Converting to Raid

[LQDSNK]

Hey guys, nice tough question for you guys to flex your IT muscles on. I've just bought a new HDD and i wanted to achieve two things with it:
1) Install Windows 7-64bit
2)Convert my current Windows XP and the future Windows 7 install to a Raid-1 format.

I've done a bit of research and found out that at least the converting to Raid-1 format for XP can be done, even though it's a bit of a run around. Only going through this trouble cos i don't want to format the drive and have to re-dl and install everything again.

Installing Windows 7-64 and dual-booting is the easy part, i already know how to do that but the converting to Raid-1 is where the problem is at.

Lastly, not sure if all that can be done on a Logically partitioned drive, removing the partition is not really a problem, was using the second part for storage and game installs.

Let me know what you guys think/experiences, thanks.

[Spazosaurus]

U want to do a software or hardware raid. Software raid is the easiest thing in the world to do, obvious limitation being the fact that the OS assumes overhead for maintaining the stripe therefore reduced performance as opposed to hardware setup.

As for a hardware raid, it all depends on the controller in question. Some make it easy, some more difficult but there's no way to know unless you check out the raid utility for your board.

Basically, the hard part should be getting the utility working and figuring out how to operate it. Building of the actual array is the easy part. Read the board's documentation. Neither hardware nor software raid should interfere with your logical drive setup at all (may have to convert ur partition type for software raid though, no reinstall).

[LQDSNK]

Concerning the partitions, i haven't quite found a yes/no answer on this. I had the first HDD partitioned a ~200+~300 with the OS on the 200GB side and storage on the 300GB. Will the secondary drive, once partitioned the same was, mirror the files currently stored on the 300GB side onto the 300GB side of the new drive?

If this is the case,would it be better to buy two 150GB drives, ghost my current C onto one and place the two 150GB into a raid and use the entire 500+500 as storage?

[Spazosaurus]

Concerning the partitions, i haven't quite found a yes/no answer on this. I had the first HDD partitioned a ~200+~300 with the OS on the 200GB side and storage on the 300GB. Will the secondary drive, once partitioned the same was, mirror the files currently stored on the 300GB side onto the 300GB side of the new drive?

If you do a mirror (raid1), you'll get exactly that, a mirror of your first drive. Either of these scenarios you described would work, totally up to you.

[LQDSNK]

Ok cool, i have a better idea of what i want to do now. Will get a 1/2TB drive since that's cheaper than 2x150GB anyway. Will do the RAID on the 2x500GB, that's the part that might take me a while.

Thanks for the advice, will wait to hear the thoughts of others as well.