Trying to create mirror

[BrentonSword95]

Hello, I am at a loss here. Usually I’m pretty savvy with computers and able to fix, but this time I can’t figure it out. I have an existing SSD that I would like to mirror for safer storage (plus addition read time), but every time I try using windows disk management, I get the warning of “All disks holding extents for a given volume must have the same sector size, and the sector size must be valid.“

they are identical drives from seperate vendors, the new drive is actually slightly larger, so I’m confused why this isn’t working. Please help!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Generally you want to use storage spaces in windows for mirrors, disk management raid has been deprecated for a bit now.

 

Are these drives formatted and used? You need one drive to be empty and unmounted before you start.

 

Generally backups are better than mirrors for keeping data safe on a desktop like this.

[SpookyCitrus]

Use Windows Storage Spaces or a bios level raid if you're trying to set up mirroring.

[johnt]

Disk Management is the wrong tool for what you’re trying to do.  I got burnt by it pretty bad recently. 

[BrentonSword95]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Generally you want to use storage spaces in windows for mirrors, disk management raid has been deprecated for a bit now.

 

Are these drives formatted and used? You need one drive to be empty and unmounted before you start.

 

Generally backups are better than mirrors for keeping data safe on a desktop like this.

Hey @Electronics Wizardy, thanks for responding! 
So the original is not formatted, as there is data that I’d like to duplicate. Do I need to start with 2 original formatted drives?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, BrentonSword95 said:

Hey @Electronics Wizardy, thanks for responding! 
So the original is not formatted, as there is data that I’d like to duplicate. Do I need to start with 2 original formatted drives?

 

You really want to make a storage spaces volume here, and that needs 2 empty drives.

 

But I'd generally use backups instead of mirrors if your goal is to keep data safe.

[BrentonSword95]

1 hour ago, johnt said:

Disk Management is the wrong tool for what you’re trying to do.  I got burnt by it pretty bad recently. 

Sorry to hear that, I was following advice online. What’s a better alternative? 

[johnt]

2 minutes ago, BrentonSword95 said:

Sorry to hear that, I was following advice online. What’s a better alternative? 

Storage Spaces as others mentioned if you are stuck in a Windows environment and you absolutely must use RAID. 
 

That mirror mode in DM will get you by, but I had issues with resynching after every restart, making the drives unusable for hours, and generally just wearing down the components in the process. Even if the drives didn’t contain much data. It was a complete no go for me. I must have fallen for the same information you found. 

 

Another option is Free File Sync. It is software where you can copy/mirror one drive to another. It’s the option I use to get around the limitations (what I consider limitations) of RAID. If you donate, you get another software that can monitor for changes and force the mirror process on the fly. You just have to be careful that it isn’t running when you go to shut down the system. 

[BrentonSword95]

18 minutes ago, johnt said:

Storage Spaces as others mentioned if you are stuck in a Windows environment and you absolutely must use RAID. 
 

That mirror mode in DM will get you by, but I had issues with resynching after every restart, making the drives unusable for hours, and generally just wearing down the components in the process. Even if the drives didn’t contain much data. It was a complete no go for me. I must have fallen for the same information you found. 

 

Another option is Free File Sync. It is software where you can copy/mirror one drive to another. It’s the option I use to get around the limitations (what I consider limitations) of RAID. If you donate, you get another software that can monitor for changes and force the mirror process on the fly. You just have to be careful that it isn’t running when you go to shut down the system. 

My drives aren’t showing up on storage spaces, I believe a format is in order and I don’t want to format my existing data. 
I’ve attempted a bios raid but I have a hand me down ex workstation, which doesn’t have a full bios (HP garbage). 
I don’t mind using a software solution, but my wife isn’t as tech savvy. I just want to save photos of my daughter, maybe I should just get into NAS?

[johnt]

2 hours ago, BrentonSword95 said:

My drives aren’t showing up on storage spaces, I believe a format is in order and I don’t want to format my existing data. 
I’ve attempted a bios raid but I have a hand me down ex workstation, which doesn’t have a full bios (HP garbage). 
I don’t mind using a software solution, but my wife isn’t as tech savvy. I just want to save photos of my daughter, maybe I should just get into NAS?

NAS/multiple drives are generally pretty expensive to get into. A simple 4-bay Synology with 2 drives will set you back close to a $750 USD. If you are simply looking for a back up for your family photos, then check out Amazon Photos IF you are a prime member. They give you free storage for your photos in common formats, like JPEG, HEIC, etc. and raw files too from real cameras (Nikon, Canon, Sony, DNG, etc.). Not to mention, finding ways to automate your devices to back up to a personal NAS is going to require training your wife. That's what pushed me to cloud storage.

 

If you are not a prime member, consider a different cloud based service instead. I know paying a monthly fee is crazy, but the general cost of 2 TB of cloud storage is $10 per month at each service, and $100 is roughly the cost of replacing a 2 TB drive per year. Of course failure rates of your own drives is not that high, but the peace of mind and effortless integration from apps is a no brainer. Most cloud services require 6 years of a 2 TB plan to cost the same amount as a personal NAS. And most places let you share with family members. My wife and I just hit 250 GB between us taking a crazy amount of photos and videos of our little boys after five years.

 

But yeah you will probably have to format the drives or completely delete the volumes for Storage Spaces to pick them up. I'm not sure if you can use Storage Spaces on Dynamic drives. It really wasn't that great of a replacement to DM. Plus, I tried to take the drives from one PC and moved them to another just to simulate a computer failure scenario, and the only information I could find online was "Windows will eventually identify the RAID configuration and let you access the data again." I didn't see the array in the second computer after days of use. That's the limitations of RAID that I mentioned earlier. I always feel like RAID needs a back up just in case "you" (the royal you) does something and you lose everything.

[Lurking]

Since you use 2 drives anyway and try to mirror, I have an even better idea.

 

Use the second drive as a normal drive and use freefilesync to mirror the data. You can mirror that hourly, instantly or whatever frequency you want 

 

This is independent of any Windows/BIOS or RAID. And you can enable VERSIONING where it saves the deleted or changed files to a separate folder (in case in 2 months you realize you want that file back). And the drives can be different size as long as each is large enough. You also can use space on that backup drive for other files, like download folder or other data not important. A RAID 1 doesn't offer any of that