Partitioning Hard Drives For Raid 1 Configuration

[PattayaDavid]

I'm going to do a clean install of Vista 64-bit and I want to setup a Raid 1 configuration.  My primary hard drive has two partitions and my second hard drive currently only has a single partition.  Do I need to partition the 2nd hard drive and resize the partitions to match the primary hard drive before I do the clean install of Vista or will the partitioning and resizing occur automatically when I setup Raid in Bios and then load Vista?  Basically, what is the best way to create partitions relative to a Raid 1 configuration and a clean install of Vista 64-bit?

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

[Guest Reimar]

I'm going to do a clean install of Vista 64-bit and I want to setup a Raid 1 configuration. My primary hard drive has two partitions and my second hard drive currently only has a single partition. Do I need to partition the 2nd hard drive and resize the partitions to match the primary hard drive before I do the clean install of Vista or will the partitioning and resizing occur automatically when I setup Raid in Bios and then load Vista? Basically, what is the best way to create partitions relative to a Raid 1 configuration and a clean install of Vista 64-bit?

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

You don't need to partition the 2, HDD! If that HDD has an Partiton, just delete it. Raid 1 is making a Mirror of the first HDD to the second HDD.

One thing is very important: the size of the HDD must be equal and if not the first (Master) must have the lower size than the second will be reduced to that size.

I would disconnect the 2. HDD within installation of Vista 64 Bit and Install the system completely include all drivers and Updates.

After that, I would set the Bios to Raid and an the reboot tell wich is first and wich the second HDD.

You may also need to extract the Raid Driver from the MB CD, consult the Manual for that procedure because it's different from Brand to Brand.

Later on everything what will be written on the Master, will be written on the Second HDD as well. But keep in Mind that you can NOT access the 2. HDD as long as the Raid is working.

Cheers.

[PattayaDavid]

I'm going to do a clean install of Vista 64-bit and I want to setup a Raid 1 configuration. My primary hard drive has two partitions and my second hard drive currently only has a single partition. Do I need to partition the 2nd hard drive and resize the partitions to match the primary hard drive before I do the clean install of Vista or will the partitioning and resizing occur automatically when I setup Raid in Bios and then load Vista? Basically, what is the best way to create partitions relative to a Raid 1 configuration and a clean install of Vista 64-bit?

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

You don't need to partition the 2, HDD! If that HDD has an Partiton, just delete it. Raid 1 is making a Mirror of the first HDD to the second HDD.

One thing is very important: the size of the HDD must be equal and if not the first (Master) must have the lower size than the second will be reduced to that size.

I would disconnect the 2. HDD within installation of Vista 64 Bit and Install the system completely include all drivers and Updates.

After that, I would set the Bios to Raid and an the reboot tell wich is first and wich the second HDD.

You may also need to extract the Raid Driver from the MB CD, consult the Manual for that procedure because it's different from Brand to Brand.

Later on everything what will be written on the Master, will be written on the Second HDD as well. But keep in Mind that you can NOT access the 2. HDD as long as the Raid is working.

Cheers.

Thanks Reimar.  I have 3 identical 320GB hard drives.  Should I remove or disconnect both the 2nd and 3rd hard drives when doing the Vista clean install?  Also, my second hard drive has data on it that I no longer need; should I go ahead and format it before I do the clean install of Vista then when I reconfigure for Raid 1, I will have a formatted 2nd hard drive instead of one 2/3 full of data.  I had previously used a Raid 1 setup, not with partitioned drives, but screwed it up when i did a Bios update and mistakenly selected default settings upon restart.  I could have done a recovery, but since I was going to do a clean install anyway, I didn't bother.

I was originally using a bootleg copy of Vista Ultimate 32-bit, but recently I purchased an original version of Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1 via mail order in the U.S. and just received it in the mail a few days ago.  I know you can't do it on Vista Home Premium, but what are your thoughts of using dynamic drive setup in Ultimate?  I wasn't familiar with dynamic drives until I began researching drive partitioning under Vista.

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

[Guest Reimar]

Pattayadavid:

With Raid 1 you can use every time 2 Hdd's with same size which means that ther 3. drive you have can't be used in Raid 1. If youn want to use that Hdd in Raid 1 as well, you need to buy an other Hdd with same size.

An other solution may is that you use 1 HDD for the OS and programs and the 2. and 3. for Data as Raid 1. Here you need to create a recovery set of DVD's for the System Disk to be sure to have and working Backup.

But that solution is mor complicated and I would just buy 1 more Hdd and use all 4 in Raid 1.

The Installation procedure is quite easy as I wrtote before. just install the OS and all Drivers and "normal" software on the first drive. Create the Raid Disk with the needed Driver from the MB CD, set the Bios for Raid and assign the HDD as 2 Pairs: 1 + 2 and 3 + 4 and just follow the Manual and screen instructions.

I can not tell you the details because they differs from Brand to Brand.

The Installation I would do with just 1 drive connected and testing everything is working fine before I would change to Raid 1. After everything is working, switch of the computer and connect the HDD. For to know in the future which drive is which, I would label them as Drive1 R1-1, Drive2 R1-2, Drive3 R2-1 and Drive4 R2-2

I think all Drives are SATA and so drive1 would be connected to Sata1 port, Drive2 to SATA2 port and so on. This is important in case you need to disassemble the computer or disconnect some of drive or for other reason.

Cheers.

[JetsetBkk]

I'm going to do a clean install of Vista 64-bit and I want to setup a Raid 1 configuration. My primary hard drive has two partitions and my second hard drive currently only has a single partition. Do I need to partition the 2nd hard drive and resize the partitions to match the primary hard drive before I do the clean install of Vista or will the partitioning and resizing occur automatically when I setup Raid in Bios and then load Vista? Basically, what is the best way to create partitions relative to a Raid 1 configuration and a clean install of Vista 64-bit?

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

What is your reason for wanting RAID 1? I was going to do that until it was pointed out to me that any mistake I make on one drive (e.g. deleting data) will be instantly reflected on the other drive.

So I now have a small C: drive and two large data disks - the normal one and an identical backup disk.. I do backups (more like synchronisation of the two disks) every week.

[youngkiwi]

The primary reason of having RAID 1 is to provide redundancy against single drive failure, not to protect against accidentially deleting data. RAID is no substitute for having backups and any RAID implementation regardless of the RAID level should be combined with an effective backup strategy.

[PattayaDavid]

Pattayadavid:

With Raid 1 you can use every time 2 Hdd's with same size which means that ther 3. drive you have can't be used in Raid 1. If youn want to use that Hdd in Raid 1 as well, you need to buy an other Hdd with same size.

An other solution may is that you use 1 HDD for the OS and programs and the 2. and 3. for Data as Raid 1. Here you need to create a recovery set of DVD's for the System Disk to be sure to have and working Backup.

But that solution is mor complicated and I would just buy 1 more Hdd and use all 4 in Raid 1.

The Installation procedure is quite easy as I wrtote before. just install the OS and all Drivers and "normal" software on the first drive. Create the Raid Disk with the needed Driver from the MB CD, set the Bios for Raid and assign the HDD as 2 Pairs: 1 + 2 and 3 + 4 and just follow the Manual and screen instructions.

I can not tell you the details because they differs from Brand to Brand.

The Installation I would do with just 1 drive connected and testing everything is working fine before I would change to Raid 1. After everything is working, switch of the computer and connect the HDD. For to know in the future which drive is which, I would label them as Drive1 R1-1, Drive2 R1-2, Drive3 R2-1 and Drive4 R2-2

I think all Drives are SATA and so drive1 would be connected to Sata1 port, Drive2 to SATA2 port and so on. This is important in case you need to disassemble the computer or disconnect some of drive or for other reason.

Cheers.

I agree with you that the best solution would be to use 4 hard drives and pair them up as Raid drives, unfortunately my Lian-Li G7 mid-tower case only has space for 3 drives; I know, poor design in my eyes, but at the time of purchase I hadn't considered Raid configurations.  I just wanted a lightweight, but well made aluminum case.

I have one more question for you.  With past Windows operating systems, I've always been able to change the default storage/save folder, but with Vista I haven't been able to figure out how to do so.  Every time I want to open a folder or save a file, picture etc., it always defaults to the C:\Users\My Name\Documents, Pictures, whatever.  I save these files to my data partition, but I always have to go through the motions of opening, Computer then my drive of choice, file etc. before saving.  How can I change the default storage directory for all of my programs?  Is it possible to move the "Users" folder over to my data/storage partition?  My ultimate goal is to have only my operating system and programs on the C:\ drive with all other data, pictures, music etc. on my data partition.

I also like the idea of making a partition, possibly on my 3rd hard drive and make a true image of operating system once it is installed thereby aleviating the need to install the Vista DVD the next time I want or need to do a clean install.  Instead, I could just transfer the operating system image back over to the hard drive and begin loading my programs again.  I could even wait until after I download and install all of the Windows Updates first.  There seems to be a lot of good ideas out there for setting up a computer system for ease of use and it is my goal to use the best of these ideas.

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

[Guest Reimar]

I agree with you that the best solution would be to use 4 hard drives and pair them up as Raid drives, unfortunately my Lian-Li G7 mid-tower case only has space for 3 drives; I know, poor design in my eyes, but at the time of purchase I hadn't considered Raid configurations. I just wanted a lightweight, but well made aluminum case.

I have one more question for you. With past Windows operating systems, I've always been able to change the default storage/save folder, but with Vista I haven't been able to figure out how to do so. Every time I want to open a folder or save a file, picture etc., it always defaults to the C:\Users\My Name\Documents, Pictures, whatever. I save these files to my data partition, but I always have to go through the motions of opening, Computer then my drive of choice, file etc. before saving. How can I change the default storage directory for all of my programs? Is it possible to move the "Users" folder over to my data/storage partition? My ultimate goal is to have only my operating system and programs on the C:\ drive with all other data, pictures, music etc. on my data partition.

I also like the idea of making a partition, possibly on my 3rd hard drive and make a true image of operating system once it is installed thereby aleviating the need to install the Vista DVD the next time I want or need to do a clean install. Instead, I could just transfer the operating system image back over to the hard drive and begin loading my programs again. I could even wait until after I download and install all of the Windows Updates first. There seems to be a lot of good ideas out there for setting up a computer system for ease of use and it is my goal to use the best of these ideas.

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

I don't know about to change the default settings, never was looking for that but what I had done on my system is change some settings and I get every time back to the last stage. Here the way how to change:

open Windows Explorer, click on Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View uncheck Show Hidden Files and Folder, uncheck Hide extensions for known filws types, uncheck Hide protected operating system files, check Remeber each folders view settings, click on Apply to Folders, Click on Apply, click on OK

For to create an Drive Image, I use DVD-RW and the program NTI Drive Backup which creates a bootable set of DVD's. The point is that a HDD can fail at any time and if the HDD with the Image fail, it's gone! The DVD-RW last a bit longer, just only need to store in an safe place.

For the Raid system, why you didn't think to use an external Raid? May you take a look at THIS WEBSITE! They having not the external storage only but the cards as well. And if you use 2 intern and 2 extern, you can have the data complete external. If you need some more infos about just call to that company and ask for Khun Visan. He's the owner and speak english very well, or PM me with you mobile number and I can give you all infos.

Cheers.

[PattayaDavid]

I agree with you that the best solution would be to use 4 hard drives and pair them up as Raid drives, unfortunately my Lian-Li G7 mid-tower case only has space for 3 drives; I know, poor design in my eyes, but at the time of purchase I hadn't considered Raid configurations. I just wanted a lightweight, but well made aluminum case.

I have one more question for you. With past Windows operating systems, I've always been able to change the default storage/save folder, but with Vista I haven't been able to figure out how to do so. Every time I want to open a folder or save a file, picture etc., it always defaults to the C:\Users\My Name\Documents, Pictures, whatever. I save these files to my data partition, but I always have to go through the motions of opening, Computer then my drive of choice, file etc. before saving. How can I change the default storage directory for all of my programs? Is it possible to move the "Users" folder over to my data/storage partition? My ultimate goal is to have only my operating system and programs on the C:\ drive with all other data, pictures, music etc. on my data partition.

I also like the idea of making a partition, possibly on my 3rd hard drive and make a true image of operating system once it is installed thereby aleviating the need to install the Vista DVD the next time I want or need to do a clean install. Instead, I could just transfer the operating system image back over to the hard drive and begin loading my programs again. I could even wait until after I download and install all of the Windows Updates first. There seems to be a lot of good ideas out there for setting up a computer system for ease of use and it is my goal to use the best of these ideas.

Thanks,

Pattayadavid

I don't know about to change the default settings, never was looking for that but what I had done on my system is change some settings and I get every time back to the last stage. Here the way how to change:

open Windows Explorer, click on Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View uncheck Show Hidden Files and Folder, uncheck Hide extensions for known filws types, uncheck Hide protected operating system files, check Remeber each folders view settings, click on Apply to Folders, Click on Apply, click on OK

For to create an Drive Image, I use DVD-RW and the program NTI Drive Backup which creates a bootable set of DVD's. The point is that a HDD can fail at any time and if the HDD with the Image fail, it's gone! The DVD-RW last a bit longer, just only need to store in an safe place.

For the Raid system, why you didn't think to use an external Raid? May you take a look at THIS WEBSITE! They having not the external storage only but the cards as well. And if you use 2 intern and 2 extern, you can have the data complete external. If you need some more infos about just call to that company and ask for Khun Visan. He's the owner and speak english very well, or PM me with you mobile number and I can give you all infos.

Cheers.

I never thought about an external Raid before; I guess it is because I've never seen it available in Thailand.  I am impressed with the STARDOM SOHO RAID SR3610-2S-SB2 eSATA+USB Raid 0, 1 Solution; looks like the perfect solution for me, but where would I purchase this system in Thailand and at what cost?

Pattayadavid

[JetsetBkk]

The primary reason of having RAID 1 is to provide redundancy against single drive failure, not to protect against accidentially deleting data.

Agreed.

RAID is no substitute for having backups and any RAID implementation regardless of the RAID level should be combined with an effective backup strategy.

Agreed also.

I've only had a drive "fail" due to me doing something wrong - e.g. shutting down Windows while a program was still writing to the disk. So I'd rather have a backup disk that is kept up to date each week than use Raid 1.

[Guest Reimar]

I never thought about an external Raid before; I guess it is because I've never seen it available in Thailand. I am impressed with the STARDOM SOHO RAID SR3610-2S-SB2 eSATA+USB Raid 0, 1 Solution; looks like the perfect solution for me, but where would I purchase this system in Thailand and at what cost?

Pattayadavid

Hang on, I'll send you an PM with the infos

[JetsetBkk]

... The point is that a HDD can fail at any time and if the HDD with the Image fail, it's gone! The DVD-RW last a bit longer, just only need to store in an safe place...

The chances of your C: drive and another HDD failing at the same time are extremely small - to the point where it is not worth worrying about it.

I make a system image of my C: drive every week and store it on an external USB HDD.

[Guest Reimar]

... The point is that a HDD can fail at any time and if the HDD with the Image fail, it's gone! The DVD-RW last a bit longer, just only need to store in an safe place...

The chances of your C: drive and another HDD failing at the same time are extremely small - to the point where it is not worth worrying about it.

I make a system image of my C: drive every week and store it on an external USB HDD.

It's everytime depends how important are your Data!

I run Raid 1 wit 6 pairs of HDD's plus every 3 hour a backup of new and changed Data to DVD-RW and once a week a full Backup to an 80 GB tape.

You think I'm paranoid? I'm NOT! But my data a just nothing but pure money for me.

It's up to you how you like it and how you like your Data or how important they are. You choose what you think is the best for you. But never think that what is good enough for your must be good enough for others as well. You can be totally wrong with that.

Cheers.

[sjaak327]

There are two ways to do what you are after. If your motherboard has an integrated SATA Raid controller (many intel boards do nowadays), you have to set the sata controller to raid operation in the bios, after a reboot, you will be presented with a crtl+i keycombination, which will get you into the raid controller setup program. You can then create a raid one partition and choose the harddrives that you want to be raid enabled.

After doing this, you can install visa (sometimes you will need device drivers for your raid controller, which you can install during the visa install).

The raid controller will from then on, operate the raid partition. Intel has a nice gui program for this (matrix storage manager), be aware that if your raid one becomes dirty (bsod, power failure), it will verify and check for errors, this will slow down your computer (sometimes with older raid controllers considerably).

Another option is to let Vista handle the mirroring (this comes with only a small additional overhead, if you have a raid controller, this is not the recommended/preferred option)

This procedure is pretty straightforward as well, just install Vista on the first harddrive, and then once you are in vista, go to storage manager, and select your visa partition, mirror that one to the second disk, if the second disk contains a partition, delelete this first. This also works with different disk size, for instance, if your first disk is 250 GB and your second 320 GB, you would mirror your 250 GB partition on the second disk, and you would still have 70 GB free space to create an addtional partition (this one of course is NOT mirrored).

[tkekyle]

... The point is that a HDD can fail at any time and if the HDD with the Image fail, it's gone! The DVD-RW last a bit longer, just only need to store in an safe place...

The chances of your C: drive and another HDD failing at the same time are extremely small - to the point where it is not worth worrying about it.

I make a system image of my C: drive every week and store it on an external USB HDD.

This isn't necessarily true. One of the (two) major concerns when talking about data redundancy and backups is that a disaster may occur. For example, a few months ago there was a leak in my office building and rain water got in and soaked a lot of our things. Luckily our server room was unaffected but a fire, flood, disgruntled employee with a baseball bat, or any number of disasters can occur which can destroy all of your drives. For this reason it is extremely important to not only have drive redundancy but also make full backups and store them remotely. Generally you can either use a tape drive of some kind or you can pay someone (like Iron Mountain for example) to keep stuff like that for you. In the future it may become more viable to buy space on remote servers (right now it's expensive and the service generally sucks). That would probably be the best choice, since even if your backups are separated from the machines they mimic you might lose everything in a wide spread disaster like a hurricane. With remote storage on another company's servers you reduce the chances of that happening with a larger geographical separation of backup and original.

Point being, you should take your usb drive home with you if you don't already. If there's a fire you lose both backup and computer.

Edited August 4, 2009 by tkekyle

[jackdanielsesq]

I note this thread has a 14 month hiatus - wonder what the OP intentions were in the first instance?!

BR>Jack