RAID 1 from existing HDD w/ OS Installed

[Myke 0]

Question:

Can I setup a RAID 1 configuration using an existing HDD with the OS already installed and add a new HDD to complete the mirrored pair without losing anything from the existing HDD?

 

Details:

I installed Windows Server 2008 Standard R2 x64 on a machine with only a single HDD on it. To make a long story short, it was supposed to be a trial run to see if Backup Exec could smoothly backup Exchange 2010, and now that it started working, we made it a production server. [Trust me, you don't want to get into the details of the hell I've been dragged through with this project. However, if you must know, ask and I'll inform.]

 

Now that it is fully operational and working, I want some type of redundancy on this server, in case (god forbid) the HDD fails. So I'd like to configure a RAID 1 so I have a mirrored drive. I've setup RAIDs before, but they've always been pre-OS install. I've tried researching this but it seems like no one has a definitive answer and always defers to the OEM, which I can't deal with too much because this was a bit of a custom job.

 

In addition to redundancy, the system was originally setup as a desktop with a RAID 0 configuration, so the mobo is looking for an additional HDD after every reboot and won't get past POST without user interaction. This is a problem as there have been times that I've had to remotely reboot the backup server due to multiple reasons. If I can't be there to hit F1, then it's pointless to reboot. I've also tried tweaking the BIOS settings to remove RAID for the time being, but then the system won't detect a HDD. I'm insanely busy so I just deal with hitting F1 for now. Besides, that doesn't resolve my lack of redundancy, so I might as well just figure this out.

 

I'm afraid that if I add a second HDD to the system and attempt to setup a RAID configuration, it'll wipe the existing HDD clean. Just using basic knowledge of mirrored drives, one would think that you could setup the array and simply get the information to be mirrored onto the new HDD without altering anything on the existing one. It kind of makes sense that you should be able to do that. When a single HDD on a RAID 1 array dies, you simple exchange it with a new HDD and the array rebuilds itself. Makes sense that you should be able to set one up and have it do the same thing, right? Maybe I'm wrong.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I do have a work around, but it's lengthy and a royal pain: setup RAID 1 array with new drives, then clone the original onto the array set. Like I said, just annoying and time consuming.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Sorry about the length; I'm trying to give details. This whole project has driven me nuts, and I'd jump out the window, but it's only the 2nd floor and I'd probably just end up with an ankle sprain, so I'd be in pain and still frustrated.

[Myke 0]

So after doing more researching on this topic, I did find the following article:

 

http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Creating_and_Managing_Windows_Server_2008_Mirrored_(RAID_1)_Volumes#Adding_a_Mirror_to_an_Existing_Volume

 

The part that interests me is section 4 (which the link above goes directly to). It seems like you can simply just add the new drive to the existing drive as a mirror and the resync process begins. However, I'm still hesitant. I'm trying to figure out a way to test this out right now.

 

Any thoughts if this will work properly? Keep in mind that the system was originally setup to run RAID 0, so I'm a wee bit afraid that if I install a second HDD, it will automatically try to start setting it up as RAID 0.

[Myke 0]

I've finished my project, but not the way I had originally intended to. Since I never found a completely accurate or reasuring answer to this question, I opted out of the attempt. However, I am still determined to figure this out, so I'll run a test sometime in the future to see if this does work.

 

As for the user interaction during boot-up, I found a part in the BIOS which can disable/enable specific SATA drive ports. When I disabled SATA 1, the system booted up without a warning. That problem got solved quickly. However, when going from a single HDD to a dual-drive RAID 1 setup (I used the mobo to configure the RAID array), I have to go back into BIOS and enable the drive. But at the end of the day, I had to switch back to the 1-drive setup, which required making the change again; annoying, but nothing hard or time consuming.

 

When I do test this theory out, using Windows to add a mirror instead of creating an array through the mobo utility, I'll post to let others know, should they be looking for information on this topic.