Mirroring the C Drive

[Jeff F]

I'm attempting to mirror the C: drive with a second drive on the same
machine, WINXP Pro, the help files I've seen don't give an easy explanation
of how to do this. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jeff

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

In order to configure a mirror, you'll need to setup a
RAID configuration. This requires two identical hard
drives, a motherboard with RAID or a RAID controller
card. Then you must install Windows XP from scratch.
Consult your motherboard's User's Manual for detailed
instructions.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jeff F" <Please post to newsgroup!> wrote in message:

| I'm attempting to mirror the C: drive with a second drive on the same
| machine, WINXP Pro, the help files I've seen don't give an easy explanation
| of how to do this. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jeff

 

[Jeff F]

I was afraid of that, I have two identical hard drives but am not willing to
reinstall the operating system, I guess I'll find another way to go...
Thanks for the help.

 

[Jim]

Slight correction, there's no need to reinstall XP from scratch to simply
implement RAID! The RAID process occurs UNDERNEATH the OS, at the BIOS
level. The OS isn't even aware that RAID is implemented, it's ALL hardware.

Let's assume you obtain one of these add-on cards (eBay sells them all the
time, the Promise FastTrak100 TX2 is relatively cheap and works GREAT, can
be had for as little as $35 with some patience).

Anyway, let's say you already have XP installed on the primary IDE, and you
get one of these RAID cards. You install it in a PCI slot and reboot. I
then suggest updating the card's BIOS (they're often out of date). Simply
requires creation of a boot floppy and downloading the files from the
Promise website. Copy the update to the boot disk and install. Now remove
the floppy, reboot into Windows, and install the Promise FastTrak100 TX2
drivers. Now shutdown Windows and move your IDE1 cable from the motherboard
to IDE1 of the RAID card, and the new HD, the one which will be the target
of the mirror, to IDE2 of the RAID card, then reboot. When the RAID card
initializes, it will complain about there not being any defined arrays, for
illustration purposes and to insure the Windows drivers are working, we
won't implement RAID for now, we'll simply make the HD bootable off the RAID
card. Enter the RAID BIOS (Ctrl-F) and define an array of type "Span",
comprising your single HD (ignore the new HD for now). Save it and reboot.
If all was done properly, your XP system will reboot as normal but will be
running off the RAID card! (albeit, not in RAID mode, not yet anyway).

If all is OK (and it should be), reboot your system, and when the RAID BIOS
initializes this time, enter the BIOS again (Ctrl-F), but DELETE the array
you just defined (of course, don't delete the data or clean the boot
sectors, simply delete the array definition!). At this point you don't have
any arrays (again). Now define a "mirror" array instead, making the old HD
w/ XP the source, and the new HD (blank) the target. Once you do, and save
it, the Promise BIOS will ask if you want to initialize it, answer Yes, and
it will COPY the old HD contents to the new HD! It may take quite a while,
of course, depending on the size of the HD. Be patient. Once completed,
simply reboot, and whalla, you're now mirroring w/ RAID! Enjoy!

HTH

Jim

 

[Jim]

I should add one slight clarification, Carey is right about RAID requiring
reinstallation under *one* condition, that is, if you do a "software" based
RAID installation. The old WinNT used to support RAID in software, thus
making it OS dependent, but even that form of RAID could be done on an
installed OS. It simply required you to define a similar partition where NT
could replicate its own partition (nothing fancy here). Of course, it only
made sense to do so if you had another HD.

XP (and I presume all future Windows versions) continues the support of RAID
in software, BUT, it is VASTLY different from the old RAID support of WinNT.
This *new* RAID requires the definition of "dynamic disks", which
essentially defines a whole new way of managing your HDs. All your current
partitioning tools, optimizers, etc., would NOT work on these types of
drives! But if you choose to use dynamic drives, then XP would allow you to
define a RAID configuration (but in software, NOT hardware). If you did
choose this route, then YES, it would require a complete reinstallation of
XP because it has XP dependencies built into it!

Personally, you couldn't get me to go anywhere near such a configuration,
far too risky. Besides obsoleting all your current HD tools, XP takes over
the entire HD! You can't use it for anything else but XP because the
dynamic drive concept is XP specific, proprietary. I imagine for some
people this isn't a bother, but for me, no way. It's far, far simpler to
install a little ol' PCI card from Promise and keep all other things the
same. No OS dependencies, all your current HD tools continue to work,
EVERYTHING that's installed on the HDs on the array is mirrored -- data,
other OSs, everything. And if you need to break the mirror, simpy delete
the definition in the card's BIOS. In fact, when I do an OS upgrade, that's
what I do, I break the mirrror, and whalla, I have an INSTANT backup of my
HD! After the upgrade, if all is well, I simply redefine the mirror and
continue. Shwwwwwweet. (if you consider the number of people who BUY
cloning software simply for this purpose only, the card pays for itself!)

Anyway, I just wanted to be complete, I'm sure a lot of people have thought
about RAID, but felt intimidated. Don't be, it's a LOT simpler and straight
forward then most people imagine. I've been using the Promise cards for
years, very reliable and easy to setup. I currently have three machines
using them right now in my office, one using striping (my desktop, for
performance reasons), and two servers (each w/ mirrors).

HTH

Jim

 

[Jeff F]

Thanks for the info! That is EXACTLY what I was looking to do, and for the
same reason...... Thanks again, Jeff