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Configure RAID 1 by adding second drive

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by casemaker

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Hi,
I would like to add a second drive to my pc. I will go into the bios and enable the SATA drives as RAID and then enter the RAID utility and configure a RAID 1 Array. Will I loose all the data on the original first drive when the mirror is added or will it use the original to copy to the new drive?
Thanks

4 replies

by dedlbug

You shouldn't loose any data on the original drive. When you connect the drives to the RAID array, just know which one has the data on it. In the RAID BIOS, it should ask you which one is the source drive for building the array. Please just remember to backup first (preferably an image). Usually the RAID BIOS recognizes the drives either by serial number, or what channel they are connected to physically. It may take a while for the RAId to copy the drive and build the array. Wait for it to finish all of the way through. ;)

by casemaker

That is the info I was looking for. I do not want to loose the data on drive 0 when I add drive 1 and create an array using the both of them

by dfwald

If you buy a PC from a vendor with a hard drive and want to add another one yourself to create a RAID 1 mirror, does the second one have to be the exact same model? Is that best practice?

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