Windows 8 Software RAID1 not available

[Mongoose]

I just went through a nasty system crash where I lost a hard drive. I recovered my data and installed Windows 8, and then got the idea to run RAID1. I have two 1TB hard drives (one existing, one brand new). For some reason, the "add mirror" option is not available for my Boot partition. I have tried everything except another fresh install. Finally I was able to setup a RAID1 for my D drive using half of each of the 1TB drives. So my system looks like this:

C: (non-RAID 500GB)(50% Drive 0)
D: (RAID1 500 GB)(50% Drive 0 and Drive 1)
Z: (non-RAID 500GB)(50% Drive 1)

I want to set it up so I have C: in RAID1 with 50% drive 0 and drive 1. The option is not available. I have read about the AF issues and have set the sector size on Drive 1 to match Drive 0. I have deleted and added new volumes. Both discs are Dynamic. I was able to shrink Drive 0 and Drive 1 to create the RAID1 for Drive D:, but I can't create the RAID for the boot drive. Any other thoughts? Greatly Appreceate any help.

 

[Mongoose]

Still unable to mirror boot drive. I can shrink it and mirror the new partition, but can't mirror the boot partition? Strange...

 

[bobkn]

As far as I know, Windows software RAID isn't supported for the boot drive.

I imagine that your motherboard's chipset supports SATA RAID. You could use that. Unfortunately, if it's like that last time I looked at Intel RAID, all of the stuff currently on the drives would be lost when they were added to an array.