard drive and setup raid through the bios? I have a evga p55 FTW mboard and my new hard drives should be arriving soon, I will have a 2nd Samsung F3 spinpoint dirve. Whats the best way to get raid up and running without having to rebuild my system all over again? Also would this matter based on the kind of raid I choose to use?

Message edited by jp0213x on 07-29-2010 at 04:31:32 PM

Reply to jp0213x

Definitely will depend on the RAID level - raid 1 might work, raid 0 you would have to create the array then copy the data. The documentation should tell you if it can mirror an existing drive into an array.

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Reply to gtvr

gtvr wrote :

^+1

i plan on doing the same thing, a good RAID is expensive! LOL

Reply to belltollsforthee

You cannot create an array from existing drive and preserve the data. You must mirror the data to a backup drive somewhere, add your second drive, create the array, and then mirror the data back to the array after it is established. You can do it with Acronis True Image, I have done it several times, arrays to single drives, single drives back to arrays, nothing to it.

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Reply to jitpublisher

Can I also do this with raid 0 as well? I was thinking of using acronis. Would I get any performance difference with raid 0 as oppose 1?

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Reply to jp0213x

true image should work even if the sizes are different, so raid 0 vs. 1 shouldn't matter. RAID 0 is faster but offers NO redundancy - if either drive fails, your data is LOST. You would need to restore from backup.

Reply to gtvr

jp0213x wrote :

Can I also do this with raid 0 as well? I was thinking of using acronis. Would I get any performance difference with raid 0 as oppose 1?

Well, i have heard of some RAID cards asking the option to mirror an existing drive into a Raid 1

RAID 0 is a striping where the files are split up between two drives to potentially speed up read and write times, of course this depends on your files sizes and strip sizes; both hard drives share together their capacity but if one fails all the memory is lost

RAID 1 is a mirroring where two hard drives are treated as one and the data is sent to be copied by both hard drives increase security, you will still have all your data if one drive fails. But no performance boost

I still haven't decided if RAID 0 is worth the performance boost for me, though many will tell you its perfectly safe

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http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad338/BellTollsForThee/Extra%20Account%20Pictures/Finished-GT-SIG-1.png

Reply to belltollsforthee

jp0213x wrote :

Can I also do this with raid 0 as well? I was thinking of using acronis. Would I get any performance difference with raid 0 as oppose 1?

Here this man will help you out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij3B3ujQtpY

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Reply to belltollsforthee

Thanks man!, I will use acronis to back up my data first.

Reply to jp0213x

jitpublisher wrote :

Update,

I am still having problems getting the raid going, here are the steps.

1. Created a image using acronis.

2. Installed the 2nd hard drive.

3. Went into BIOS setup raid, created raid 0, all data erased. ( Note I am running Win 7 64bit prior, no raid drivers installed) How do I get the intel raid drivers installed before I do a image?

4. Re imaged drive using acronis.

After the pc is re imaged, I get to the Win 7 splash screen and windows keeps rebooting. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen, is this because Win 7 doesn't see the raid drivers? I was going to try deleting raid and restoring my image and installing the raid drivers from evga disk.

Can I run 2 F3 Samsung spinpoint 1T drives with raid 0, does windows have a limit?

As of now on my I have generic "marvell 61xx raid" controllers and "virtual clonedrive" listed under storage controllers. Is marvell the correct controller for raid?

Message edited by jp0213x on 08-01-2010 at 08:56:55 PM

Reply to jp0213x

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