RAID 1 (Duplexing)?

Question

I have never set-up RAID 1 (Duplexing) on a Windows XP Pro system. So I have no clue where to start. I am planning to use 2 hard drives in one system. Mainly using HD 2 to backup HD 1. I know their is different ways to set this up. I would like to know which one is the easiest and most efficient. THANKS!

Answer 1

All members of a RAID 1 volume set must be on a dynamic disk.



To create a RAID 1 set in Windows 2000 (it should be fairly similar to XP), complete the following steps:



1. From the Start menu, select Programs, Administrative Tools, then the Computer Management Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.

2. Expand the Storage branch, and select Disk Management.

3. Right click the partition you want to mirror, and select Add Mirror from the context menu.

4. Select the disk that will host the mirror, and click Add Mirror.

Click here to view image

5. If you mirror the boot partition, a dialog box details the changes that the program will make to boot.ini to enable mirror booting. Click OK.



I'd recommend NOT going with a RAID if using Windows to accomplish this. It's not very efficient and it's not very reliable. Trying to troubleshoot out of sync mirrored partitions can be a lost cause. Unless you absolutely have to - I'd recommend other alternatives such as a backing up your system.

Answer 2

raid 0 is striping. this uses 2 or more disks and it writes to the disks simultaneously, thus increasing the read/write speed. imagine having 4 drives, and you go to save a 400MB file. raid 0 would write 100MB to each drive and reduce the amount of time needed significantly. raid 1 is mirroring. basically it's just two or more disks that read and write the same thing at the same time. the disks would be exact duplicates. raid 10 is a combination of both raid 1 and 0, but it is accomplished using two different controllers. for example, you have two raid cards in your computer. both cards have 3 hard drives connected and running raid 0. then those two sets of harddrives are set up as raid 1. this means there are 3 harddrives working together to make better performance. then there are 3 other drives doing the exact same thing, as exact duplicates. going raid 10 allows for the speed of raid 0 with fault tolerance in case of a hard drive failure.

Answer 3

RAID 0 - Use two disks as one, performance gain, no recovery available



RAID 1 - Use two disks, one as primary, second hidden and it mirrors all the data on the first drive, performance gain none, recovery is you have a secondary drive if you first one fails.



For home computers, RAID 1 is what you want to go with, it's called Mirroring.

Answer 4

use an external one friend has one