# SBS 2011 - Does not allow me to mirror my drives!?



## Tikk (Jul 19, 2011)

Hi guys,

Probably a stupid question, but this is my first time doing this so here it goes...

I loaded a server with SBS 2011 and it has 2x 1TB hard drives in... I didnt create any partitions when i loaded the server. Only got my 1TB C drive and 1TB d drive.

So when i tried to mirror in disk management, its greyed out... So what did i do wrong? Did i have to create partitions or what? Please can someone help me out here, how should i create it for the 2x drives then so that i can mirror the C to the D?


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## Dave Atkin (Sep 4, 2009)

Hello,

You normally RAID the drives before you install the operating System. Whenever I have done it in the past I have either gone into the BIOS and creatd the RAID from there OR if I am using HP Hardware I just use the smart start CD which creates it for me.


Dave


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## Tikk (Jul 19, 2011)

Dave Atkin said:


> Hello,
> 
> You normally RAID the drives before you install the operating System. Whenever I have done it in the past I have either gone into the BIOS and creatd the RAID from there OR if I am using HP Hardware I just use the smart start CD which creates it for me.
> 
> ...


Hi Dave, thanks for your response... Ok, but is the raid setup straight forward in the bios? And which drive do i do the raid on? both or the one i want mirrored or?
PS: Its a Dell PowerEdge T110 server.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

If you're going to start tinkering with mirroring after the OS has been installed, backup your server!!! 

There are two ways to mirror the drives, hardware as configured in your BIOS/RAID config, or software, through windows. Hardware is the better way to do it, but "normally" this done PRIOR to installing the OS. It's possible to create the mirror after the fact, but your must make ABSOLUTELY SURE you know which drive is the bootable drive AND you need to make sure any necessary RAID drivers are installed. Normally when you create the mirror you'll be asked to select the "SOURCE" drive, which in your case in the drive containing your operating system and files. Then you're in for a long wait as the mirror is created.

Doing it through windows creates a "software" RAID that isn't nearly as efficient and fast. To do that, you need to go in to the computer management utility and go to disk management. You then right click on the current "c:" drive main partition and select CREATE MIRROR and then select a section of the "D:" drive to hold the mirror.


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

Very good explanation from "djaburg" 
Personally, i would only do hardware configured raid (hard raid) just a lot better then soft raid 
now which drive to mirror is up to you which one you want it to be mirrored and which will have the mirror image 
I would go with raid 1 because that will give you the stripping on both drives 
so total space on both drives you have right now is 2tb and after the mirroring is done you will see only 1 tb


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## Dave Atkin (Sep 4, 2009)

Agreed, a very good explantation from djaburg (Y).

If the Server is in as prodction environment (I.e. active and working) I cant stress how important a backup is. If you where to setup Hardware RAID now, it would wipe all the information on your drives! 

As for Software RAID, I'm not a big fan.



Dave


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

Dave Atkin said:


> If you where to setup Hardware RAID now, it would wipe all the information on your drives!


That's not entirely correct. Normally when you create a RAID1 (mirrored) array you're asked which one is the "source" drive which is the drive that contains the data to be mirrored. You must be VERY CAREFUL TO SELECT THE CORRECT ONE or you will delete your data. As has been mentioned several times, and I'll repeat it, BACKUP YOUR DATA before you attempt any change to your drives.


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## Tikk (Jul 19, 2011)

djaburg said:


> Doing it through windows creates a "software" RAID that isn't nearly as efficient and fast. To do that, you need to go in to the computer management utility and go to disk management. You then right click on the current "c:" drive main partition and select CREATE MIRROR and then select a section of the "D:" drive to hold the mirror.


Thanks for the reply & explanation! But the problem that i have with the software RAID, its greyed out in disk management... When i right click my C: drive, Mirror is greyed out.
I dont have anything to backup, its a completely new server im setting up, so wiping wont be a problem... SO is that the better way i take it? 
And then i guess setting up RAID in the BIOS is pretty straight forward?


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

If it's a new server and you have the option to "start again" then I'd certainly do that and create the array in the BIOS before installing the OS. Different computers function differently, therefore you might enter the BIOS (AKA SETUP) or you'll see a separate RAID configuration option during the initial stages of powering up, before it starts to boot from disk.


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## Tikk (Jul 19, 2011)

Guys, please help me out quick if you can!!
I managed to configure RAID 1, thanks to the help of you guys!
But when i get into the installation of Windows, i get asked "Select the driver to be installed"
Now i dont know what driver?? But since i configured RAID with the utility it asks me this... Now i have had the windows disk in, the dell disk, but no luck... Says cant find any drivers... So i cant continue with the installation...
What should i do?


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## Tikk (Jul 19, 2011)

Nevermind
Turns out my SBS 2011 disk did not have the PERC S100 RAID controller drivers, so i downloaded the drivers from Dell s site and loaded it onto a USB drive to install them... So installation is going forward


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

A great learning experience. Most of the time, you'll need drivers for your RAID controller when you're have RAID configured in the BIOS. Another option you can use is to use a utility like nlite that allows you to create a custom installation disk for your hardware by incorporating the drivers and software you want/need on the boot disk. You can also create it so most questions are already answered so the installation becomes mostly automated.


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## loda117 (Aug 6, 2010)

lucky for you tikk your working sbs 2k8 damn 2k3 still require just the floppy drive to load the raid drivers 
thank you to new egg for selling them very cheap


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## Tikk (Jul 19, 2011)

Well, thanks again for all the help so far guys  
Server has finished and im happy, going to the client today!


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