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I have an Asus P5AD2-E Motherboard and would like to know if I can now add a second sata drive then use the Raid 1 feature without re-installing my OS, Windows XP Pro, or formatting the drives, a local dealer tells me I have to start with two identical clean hard drives, my manual does not state this, it simply gives instructions on setting it up in the Bios, seems quite simple.
My existing hard drive is about 3 yrs old and I want a mirror copy so when it fails I can simply remove the old defective drive and replace it with a new one, and the Raid 1 will
copy from the remaining good drive to the replaced drive until I am back where I started from.

Is this correct, if not would someone explain what you do if you decide to add Raid 1 ability to a PC after using it for a few years, and what happens when one of the drives fail, I am hoping everything, including the OS is mirrored and therfore is is simply a matter of removing bad a drive and replacing with good drive.

I have searched for information on this but can't find what I need, if you could direct me to a site it would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jim

I am still searching but haven't found the right information yet, if anyone has a suggestion please post it.

Thanks

Jim

Hi you will have to reinstall your O/S and configure the harddrives to do that.

Does anyone know of a site that explains how to add "Raid 1" to a computer that has now one hard drive and needs to be updated to Raid 1, I need to know the best way of backing up the complete existing hard drive, OS and all, I now use Acronis True Image, which can backup and transfer the complete drive to a new drive, but I want to make sure what I do will work.
I will probably go to Raid 5, to get the mirror backup and the advantage of having faster access time on the hard drives, I intend to install three new drives for this purpose.

There must be a procedure to install the three drives, set them up as Raid 5 and then transfer the complete "old drive" to the new Raid 5 drives.

Thanks for any advice.

Jim