Solved Raid 1 setup in windows 8.1.

arjn

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Raid 1 setup in windows 8.1. missing hard drive

Hi! I am having trouble setting up a raid 1 (mirror) on a new computer using two identical hard drives. I have tried several things that I have found online.
My system has an Asus motherboard A55BM-plus with an amd fm2 processor. Bios is set to a raid configuration and the bios sees both hard drives (two Seagate 500 gb). All equipment is new.
Device manager shows both hard drives. Device mgmt. shows only drive c. and my dvd rom.
Any advice would be appreciated. I am by no means an expert. I just love playing with computers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.1.1 enterprise
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Hinze57
    CPU
    AMD FX 6100 6core 3.30gHz
    Motherboard
    gigibyte ga-78lmy-s2p
    Memory
    4gig ddr3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radon hd5000 Series
    Sound Card
    onboard realtek hd
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19" viewsonic/ 22"Samsung
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    128gig ssd Kingston
    80gig WD 10000 rpm spinner
    Case
    micro
    Keyboard
    microsoft curve 200
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless M215
    Internet Speed
    high speed 20
    Browser
    ie 11
    Antivirus
    windows defender
    Other Info
    updated enterprise apr 2/14
I do believe if they are mirrored Raid 1, you'll only see one drive in Explorer and disk management. As far as Windows is concerned there is only one 500 GB drive. The controller does the simultaneous reads and writes to both drives in the background. If one drive fails the controller just limits access to the one good drive. If you had done a striped array, RAID 0, you would see just 1 1 TG drive in explorer and disk management. Device manager knows there is two drives as that's the actual hardware connected.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Hi there

FORGET RAID in Windows 8.1 --Use storage spaces instead - much more efficient, and VOLUMES CAN BE OF DIFFERENT SIZES too.

You can also specify how much % space you want to reserve for recovery area / index too - my gut feel is that 25% is probably MORE THAN ENOUGH for most home users -- I'm totally amazed how this feature added since W8 hasn't been more publicized by Ms - it's a real winner in all sorts of ways and the fact that you can use totally different sizes of volumes in the storage pool should make the word RAID now like a 4 letter word - you shouldn't need it again on a home computer.


To get you started read the link.

Storage Spaces: FAQ - Windows Help

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
Thanks Caperjack. I had already tried this video but my second drive does not appear in disk mgmt.
Thanks alphanumeric. How do I check drive 2 to see if my info is there? Drive C, of course, is visible.
I appreciate all replies!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
Thanks Caperjack. I had already tried this video but my second drive does not appear in disk mgmt.
Thanks alphanumeric. How do I check drive 2 to see if my info is there? Drive C, of course, is visible.
I appreciate all replies!
You can't, not easily anyway. Drive C is actually the array, it's both disks. I would think if the two drives don't match the RAID controller would throw up some kind of error message to tell you.

In theory you could unplug one of the drives and see if Windows boots up. That will tell you that the other drive still connected is OK. Then reverse that so only the other drive is plugged in and boot up. You'll likely get a BIOS warning telling you one drive is missing. Also the two drives won't be identical anymore. I'm not sure what happens then when you connect them both back up. If you do this don't blame me if things get messed up. I have never done it myself. I have run RAID in the past but I ran striped arrays for the increased speed. The novelty wore off after having to rebuild the array a couple of times so I gave up using it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
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