Creating RAID 1 array without destroting data

[Isis]

I have an ASROCK H77 PRO4/MVP motherboard, I have an existing Samsung 2TB
drive with data and a second identical drive that I would like to use as a
mirror in RAID1 configuration - I plugged both drives into the RAID SATA
sockets and changed the SATA option in the bios to RAID, I could then enter
the BIOS using the CTRL+I option and specify RAID1 config but it gives a
warning before proceeding to create the RAID1 saying that all data on the
drives will be destroyed so I backed out - many people have told me that this
is possible but I am not sure if and how !

Any help appreciated,

Thanks

[Graham J]

Post by Isis
I have an ASROCK H77 PRO4/MVP motherboard, I have an existing Samsung 2TB
drive with data and a second identical drive that I would like to use as a
mirror in RAID1 configuration - I plugged both drives into the RAID SATA
sockets and changed the SATA option in the bios to RAID, I could then enter
the BIOS using the CTRL+I option and specify RAID1 config but it gives a
warning before proceeding to create the RAID1 saying that all data on the
drives will be destroyed so I backed out - many people have told me that this
is possible but I am not sure if and how !
Any help appreciated,
Thanks

Almost certainly it will destroy the data to use the RAID controller.
You will have to re-install the OS - possibly with a different driver
for the disk system.

You **might** be able to convice the controller that the existing drive
is one of a pair in RAID1 - where the other member of the pair has
failed. Then tell it that you want to add a replacement for the failed
member. That at least should be possible; but I have known the
procedure to fail when the RAID has been set up correctly and a disk has
failed ...

I have made a mirror using the operating system whenthere has been no
RAID controller

[Isis]

Post by Graham J

Post by Isis
I have an ASROCK H77 PRO4/MVP motherboard, I have an existing Samsung
2TB drive with data and a second identical drive that I would like to
use as a mirror in RAID1 configuration - I plugged both drives into the
RAID SATA sockets and changed the SATA option in the bios to RAID, I
could then enter the BIOS using the CTRL+I option and specify RAID1
config but it gives a warning before proceeding to create the RAID1
saying that all data on the drives will be destroyed so I backed out -
many people have told me that this is possible but I am not sure if and
how !
Any help appreciated,
Thanks

Almost certainly it will destroy the data to use the RAID controller.
You will have to re-install the OS - possibly with a different driver
for the disk system.
You **might** be able to convice the controller that the existing drive
is one of a pair in RAID1 - where the other member of the pair has
failed. Then tell it that you want to add a replacement for the failed
member. That at least should be possible; but I have known the
procedure to fail when the RAID has been set up correctly and a disk has
failed ...
I have made a mirror using the operating system whenthere has been no
RAID controller

Hi Graham,

Thanks for the reply.

At present the system is booted using a seperate 250GB SSD drive, so that
is not an issue.

When using the CTRL+I at boot time to get into the RAID utility - there
does not seem to be a way of saying that the drive is a survivor from a
RAID array and then adding a new drive. Any ideas of how that might be done
?

Thanks

[Graham J]

Post by Isis

Post by Graham J

Post by Isis
I have an ASROCK H77 PRO4/MVP motherboard, I have an existing Samsung
2TB drive with data and a second identical drive that I would like to
use as a mirror in RAID1 configuration - I plugged both drives into the
RAID SATA sockets and changed the SATA option in the bios to RAID, I
could then enter the BIOS using the CTRL+I option and specify RAID1
config but it gives a warning before proceeding to create the RAID1
saying that all data on the drives will be destroyed so I backed out -
many people have told me that this is possible but I am not sure if and
how !
Any help appreciated,
Thanks

Almost certainly it will destroy the data to use the RAID controller.
You will have to re-install the OS - possibly with a different driver
for the disk system.
You **might** be able to convice the controller that the existing drive
is one of a pair in RAID1 - where the other member of the pair has
failed. Then tell it that you want to add a replacement for the failed
member. That at least should be possible; but I have known the
procedure to fail when the RAID has been set up correctly and a disk has
failed ...
I have made a mirror using the operating system whenthere has been no
RAID controller

Hi Graham,
Thanks for the reply.
At present the system is booted using a seperate 250GB SSD drive, so that
is not an issue.
When using the CTRL+I at boot time to get into the RAID utility - there
does not seem to be a way of saying that the drive is a survivor from a
RAID array and then adding a new drive. Any ideas of how that might be done
?
Thanks

I suspect it will only show the "survivor" option if it really is a
survivor.

Given that this is simply storage, and the OS boots on another disk,
then it's no trouble to archive all the data to a suitable spare disk,
create the RAID array, and restore the data. Might take a good few
hours, though ...