Creating RAID 1 under W10 Pro

[#1]

I have been trying to create a RAID 1 Configuration using W10 built-in tools within Disk Management.

The two drives are identical WD Black external 5TB (4657.37TB free). Both drive have been reformatted as NTFS as drives H: and I:.

I start by converting each disc to Dynamic but get the cryptic error 'The operation is not supported by the object'.

Any advice, please?

[#2]

At a guess I'd suspect that the problem is related to using two separate external drives.

[#3]

@Mav Do you need a raid controller card? 

I might be giving my age away..............

[#4]

At a guess I'd suspect that the problem is related to using two separate external drives.

@RobPN that was my thought but doing some searching , it does seem to be possible https://windowsreport.com/raid-external-drives-windows-11/ .

Windows 11, like the previous iteration, allows users to RAID external hard drives.

@Mav this https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/set-up-raid-with-external-drives/bb83f17e-3e3f... might help as the poster seems to have a similar problem to yourself

[#5]

@MisterW @Champnet @RobPN 

Thanks for your input.

I read a fair bit on-line that indicated it is possible but have decided to move files from two internal 8TB drive to the 5TB ones then utilise the internal drives for RAID 1.

[#6]

@Mav 

Although I haven't tried it myself and ICBW, I suspect you may be able to just use a portion of the 8TB, say 5TB, of each those two drives to mirror each other, leaving the remaining free space for other purposes, maybe even a second RAID1!

[#7]

@RobPN 

I appreciate the advice but will stick to using the full 18TB giving me 6TB with backup built in.

I plan to transfer my photography, audio and video as I am now worried about data backups.

I may even look into further RAID 1 on new drives (or other options) to have off-site backups.

I suspect I could remove the two 5TB HDDs from each case and have them internally also on RAID 1. That'd be 8TB for photos/Audio and 5TB for video.

[#8]

@Mav Best to use a device that's designed for your need I.E a NAS box or similar.

Also photos etc are irreplaceable, consider mutiple backups store in multiple locations.

[#9]

Wise words @Champnet but, sadly, funds are running a little low at present.

I do have a couple of old PC's hanging around and have tored with the idea of making my own NAS using a Linux-based system.

Meanwhile, I am hoping the RAID configuration will give enough redundancy till I can sort something else out. I currently have 835GB in 7933 RAW files which I am gradually sifting through deleting those that don't meet my expectations. With a 60MP camera each RAW file is approx 122MB.

[#10]

Raid is good but it's not foolproof, too many single points of failure. Looking at what you've said about your setup 2x internal drives, 2 x external drives. Simple, backup the internal to external. Get the copies out of the house. Wouldn't be the first time I've ssen backup tapes or disks in the boot of a car, or buried in a tin box in the garden, or similar.

[#11]

I use Backblaze, set and forget off site back up.
$99 a year unlimited storage - I have over 12TB backed up there.

[#12]

@dvorak  Do you keep a copy more local ?  People often don’t realise the time taken to restore large amounts of data from a remote location especially on a slow download line…

[#13]

@Champnet - yup, there's a Time Machine running locally and another daily backup of my home folder as well as a less frequent backup of my boot drive.

Photos are both backed up locally and in the cloud.

All of the above (apart from the Time Machine) is backed up to Backblaze.

The rest of the backblaze backup is older more 'cold storage' type archives, though with a gigabit line it downloads pretty quickly anyway  

[#14]

@dvorak  Impressive........

[#15]

Impressive, indeed.

I have unlimited storage with Amazon Photos but with limited upload/download (14/56) speeds backups can take a while.