Can I run hard drive utils on a RAID-1 setup?

[Guest]

I'm running Windows on a RAID-1 setup using a 3ware controller.

I'm wondering if the RAID-1 setup will affect whether or not I can run
certain hard drive utilities, like chkdsk and defragmenter? If I run
chkdsk to scan for bad sectors, would the RAID controller just scan one
of the disks and not the other one? And if I run the defragmenter, is it
possible that one of the disks would be fragmented differently from the other
disk, causing possible data destruction during the defrag?

Also, if I ever want to resize my partitions, would it be OK to use
PartitionMagic or BootItNG, or would the RAID-1 setup screw up the
operation of those programs?

 

[Haggis]

I'm running Windows on a RAID-1 setup using a 3ware controller.

I'm wondering if the RAID-1 setup will affect whether or not I can run
certain hard drive utilities, like chkdsk and defragmenter? If I run
chkdsk to scan for bad sectors, would the RAID controller just scan one
of the disks and not the other one? And if I run the defragmenter, is it
possible that one of the disks would be fragmented differently from the other
disk, causing possible data destruction during the defrag?

Also, if I ever want to resize my partitions, would it be OK to use
PartitionMagic or BootItNG, or would the RAID-1 setup screw up the
operation of those programs?

XP uses a take-off of "Diskeeper" which has no problem with mirrored drives.

you have a choice i've found ...break the mirror ...defrag your boot ..then
remirror (and let it update)

or

run defrag on your drive as normal (it does take slightly longer in a
mirrored setup)

 

[John R Weiss]

I'm running Windows on a RAID-1 setup using a 3ware controller.

I'm wondering if the RAID-1 setup will affect whether or not I can run
certain hard drive utilities, like chkdsk and defragmenter? If I run
chkdsk to scan for bad sectors, would the RAID controller just scan one
of the disks and not the other one? And if I run the defragmenter, is it
possible that one of the disks would be fragmented differently from the other
disk, causing possible data destruction during the defrag?

Also, if I ever want to resize my partitions, would it be OK to use
PartitionMagic or BootItNG, or would the RAID-1 setup screw up the
operation of those programs?

I have used Partition Magic 7, MS Defrag, DiskKeeper, and Chkdsk without
problem. SpinRite won't work unless you disable a drive temporarily and "break
the mirror."

Check the docs for any other utilities.