RAID 1- Help Please

[Procrastinator]

I have an ABIT AN7 mobo and two HDs (60 and 40 gig). I hate all the mail I have to file away so I want to go completely paperless by scanning all my files, but I want the protection of a RAID mirrored array (RAID 1?). I've built three systems and I've learned alot here so I'm hoping to get help with the next one. I don't care about the second HD on my system b/c it contains only games I can reinstall. I want to buy two SATA HDs (probably Samsung from Newegg- 160 gig each) but I need to migrate all my data on my primary drive to one of the new hard drives. Then, do I simply attach the second HD and go into the RAID setup utility in the bios? Will it automatically start copying all existing information onto the 2nd drive? Going forward will it be seamless? Please, any kind of walkthrough would be helpful. All of the stuff I've read helps you with creating a RAID array in a new system build, but I assume someone has gone through putting together a RAID array after a system build before. I plan on further backing up the data on the HD on DVD once a month. Is that overkill with the RAID? Should I just do once a quarter? Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[Vegito]

you might need to create the raid virtual disk first and then populate the data... I dont know much about ide raid but scsi raid you can just ghost in and ghost out....

raid gives you piece of mind for failed hardware

monthly backup gives you piece of mind for deleting wrong files.. its two different level of protection

 

[Procrastinator]

Thats a good point forcesho Re: Raid and monthly backup. I guess I have to do what's comfortable. I just hate the paper that's piling up in my small apt. and I figure if I can create a digital copy and shred the paper, I'll have less cluter and hopefully, files will be easier to find. I want to protect both risks (failed hardware and deletion of files) because I've lost at least two HDs in the past (which seems strange to me since no other computer component I have purchased has died/refused to work-would have assumed something else would fail first) and I've lost all/most of my data (luckily I regularly backup on CD).

So you think I can create the array and then insert my ghost DVD and re-populate the drive? While the data is being written to the C: drive, will it be automatically be written to the D: drive?