quick question about RAID

[ThaChillera]

I already have a hard drive, and I want to add another to combine the two with RAID 1. two questions: 

 

- Will the adding of a hard drive wipe my original Hard drive?

 

- Does it matter that I mix&match SATA ports, with 2 being certified for RAID 0,1 and 4 being certified for 0,1,10?

 

For the record, I have a X79A-GD45(8D) MOBO and will be using the BIOS to configure the RAID setup, not the Win7 option.

 

Thanks

 

(If any of this sounds like I have no idea what i'm talking about, feel free to point it out, since this is my first time doing anything with RAID.)

[Vitalius]

No. 

No. 

Shouldn't matter, although personally, I'd just use the Win7 option myself. That way it's less hardware dependent. 

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

I already have a hard drive, and I want to add another to combine the two with RAID 1. two questions: 

 

- Will the adding of a hard drive wipe my original Hard drive?

 

- Does it matter that I mix&match SATA ports, with 2 being certified for RAID 0,1 and 4 being certified for 0,1,10?

 

For the record, I have a X79A-GD45(8D) MOBO and will be using the BIOS to configure the RAID setup, not the Win7 option.

 

Thanks

 

(If any of this sounds like I have no idea what i'm talking about, feel free to point it out, since this is my first time doing anything with RAID.)

Yes, creating a RAID volume will wipe the data on both disks.

 

All the drives to be in the same RAID volume will need to be connected to the same SATA controller. Look in your motherboard/raid controllers manual to see what ports to connect the drives to.

 

 

No. 

No. 

Shouldn't matter, although personally, I'd just use the Win7 option myself. That way it's less hardware dependent. 

Completely wrong.

[Vitalius]

Completely wrong.

You are completely right. I don't know why I had such a major brain fart there. I am sorry. 

I was thinking in the context of software RAID while ignoring the fact he mentioned hardware RAID. I fail.

[ThaChillera]

You are completely right. I don't know why I had such a major brain fart there. I am sorry. 

I was thinking in the context of software RAID while ignoring the fact he mentioned hardware RAID. I fail.

So, if i understand correctly, using Win7's way of applying RAID doesn't wipe your disk, but via the BIOS way it does?

Are there any obviously negative side effects to using the Win7 method, besides the whole 'install another OS and it won't be in RAID anymore' thing?

[Vitalius]

So, if i understand correctly, using Win7's way of applying RAID doesn't wipe your disk, but via the BIOS way it does?

Are there any obviously negative side effects to using the Win7 method, besides the whole 'install another OS and it won't be in RAID anymore' thing?

I'm wide awake now and focused, so hopefully I can actually help this time. 

Correct. If you just add a mirror in WIndows 7 using Disk Management, it will start syncing the drives (meaning making them identical). This will take time, but once it's done, you only have to do it again if a drive fails or is removed for some time. You don't have to wipe the one you want to mirror. 

If you do it in the BIOS, you are using hardware RAID which requires that you start from scratch basically. It also means that, odds are, if your motherboard dies, they won't be in RAID anymore either unless you use an identical motherboard, and even then, you'd have to remake the array anyway.

Not really. I find software RAID is easier to deal with personally. Hardware RAID is only preferred if you change setups a lot (like installing Win7, then Linux, then back to Win7, or whatever). 

If you reinstall Windows 7 or upgrade to 8/8.1, you'll just have to go into Disk Management and re-add the mirror. If you move to Linux/OSX, you'd have to use their methods for RAIDing drives in a mirror array.