Hey everyone.

Just trying to research here whether or not we can achieve a RAID 1 between a SATA and a PATA Hard Drive. We have a computer with important information on it and some software that will take days-weeks to reinstall everything properly and it has a SATA 250 GB hard drive. We are upgrading our external backup from 250 to 500 and we will have this 250 GB Hard Drive available. Basically we have an external USB enclosure and we are just swapping out the hard drives in it. So I have 2 questions:

1.) Can I create a RAID 1 Mirror on 2 drives one being PATA(IDE) and the other being SATA? If so are there any special tools I need to perform this or will my ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard's RAID Controller be able to create this for me?

2.) Can I create a RAID 1 on a pre-existing hard drive and keep the data that is on it, while letting the second hard drive copy all the pre-existing data during RAID creation? Or, Will I be forced to format both drives to create the RAID?

Thank you all in advance for your help. I appreciate it greatly!

Joe

Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

1) The only way I know of being able to do that would be through software RAID. It is not a standard feature on Windows XP Pro, but it can be "hacked" in using this tutorial: http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11...
However, i would strongly advise against taking that approach. You never know if a patch from MS will kill that hack and render your RAID array useless (and unable to boot).

2) Yes, you would need to follow the instructions for the RAID controller/software you are using.

But, this is the wrong approach, in my opinion. RAID1 will only protext you from down-time in the event of a drive failure. It offers no protection in the case of a virus or other software/hardware failure that would otherwise make your system unstable or corrupt - both drives would have the same problem.

A better approach, IMHO, would be to use drive imaging software such as Ghost or Acronis True Image. You could set up the software to do a complete image of your OS drive to the spare drive. Depending on how much space you are actually using you could keep several versions on the spare drive. Then if you experiencing a problem with your OS drive you can simply run the restore procedure (either from within Windows or via a boot floppy/CD if the system is not bootable) and you can restore your hard drive in about an hour (usually less) to the exact same state it was in at the time of the image you are restoring.

You could set the software up to create an image automatically on a nightly or weekly bases - or whatever suits your needs.

RAID is not a backup!

Michael J

We cannot afford to have this computer down. It is vital to our business and that is why I am wanting to set up a RAID 1 so that we have a mirrored hard drive.

Viruses and spyware are not an issue as this computer is very secure. Trend Micro products on it and also it is never used on the internet. It has Trend Office Scan Anti-Spyware so that it will detect any network viruses or worms that may get in.

So anyway an image is not what I am looking for as the software constantly changes and upgrades. We are using NTBackup and storing onto the external drive. Thank you for you input it is very appreciated. Also, any more help would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Well, I already answered your questions. Don't know what more help I or anyone else can provide. Check your mobo's documentation and see if it supports RAID between interfaces - it's a longshot though.

If this system is so vital then go out and buy another SATA hard drive that is identical to the OS drive you have. (usually they don't need to be identical, but you can run into compatability issues sometimes. It's a hit and miss - so having identical drives is a good idea if at all possible).

Then, if your mobo supports it create the RAID1 array. If not, then aquire a SATA RAID capable card and attach the drives to that. In any case be sure to create a full system backup before trying to create the array in case things go South.

Michael J