Raid 1 Array help

[dfish292]

If i already have a 1 tb drive with data on it, can i add a second one and set up a Raid 1 array without losing any data.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

I'm not 100% sure, but IIRC all data on the drives will be lost when creating any kind of RAID array.  So back everything up to another HDD first.

 

You should have a backup of your data anyway, so if you don't have one yet this would be a good excuse to purchase an external HDD.

[Captain_WD]

If i already have a 1 tb drive with data on it, can i add a second one and set up a Raid 1 array without losing any data.

 

Hey dfish292,

 

If you are using the on-board RAID controller, the drives in the RAID array will be formatted and the data will be lost. Some dedicated RAID cards have the option to configure the Mirroring mode so that one of the drives is restored onto the other one and then get formatted so I'd look into that. 

I'd follow my fellow captain's advice as RAID is not a backup and having one is recommended. Get everything on another drive, configure your RAID and then restore the data there.

 

Captain_WD.

[MG2R]

A possibility is to start your array in a degraded state with the new drive, then copy over your data from the single drive to the degraded array, then adding your old drive to the array and thereby "fixing" the array. The RAID controller will format your old drive and clone your data from the new drive in order to verify the RAID array.

 

Keep in mind, this functionality will probably not be found in the motherboard's RAID controller. Software RAID solutions or some more expensive hardware RAID controllers (as @captain_WD detailed) will often have this functionality.