RAID question...

[dan7777]

Hi guys,

I used to have two 250gig Maxter SATA disks in RAID 1. However, I disabled RAID for a while because I needed extra storage. Anyway, now I'm setting up XP on a totally separate hd, and have reformatted one of the previously RAIDed disks. Leaving data on the other disk. I now want RAID again.

When I reenable RAID in the BIOS, and set it up in the XP installation, will it create another array with the data on one of the disks? Or will it erase both disks in preparation for the array?

Thanks for your help! I hope this question makes sense!

 

[Remeniz]

The good thing is that you used RAID 1 or Mirror RAID.

When you re-enable RAID 1 you can actually have the RAID mirror the content on the disk with the data on it.

This is called re-building RAID 1. And this is the beauty of RAID 1 too. Should one disk fail in the array you simply replace the bad disk and rebuild the array saving all your precious data.

So as long as you look at the options carefully you will be able to re-build the array saving the information you already have on 'said' disk.

 

[dan7777]

So, if I choose rebuild in the BIOS, it wont delete the data?

 

[Remeniz]

No it won't delete the infomation on the disk.

In the options look for something like 're-build RAID 1 set' or 'Create with Data copy'.

I use a Mirror RAID for stuff I want to protect and have changed a disk in my array once without any data loss.

Thats the whole idea of RAID 1.