About BIOS RAID

[Sike]

Hello.

I have 2 partitions (windows and linux) + grub and my BIOS settings are on legacy mode.

My motherboard is a GA Z170X UD3.

 

The thing is that i have a HDD with most of my data , while using the ssd just to hold both OS and some heavy applications.

This disc has 2 volumes one for windows and one for linux.

What i want to do is make a RAID 1 so i don't lose any data.

If i connect another identical HDD and set the BIOS settings to RAID 1, will it replicate the data that's already on the original HDD? 
And if so, will it mirror the data on both volumes regardless of their file systems?

 

Any help is appreciated! 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Don't use raid 1, make backups. Backups are much better at keepsing your data safe. Backups will keep your data safe if you delete a file or a file gets corrupted. Raid can't do this. 

[Sike]

Hi, thanks for replying.

I'll definitely look up back up solutions for both OS.

[dalekphalm]

22 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Don't use raid 1, make backups. Backups are much better at keepsing your data safe. Backups will keep your data safe if you delete a file or a file gets corrupted. Raid can't do this. 

RAID1 can still be useful in case of drive failure, so you don't need to go through the hassle of reinstalling everything. You could take image snapshots, but that's not as seamless.

 

I'd of course say, backup your data regardless, but backup + RAID1 is fine.

 

22 hours ago, Sike said:

Hello.

I have 2 partitions (windows and linux) + grub and my BIOS settings are on legacy mode.

My motherboard is a GA Z170X UD3.

 

The thing is that i have a HDD with most of my data , while using the ssd just to hold both OS and some heavy applications.

This disc has 2 volumes one for windows and one for linux.

What i want to do is make a RAID 1 so i don't lose any data.

If i connect another identical HDD and set the BIOS settings to RAID 1, will it replicate the data that's already on the original HDD? 
And if so, will it mirror the data on both volumes regardless of their file systems?

 

Any help is appreciated! 

The answer is no: When you setup RAID1 (Or any RAID) on the BIOS of a Motherboard, generally it will erase both drives of the RAID1 mirror completely.

 

What you could do, is clone your SSD to an image (Something like CloneZilla would do the job) and store that image on another drive temporarily. Then, create your RAID1 array, and then clone the image back onto the newly created RAID1 array.