mirroring two drives, i'm officially sick of windows...

[vangsfreaken]

so... a week ago i figured i'd be smart and backup my personal stuff (like every picture i have ever taken, documents, and some other stuff), so i ordered another harddrive, figuring i could mirror my current storage drive to a brand new drive. so, i ordered a WD blue 1 tb, as i figured it would match my WD black 1 tb well, yet windows doesn't seem to agree. i have tried pretty much anything manageable within windows that doesn't require me to format my storage drive, and as everything have failed, i have come here for help... 

 

so, my question is... how can i easily mirror a WD black 1 tb and a WD blue 1 tb, without having to format the WD black? i need a functional setup that i won't have to worry about, so that i'll always have a backup of all my files, no matter what.

[dragosudeki]

Are you trying to make the WD blue 1TB your main hard drive? And why can't you format the WD blue?

[Vitalius]

I literally just did this today. It doesn't require a format.

Click Start
Type "Create and format".
Click "Create and format hard disk partitions".
Right click the volume you wish to mirror. [it's the blue bars, not the ENTIRE disk.]
Click "Add Mirror".
Select the drive you wish to be the mirror.
Click "OK".

Done. Now you just wait for everything on one to be replicated to the other.

[vangsfreaken]

Are you trying to make the WD blue 1TB your main hard drive? And why can't you format the WD blue?

 

the WD black is my D:\, and i wish to mirror it to the blue, for redundancy. i can format the blue, but not the black, as it is holding all my personal files.

I literally just did this today. It doesn't require a format.

Click Start

Type "Create and format".

Click "Create and format hard disk partitions".

Right click the volume you wish to mirror.

Click "Add Mirror".

Select the drive you wish to be the mirror.

Click "OK".

Done. Now you just wait for everything on one to be replicated to the other.

as i said, i have tried everything within windows. i was hoping it would be that simple, but no. windows gives me some error code that basically means that the drives aren't identical, and therefore cannot be mirrored.

[Vitalius]

as i said, i have tried everything within windows. i was hoping it would be that simple, but no. windows gives me some error code that basically means that the drives aren't identical, and therefore cannot be mirrored.

Ah, alrighty then.

Can you take a screenshot of your Disk Management window and show it to me? 

If Windows absolutely won't work (I really feel like it's some little issue that's easily fixed but also easily overlooked), you can use AOMEI Backupper to make an incremental backup of the drive every hour. Not exactly mirroring, but it would work to an extent.

[vangsfreaken]

Ah, alrighty then.

Can you take a screenshot of your Disk Management window and show it to me? 

If Windows absolutely won't work (I really feel like it's some little issue that's easily fixed but also easily overlooked), you can use AOMEI Backupper to make an incremental backup of the drive every hour. Not exactly mirroring, but it would work to an extent.

as far as i have been able to figure out from google, this is a bug in windows... a lot of others have had the same problem

EDIT: i wish to mirror drive 2 onto drive 0, if that wasn't clear

[Vitalius]

as far as i have been able to figure out from google, this is a bug in windows... a lot of others have had the same problem

EDIT: i wish to mirror drive 2 onto drive 0, if that wasn't clear

Oh, then yeah. That won't work. 

The drives are not identical. One is 931.39 GB and the other is 931.51GB. 

What I would do is shrink D: on Disk 2 to 930 GB then try and mirror it. That should work. Shrink it by right clicking the volume and clicking "Shrink Volume" then putting in 930GB in MB (so 952320MB)

[vangsfreaken]

Oh, then yeah. That won't work. 

The drives are not identical. One is 931.39 GB and the other is 931.51GB. 

What I would do is shrink D: on Disk 2 to 930 GB then try and mirror it. That should work. Shrink it by right clicking the volume and clicking "Shrink Volume" then putting in 930GB in MB (so 952320MB)

the partitions i'm using are the same size, it's the total size of the drive that's different.

EDIT: the error i'm receiving, no matter what: 

"All disks holding extents for a given volume must have the same sector size"

[Vitalius]

 

the partitions i'm using are the same size, it's the total size of the drive that's different.

EDIT: the error i'm receiving, no matter what: 

"All disks holding extents for a given volume must have the same sector size"

 

OHHHHHHHHHHH

Sector Size is how big each sector on the disk is. Older disks have a sector size of 512Kb. Newer disks have a sector size of 4096Kb. Formatting the disk wouldn't even fix that. It's a hardware thing, not a software thing.

There is no way to mirror those drives I'm afraid. At least through Windows (Sorry, I realize you were saying this from the beginning, but I figured there had to be a way.).

The best you can do is make backups to the other disk using a backup program. I prefer AOMEI Backupper. You can set it to do incremental backups hourly, which may hurt performance a wee bit, but it will keep it up to date. 

[vangsfreaken]

OHHHHHHHHHHH

Sector Size is how big each sector on the disk is. Older disks have a sector size of 512Kb. Newer disks have a sector size of 4096Kb. Formatting the disk wouldn't even fix that. It's a hardware thing, not a software thing.

There is no way to mirror those drives I'm afraid. At least through Windows (Sorry, I realize you were saying this from the beginning, but I figured there had to be a way.).

The best you can do is make backups to the other disk using a backup program. I prefer AOMEI Backupper. You can set it to do incremental backups hourly, which may hurt performance a wee bit, but it will keep it up to date. 

and this kind of things is why i hate windows... ffs, it's a WD black 1 tb from 2011, and a brand new blue 1 tb, this should be doable... what's the odds it will be doable with a brand new barracuda 1 tb paired with the blue?

[Vitalius]

and this kind of things is why i hate windows... ffs, it's a WD black 1 tb from 2011, and a brand new blue 1 tb, this should be doable... what's the odds it will be doable with a brand new barracuda 1 tb paired with the blue?

Fairly good I would imagine.

[vangsfreaken]

Fairly good I would imagine.

great, i'll try that tomorrow then... and one more thing: that swap would include removing the WD black with all my stuff, including every single program/game on my computer, would they be able to run like normal if i just copied the entire black over to the blue, and then plugged the blue in where the black is currently positioned? or do i have to reinstall everything? (aka a full formatting, as everything but windows, chrome and spotify is installed on D:\ )

[Vitalius]

great, i'll try that tomorrow then... and one more thing: that swap would include removing the WD black with all my stuff, including every single program/game on my computer, would they be able to run like normal if i just copied the entire black over to the blue, and then plugged the blue in where the black is currently positioned? or do i have to reinstall everything? (aka a full formatting, as everything but windows, chrome and spotify is installed on D:\ )

AOMEI Backupper (Sorry, not meaning to sound like an infomercial, but it works) has a Clone Drive feature. 

Use it to clone your current boot drive and everything on it to the other drive. The sector difference shouldn't matter.

If, somehow, it still won't let you mirror them, I would return the drive. 

[vangsfreaken]

AOMEI Backupper (Sorry, not meaning to sound like an infomercial, but it works) has a Clone Drive feature. 

Use it to clone your current boot drive and everything on it to the other drive. The sector difference shouldn't matter.

If, somehow, it still won't let you mirror them, I would return the drive. 

1. it's only my secondary drive, not boot drive, so that shouldn't be a problem as long as windows is able to read the files correctly afterwards.

2. the new drives are bought online, and now used, so... not really worth anything, and i would have to pay for shipping, so if it doesn't work i'm screwed...

[Vitalius]

1. it's only my secondary drive, not boot drive, so that shouldn't be a problem as long as windows is able to read the files correctly afterwards.

2. the new drives are bought online, and now used, so... not really worth anything, and i would have to pay for shipping, so if it doesn't work i'm screwed...

No, I mean return the new drive you are buying.

[vangsfreaken]

No, I mean return the new drive you are buying.

i'm not buying a drive, i've already bought two

[Vitalius]

i'm not buying a drive, i've already bought two

Ah, I understand then.

[ross06187]

you could set up a script with a robocopy command in it to once a day back up your drive. 

[vangsfreaken]

aha! shit is finally happening! 

(yes, i'm to lazy to crop it)

you could set up a script with a robocopy command in it to once a day back up your drive. 

i'd prefer if windows could manage it, feels safer than "random software from the internet"

[vangsfreaken]

It worked! The WD blue and the Seagate barracuda is mirrored! Now I just have to move all my files and reinstall windows, and I'm ready for the gathering!