How to activate Raid 1

**rstehle** · 03-07-2008, 12:28 PM

I just got a newer Dell computer that has Raid capability. I am interested in adding a 2nd HDD, and turning on Raid 1. I have had hard drives fail in the past, and would hate to loose a drive that had my Vixen files, after working so hard to sequence 300 channels for 8 songs. I have purchased an additional drive that is compatible with my system. Can any of our partners out there give me any info on how to activate Raid 1? Can this be done after the system has been used without loosing an data on the primary drive?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Randy

**blurp** · 03-07-2008, 03:42 PM

I've never seen a controller that would let you do that. Every one I've ever seen (probably over a thousand), you have to build the array and logical drives BEFORE putting anything on them. I'd be very surprised if a controller would let you set up a mirror set without destroyig all the data on the drives.

**Virtus** · 03-07-2008, 04:22 PM

I suspect you'll need to look in one of two places to turn on support for that option: in your BIOS or in an application that came preinstalled on your PC. I'd go to the Dell website and use their "Online Chat" help to see exactly how to do it on your particular PC.

I agree with blurp also that I've only created a RAID (of any level) before adding the OS, applications, and data files. Dell should be able to tell you exactly what they meant on the box or ad when they mentioned support for mirroring drives.

**Jeff Millard** · 03-07-2008, 04:34 PM

Blurp is correct. If you are setting up a raid array up you need to restore after building the logical drives. It's like starting out with a new hard drive.

The raid capability of the Dell Dimension 8400 PCs can be set from the Bios utility. When you boot it look in the upper right of the screen (it's real quick) for F2/F12 and select F2 to get to the Bios utility. Raid is one of the menuitems. There are several chioces.

My system has 4 SATA ports. The setting I chose (can't remember which one) has four physical drives, all 160Gb. So that's the values I will work with here.

In my setting there are two logical drives available total. Each one is 160Gb and has a mirror. Raid stops the system if it encounters errors to a physical drive. You remove and replace it and in about five minutes the mirror is restored and it's as if nothing failed. I've only had one drive fail, and didn't lose anything.

Some of the other seetings will let you combine all four for one logical drive at 640Gb, or have the same setup as mine but just one logical drive for 320Gb. I like the way mine is set up because I like to keep all my download stuff on a separate logical drive just for sorting purposes.

BTW, all Dell manuals are available in PDF on Dell's website.

Jef

**blurp** · 03-07-2008, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by jeffmill

Some of the other seetings will let you combine all four for one logical drive at 640Gb

That's right, but DON'T DO THIS. It has ZERO fault tolerance this way. If any of the drives fail, you lose everything. That's 4 times as much chance of losing your data. FYI, this is called JBOD (Just a bunch of disks). Technically, it's not even RAID, since the first word in RAID is Redundant. But most manufacturers still call it RAID, ad configure it with the same utility.

**jderba** · 03-07-2008, 06:09 PM

What I would do is to get 2 new drives and put them in your computer in addition to your "C" drive. Then I would mirror those drives together and leave the "C" drive alone. Move your Vixen files from the "c" drive to your new mirrored drive.

Jack

**Jeff Millard** · 03-07-2008, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by jderba

What I would do is to get 2 new drives and put them in your computer in addition to your "C" drive. Then I would mirror those drives together and leave the "C" drive alone. Move your Vixen files from the "c" drive to your new mirrored drive.

Jack

I don't think the Dell will allow you to Raid a set of two and have a third that isn't configured the same way. You get either raid for all or none...

Jeff

**Jeff Millard** · 03-07-2008, 09:01 PM

Here's the link to the Dell manual section

This is the instructions right from my 8400 manual:
Note the very last step...

Creating a RAID Level 1 Configuration
1 Set your computer to RAID-enabled mode (see page 22).
(Page 22...
Setting Your Computer to RAID-Enabled Mode
1 Enter system setup (see page 112). (The F2 thing on startup)
2 Use the up- and down-arrow keys to highlight Drives, and press <Enter>.
3 Use the up- and down-arrow keys to highlight Drive Controller, and press <Enter>.
4 Use the left- and right-arrow keys to highlight RAID On, press <Enter>, and then
press <Esc>.
5 Use the left- and right-arrow keys to highlight Save/Exit, and press <Enter> to exit system
setup and resume the boot process. ...end page 22)
2 Press <Ctrl><i> when you are prompted to enter Intel RAID Option ROM.
3 Use the up- and down-arrow keys to highlight Create RAID Volume, and press <Enter>.
4 Enter a RAID volume name or accept the default, and press <Enter>.
5 Use the up- and down-arrow keys to select RAID1(Mirror), and press <Enter>.
6 If there are more than two hard disks available, use the up- and down-arrow keys and space bar
to select the two disks you want to use to make up your array, and then press <Enter>.
7 Select the desired capacity for the volume, and press <Enter>. The default value is the
maximum available size.
8 Press <Enter> to create the volume.
9 Press <y> to confirm that you want to create the RAID volume.
10 Confirm that the correct volume configuration is displayed on the main Intel Option ROM
screen.
11 Use the up- and down-arrow keys to select Exit, and press <Enter>.
12 Install the operating system.

Note: after looking at the directions, I cannot tell for sure if it would let you make a second logical drive mirrored in Raid 1... and leave the Primary drive as a non Raid drive. From these directions it actually looks like it is possible to pick and choose. I didn't try that when I set mine up. I did notice when I was looking into this that I still have the original drive from the machine when it was delivered. I never booted the machine up with that drive in it. So it has the full install on it, unused.

**rstehle** · 03-08-2008, 11:45 AM

Thanks for the information all. I was kind of afraid that I might have to reinstall the OS after setting up the Raid config. Was hoping there was a way around it. Wish me luck!

**Jeff Millard** · 03-08-2008, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by rstehle

Thanks for the information all. I was kind of afraid that I might have to reinstall the OS after setting up the Raid config. Was hoping there was a way around it. Wish me luck!

I've been thinking about this all night long. And there might be a way around it. If you were to replace the original drive and add two new identical drives set to Raid1 (hopefully larger than the original) and those drives had a utility that transfers the contents of the original drive including the OS to the new drive(s) (W/D's drive utility is really exceptional at this, but they all have something) I think you could keep you current configuration. Then... shelve the old drive, don't use it. It, with the drive transfer software will make a nice restore utility for your system if you get some buggy software somewhere.

Jeff