Hi I have 2 120gb Sata harddrives setup in a Stripped Raid Array with C: and D: drives, I'm wanting to format my C drive, do I also loose everything on the D: drive when formatting C:? I know this may sound stupid as I'm formatting C: not D: but I dont fully understand how it all works and dont want to loose anything on my D:drive From what I can remember when I format C: I have to reinstall the Raid Array drivers so does this affect whats on my D drive? I'm currently on XP and need to format as my PC is running like a tortoise! Many thanks
Thanks for that So do I just format from the properties menu in C: Drive and when asked load in the Raid driver then install XP and everything should still be on D: drive Thanks again
Stripped raid arrays work as one - both hard drives will only be seen as 1 with the same letter - probably C. You cannot format just one. Data on 1 HDD is no good with out data from other HDD. If they are stripped than 2 120's will show up as 1 240gb. You may be thinking about mirrored arrays where 1 drive has a mirror image of the 2nd.
I just checked and do have a Raid Array 0 Striped so does this mean I will loose everything on D: also! The harddrives are 2 120gb seperates joined by the Raid but I do get C: and D: so it must be partitioned? If I do format what is the best way to redo the installation? Should I redo the striped as i have no idea how to setup mirrored etc? I was going to buy an external harddrive to back up everything! Thanks
If you have Raid 0 then system shows it as 1 HDD. If you indeed show 2 HDD then Raid is not set up. In any case, If you set up your 2 hardrives in Raid 0 then you will lose everything as the HDD's need to be reformatted to set up Raid in any configuration. As for Mirrored, it is just as easy to set up mirrored as it is stripped. The best thing you can do is google 'how to set up raid' and start reading. There are some really good articles on it with more than I can say here.
OK I have 2 Maxtor SATA 120gb harddrives on a 0 Raid Array Striped, in My Computer I have 2 drives C: & D: that are setup in an Array, I know this because I have a program called VIA Raid tool that shows me all the details. The only thing I can think of is that the Array is partitioned, if this is actually possible? I still am no closer to knowing if I will loose everything as I am more puzzled then ever! Many thanks
Sorry I don't know much more about raid. I had to reformat mine once and don't remember seeing any other way. I don't know if you can have a partition set up on discs to be a Raid array ? In reading about it, I see there is hardware raid and software raid, maybe that has something to do with it. Did you do a goggle search of Raid and read up on it ? Here is on link that discusses reformatting. http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive12-2004-7-36862.html Anyway, I always feel - when in doubt, back it up anyway. How much stuff do you need to back ? I use several different on line free back up sites for my documents. MP3 and pics I just burn to DVD's - cheaper than buying another drive and easier. Good luck
You have 2 hard drives that are striped. The computer sees them as one drive. You then created 2 partitions on that RAID 0, thus you have C: and D:. When you go to reinstall Windows, you will press F6 to install the RAID drivers. Next, you will choose to install Windows on the C: drive and loose everything on C:, however, everything on the D: drive will remain intact. I've done this several times. That's the whole point of creating 2 partitions and saving your data on one of them. It allows you to perform a fresh install without losing your data.
