1st Time setting up RAID 1 with hardware! Suggestions please!!!

[ahthurungnone]

Okay, so I've got my two hard drives and my mobo that has RAID 1 as a hardware/bios option. What steps do I take to setup this up correctly from the hardware? Do I simply attach the SATA drives onto the mobo, then enter bios and set both drives as RAID and then install the OS? Will Win7 then see them as 1 drive? Not sure how to do this, so ANY comments are very appreciated. Thank you in advance.

And, yes, I read the FAQ, but I need step by step "idiot" instructions.

If it helps I am installed on a MSI 880 mobo. Thanks.

 

[geofelt]

Is raid-1 what you really need?
The value of raid-1 and it's variants like raid-5 for protecting data is that you can recover from a hard drive failure quickly.
It is for servers that can't afford any down time.
Recovery from a hard drive failure is just moments.
Fortunately hard drives do not fail often.
Mean time to failure is claimed to be on the order of 1,000,000 hours.(100 years)
Raid-1 does not protect you from other types of losses such as viruses,
software errors,raid controller failure, operator error, or fire...etc.
For that, you need EXTERNAL backup.
If you have external backup, and can afford some recovery time, then you don't need raid-1.

 

[ahthurungnone]

It is for a server, so I still need help.

 

[geofelt]

Okay, so I've got my two hard drives and my mobo that has RAID 1 as a hardware/bios option. What steps do I take to setup this up correctly from the hardware? Do I simply attach the SATA drives onto the mobo, then enter bios and set both drives as RAID and then install the OS? Will Win7 then see them as 1 drive? Not sure how to do this, so ANY comments are very appreciated. Thank you in advance.

And, yes, I read the FAQ, but I need step by step "idiot" instructions.

If it helps I am installed on a MSI 880 mobo. Thanks.

Yes, it is that simple, but if you care about your data, you should still arrange for external backup for the server data.

 

[gtvr]

You're the one with the accounting files, IIRC? Sure you don't want to go with a server OS?

Also great avatar pic, got one without your boyfriend in it?


(j/k)

 

[ahthurungnone]

Yes, but you'd have to ask him for a copy.

 

[ahthurungnone]

So, will Win7 see the two RAID 1 drives as just one when I install the OS?