How To Use And Manage A Windows 7 Software RAID Mirror Drive
Sep 16, 2011
I built a new computer.I wanted it to be more reliable. So, I got two identical hard drives. I installed Win 7 Pro as one big C: partition. Then I converted to dynamic disks and mirrored the first disk onto the second disk. Everything works! I even gave it a test. I powered off, and disconnected the SATA cable on the first hard disk. Windows booted right up, off the second HD. Great! It seems the mirroring works and can tolerate a missing disk.(I had to rebuild the mirror after doing this test.)I have some questions about how this will work over the long term. I noticed that when the first hard drive was missing from the mirror Windows never gave an error message. How would I detect a failing or failed hard drive? This is important, I think.How does Windows deal with a bad read on one hard drive in a two drive mirror? Say if one disk reads correctly, but the second disk reads a bad sector, how does Windows know what is the correct data?I found that Windows gives a text mode menu when I first boot up the computer. It wants me to select which Windows I will boot: the first hard drive or the second "Plex". Is there a way to set a default, so it will always boot the first instance of Windows without user intervention? Or would this defeat the mirroring function in the case of a bad hard drive?
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Oct 14, 2010
I have Home Windows 7 premium which means I cannot Encrypt, create dynamic disks, or mirror (RAID 1) my hard drives, so if this is true and I want to use any of these I need to go back to my Vista Ultimate?
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Oct 11, 2012
On hard drive drive only Win7 mirror image."Some Smart" deleted all. Motherboard was bad - change motherboard & memory.Start resoring windows and when it start setting for first time say config error.
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Nov 21, 2012
Can somebody please advise how to only copy data changes to a 2nd mirror drive (identical) is there any software free or buy that will do this job quickly as I have been doing it manually.I have 2 drive identical and I work on one for some time then I clone it to the 2nd drive but all I really want to do is copy the data/work only and not system files.
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Sep 10, 2009
So, I installed windows 7 ultimate with 2 drives. I'm running on a MB with an AHCI (ICH10R SATA controller - No extra drivers needed. Windows 7 sees the drives fine during install). It did the normal thing on 1 drive of making a system reserved partition with all the bootmgr and BCD stuff. I'm not able to mirror it. But, I was able to mirror the main installation partition.
Forward a few days - Drive 1 (the one with the "System" (BCD and bootmgr) and the main installlation) dies. Now I have another drive with just the main installation. Of course, I can't boot anymore.
OK, I think - I'll add the missing boot files to the still working drive. I boot the install CD, go into a CMD prompt. Break the mirror, and make the working partition standalone. I copy bootmgr onto the drive's root, create a "Boot" folder. A run diskpart and mark the partition as active. I run bootrec/rebuildbcd (which works and finds my installation), bootrec/fixmbr (also works) and bootrec/fixboot (also works). Great, so now I can boot?
Wrong. I just get a blinking cursor on trying to boot. I've run through the GUI repair, and still no go. I cannot figure out what's missing.
So, the bottom line is - If you're using a mirror thinking you're safe - Think again. Your data will be safe, but forget ever booting that installation again.
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Nov 1, 2009
Im getting a new harddrive, after being annoyed endlessly by loading objects in games (5400 rpm/uber slow). However I only have the upgrade version of Windows 7 Professional. So my question is can I use Windows 7 backup image to restore the image on a different hard drive to boot from? I do have multiple computers available incase I need them.
I know the best way is to use a Drive image utility, however I am not fond of paying extra $$ since I am on a strict budget at the moment. I need alternatives to fresh install because it would take me days to redownload or reinstall all the setup.
Mostly CS4 is what concerns me (legit). Now I could have it reinstalled but I won't be able to for a while due to the missing key/discs.
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May 27, 2011
I've an all-in-one computer but would like to mirror the hard drive with an external usb drive, main hd 1T internal and 2T external partitioned into 2x1T one for mirror and other for data. Is this possable, running 7 Ultimate.
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Nov 7, 2011
I have my present hard drive backed up using Windows Backup on an external hard drive. I want to replace the 500gb hard drive in my desktop with a 1tb hard drive, I am assuming (i know bad word) after the transfer is complete the new hard drive will be recognized and function on boot as the 500gb drive did.
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Jan 4, 2013
I am replacing my HHD with a SSD and made a mirror image on my backup external drive. When I tried to do the system image recovery, it fails to find the recovery information. It says the no disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.
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May 12, 2011
I have a Toshiba 64-bit home premium. Satallite. I got a pop up message related to optical drive power to turn it on. I checked the notification area where the icon resides. i'm not understanding the purpose. When i point to the icon, it says its off. When I right click on lthe icon the drop down list gives me options; eg. optical drive auto lock >> unlock timed settings >> confirm power on/off >> notify power on/off.
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Oct 27, 2012
I am doing a quick windows build here on a couple of computers and want to RAID 1 the windows C drive. The motherboard i got for them does not support RAID (I kinda figured it would). So now i was thinking of just doing a software RAID in windows. I got the C drive to mirror each other in disk management but the issue seems to be booting. When the computer starts it asks which hard drive i want to boot from and when i simulate hard drive failure the boot manager doesn't come up at all and i am stuck with the no boot device error. My guessing is that there is something on the 100MB system partition that isn't copying over.
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Nov 20, 2010
My PC is currently using a single RAID 0 drive that contains my Windows install and all my data in a single partition C: (I'm well backed up so happy with the risk of RAID0)
The RAID0 drive is setup by my motherboard controller so Windows just sees the one drive.
I am thinking of adding an separate drive for windows, hopefully an SSD. I would like to do a fresh install of Windows 7 on the new disk then rename the old RAID0 drive to something different such as D: . Then reorganise it into just a data disk.
My question is.. will the new Windows 7 installation just see the old RAID0 disk as another disk? I know this would work witha normal disk, but does RAID0 transfer over to a new installation ok?
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Jul 16, 2012
I have set up a dual boot- Windows 7 pro & XP ultimate, both on separate SSD's, all OK. I also have two 3TB HDD's set up under windows 7 RAID, all OK. In XP under drive management the RAID drives show up twice, once as 775GB unused drives with no drive letter allocated and also as 2.7GB RAID drives with status 'failed', drives marked as 'missing'. Is there a way I can get the RAID drive accessible under XP?
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Nov 9, 2011
I need to know how I can format a Raid Hard Drive to a Windows Format.
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Nov 19, 2011
Installed a new M4 ssd today and loaded windows on it. Previously i was using 2 raptors in raid 0 for the os and programs. I re raided the 2 raptors and connected them to the jmicron ports and set them up for raid in bios, then created the raid 0 array no prob. Windows doesnt see the array when loaded up and i have the latest rst drivers installed..did this prior to the os install on the ssd. using the x58 e760a1 mobo. under device manager, the raid controller has an exclamation mark and no driver installed yet i have the latest rst 10.8.0.1003 installed..
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Apr 28, 2012
I've got 2x1TB partition using raid 0 on C: drive which I recently shrunk a little to make a 10GB partition to put "secure" items into. When I try to enable bitlocker encryption on the partition, it gets part of the way through and then my computer dies horribly. It's not a BSOD, the screen is black and windows tells me it can't find its loader.I reboot a few times and everything is back to normal.Delete the partition, re-create it, format it and try again, same thing.
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Apr 25, 2012
I have tried to find the way to do this, but without success as I cannot see the wood for the trees.
I have a mature Windows 7 system, with so many applications loaded that rebuilding from scratch is just not an option. I have a 300MB Velociraptor wholly given over to the OS and another empty 300MB VR. I want to extend, that may not be the right word, my OS to use both disks in Raid 0.
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May 20, 2012
Whether in the form of Windows software, this feature is that if we have two disk For example, one of the drives and disk drive 0 with one of the disc 1 are mirror.disk 0 if the is corrupted for any reason. Data from one come up?
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Dec 18, 2010
I have an Intel 80GB SSD (bootable OS Windows 7 installed) and a WD 500GB HDD (storage and backup). Is it possible to mirror my SSD onto an 80GB volume on my HDD using Windows 7's RAID1? If so, do I suffer a performance hit on my read/write speeds in Windows 7 on my SSD?
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Nov 3, 2012
I have windows 7, I have 3 harddisks.1 I use for my installation of windowsand on 2 harddisks I have my data but those 2 drives I made a mirror in Windows.What, if I reinstall windows, do I lose the data or does windows split the mirror?
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Sep 28, 2009
I recently built a computer with only one drive, I was wondering if it is possible to install another one and have them runing on raid 0 or do you suggest another type of raid maybe with 3 drives.
I have an asus mobo p5q3 so I can use Drive Xpert technology but a lot of reviews says that the speed of the drives is split in two when using these 2 sata connection (white and orange).
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May 30, 2011
I just purchased a new 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor drive and I'm going to use it as my OS drive. Is it possible to set up a RAID 0 with my current drive (hitachi 1TB 7200RPM) without having to format it?
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Jan 5, 2013
until recently I had an XP PC with a single main OS IDE HD. To backup I performed monthly an Acronis clone to an identical 2nd IDE HD that I bought for this purpose. Easy.
Now I have a Windows 7 PC with two identical SSD's in RAID0 as main OS drive and a 2nd internal HD. I would like to perform a backup of this system so that I can later restore it to any HD configuration I choose (for example a single SSD, or a single HD, etc). Is this possible or the restore will need to be done to the same original configuration (two SSD's in RAID0+2nd int HD)? What would be the simplest software that will accomplish this?
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May 29, 2012
Just wondering what or if I could move an xp backup onto a raid 0 drive. I did setup the drives in raid in the bios, and they show as raid. I booted into my marcium backup and ran my xp backup onto the drive, that showed in marcium as a raid 0 drive. When I booted, which went fine, into xp it shows in disk management as raid 0. But the problem is, it shows two drives, together and the 2nd drive as being un partitioned. Therefore I'm only running on one drive. Is this fixable, or do I need a clean install?
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Jun 17, 2012
I have an HTPC that I've had for about 4 years now. Today when I booted it up it went into an infinite loop with the 'Startup Repair Utility" where it would just sit there claiming to be repairing the drive but never actually completing or providing a notification of the issues (typical Microsoft troubleshooting). Anyway, I finally was able to get into the advanced settings of the utility and get to a command prompt and see what was going on.
1)The previous RAID 1 configuration was setup as the main C: drive with the OS and also where I had all our music stored. But now during the boot sequence the bios startup it flashes in red complaining about the RAID array having degraded and when I finally got into a command prompt it was no longer mapped to C:, the two drives in the array were mapping independently as drive E: and F: respectively (the DVD-ROM is the D: drive).
2)My first concern was to get my music off it so I plugged in an external USB drive and went into command prompt and tried to xcopy from E:, it started to copy then failed catastrophically with a weird error so that would appear to be the bad drive. I then tried the same thing on drive F: (the mirror) and its cranking along nicely copying all my music over. My fingers are crossed but I suspect I'll be OK, its unlikely to get two drive failures in the same array at the exact same time
Once I get my data off the good drive how should I proceed? I assume I need to get a new duplicate drive installed and then can I not rebuild the RAID array from the good drive? I've never done this before, the machine came built for me so I'm not familiar how it is setup. What I do know is that it has a 'RAID utility' you can jump into at boot up by hitting F10.
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Aug 1, 2009
I'm trying to install Windows 7 64-bit on my brand new custom PC, using a RAID0 drive array. I already set the array in the BIOS, and the BIOS sees it. All shall be going to plan...
Nope.
The beginning of the install goes fine, I accept the Terms and all that good stuff, it's loading files, yadadada.. but when it gets to the part where it's asking me where Windows 7 is asking me what drive it should be on, nothing is there. It asks for drivers (my SB750 RAID drivers) so it can find the drives, I put in my USB flash drive with the RAID drivers (I tried both from disk and website), it tells me that no new devices could be found.
I don't think it's a problem with my physical computer, So it's either that I messed something up in the BIOS or Windows 7 is being picky on it's RAID arrays.
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Jul 10, 2012
I have Win 7 Pro 64 bit installed on an ASUS P7P55D LE motherboard which supports RAID 0,1,5 and 10 using Intel Matrix Storage Technology through an on board Intel P55 chip set. The system was assembled in Nov 2009 using two Western Digital Caviar Black 750Gb drives in RAID 1 as Drive C:. (I now know from Western Digital Customer Service that I shouldnt have done that, but lets move on from there). Last December, an error message informed me the RAID array was broken and identified one of the 750 Mb drives as needing replacement. I happened to have a spare 1.5Tb WD Caviar Black at the time, so I pulled the 750Mb drive and replaced it with the 1.5Tb drive. Life was once again good. Then on July 4th (wouldnt you know) there was a repeat of the December 2011 error message telling me to replace the other original 750Gb drive. Okay so I had another 1.5Tb WD Caviar Black laying around (dont ask) and did a similar swap out. Thats when I emailed WD Customer Support asking about the 750 since their diagnostic software said the drives were fine. Thats when I learned that I should be paying lots more for enterprise quality drives if I want/need RAID. Well thats not what ASUS says in their advertising, but live and learn. All thats prologue, because my real question is whether its possible to break the hardware-based RAID 1 array and set up a Windows 7-based RAID 1 with the two 1.5Tb WD Caviar Black drives without having to reinstall Windows 7.
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Jan 15, 2013
I am about to reformat my hard drive, long story as to why, but I am starting from scratch. I know how to install windows, drivers etc. But one thing I am not sure about is configuring the RAID, as I wasn't the one who did it when we installed everything. I am asunming that when I reformat the RAID will need to be reconfigured? I have RAID 5 with three hard drives, each 500 GB. I have a program called Intel Rapid Storage Technology that "manages" the hard drives,but if I am correct I have to set up RAID before installing windows. How to configure the RAID the same way I currently have it? This is a homebuilt comp, i7 930 2.8 ghz, 6 GB RAM, Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, Gigabyte motherboard...
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Feb 10, 2012
My Laptop came with Raid 0 over 2 one terrabyte harddisks. Last week i started getting Drive 1 at risk message. I looked it up and it turns out that this message occurs some time before your drive fails.I did a Full computer backup using windows Back up utility using an external Hard drive. Now I'm going to buy a new internal Hard drive to replace the faulty one.What are the steps i have to do to back up properly?After some search,I learned that:
1_ Backup everything.
2_ Replace Faulty drive.
3_ Rebuild Raid 0 array.
4_ Restore the system image.
Does the new internal Hard drive have to be the same brand/type/size as the old Faulty hard drive? Also I've never used Raid, so how do i recreate a new raid 0 array ? From Bios ? Should i create a repair disk too ? or would Windows dvd work?
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Jan 3, 2013
RAID-1 DRIVE PULL OUT TO TRANSFER ...
I have a pair of mirrored RAID-1 drives (these have been removed and sitting as is for about 6months or so)
There is no important data on this that im concerned about preserving.
What i want to do is reformat them into 2 separate single storage HDD'safter installing them into my new system. or will it mess up my new system?
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Nov 13, 2009
I installed a Rosewell RC-217 Raid card (Silicon Image Sil 3124 SoftRaid 5 Controller-- in Device Manager). The card installed well in Windows 7 64 bit. No problems in device manager.The problem starts when i plug the drive in then rebooted. The boot stops at the 'Starting Window' and hangs. If i boot into windows then plug the drive in all work well. Windows sees the drive and i gave it a drive letter. works great.Problem is i can't boot my system without un-pluging the drive.
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