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This is a rather long request. Please bear with me.
Steps Taken to Attempt Mirroring Drive
Preamble
I have a Dell XPS 8930 Desktop computer with a 2 TB hard drive. I have recently added a second 2 TB hard drive that I would like to act as a mirror (RAID 1) for the original drive as a dynamic backup system. I have downloaded a number of different instructions for performing this mirroring process. Shown below are the documents I have examined and my attempts to perform the mirroring using the best instructions I could find. I have also detailed the problems I have encountered, and would appreciate any help I can obtain to complete this task.
Links to Instructions Examined How to Mirror Hard Drives
How to Mirror Hard Drives (chron.com)
These instructions would not work for me. Right-clicking on the drive did not show an “Add Mirror” option.
How to Set Up a Mirrored Volume for File Redundancy on Windows 10
How to set up a mirrored volume for file redundancy on Windows 10 | Windows Central
This also did not work since I couldn’t find an “Add Mirror” option.
How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 (Legacy or UEFI)
How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 (Legacy or UEFI) - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos
My Attempts and Problems
Since I have a UEFI system, I attempted to follow the instructions for Case B: How to Mirror Windows 10 Boot Drive on UEFI Based Systems (GPT). The problems I encountered are due to the complex partitioning scheme used by Dell on my XPS 8930 Desktop Computer compared to the instructions in the document. The partition setup in the instructions looks like this:
So Part 1 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the Recovery Partition on Windows 10.
Part 2 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the EFI System Partition on Windows 10 (plus the Reserved partition).
Finally, part 3 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the Operating System Partition on Windows 10, which actually mirrors the Operation System Volume (C
, which is Partition 4 above and involves converting the original drive (Disk 0) and the new drive (Disk 1) to Dynamic Disk. The conversion to Dynamic can’t happen until the Recovery, System, and Reserved partitions have been created on the new drive.
However, my original drive partitioning scheme is more complicated as shown below:
Partition 4 is where drive C: is located. There are three Recovery partitions instead of one and they occur at the end of the Disk 0.
So far I have been able to create the following partitions on Disk 1 using the DISKPART utility in a Console window run in Administrative Mode. I have tried to duplicate the original drive partitioning above.
One problem I can see on the original drive is the existence of the partitions whose types are Dynamic Reserved and Dynamic Data. I’m pretty sure this was because I converted Disk 0 to Dynamic before I was supposed to do so. However, I don’t know how to convert it back to Basic (or Simple) without deleting its data which is a definite non-starter.
Here are some questions that need to be answered before I can proceed.
1. 1. Do I need to convert the original Disk 0 so it is no longer dynamic and then Clear Disk 1 and start over?
2. 2. If so, how do I convert Disk 0 and to what do I convert it without deleting data?
3. 3. Assuming I can go forward from here, do I need to create the Recovery partitions first, using the Offset values so they are positioned at the correct place on the disk?
4. 4. In creating partitions using Size and Offset, how do I specify the Size and Offset when they are in gigabytes. The DISKPART utility expects those numbers to be megabytes. To specify 1 GB do I enter 1000 MB or 1024 MB?
5. 5. If I use Offsets to set up the Recovery partitions, will they be numbered 4, 5, 6 or 5, 6, 7 (as on the original Disk 0)?
6. 6. Should I first create a Primary partition of 1845 GB and then create the Recovery partitions so that the partition number order is preserved?
7. 7. Anything else I’ve missed?
Continue reading...
Steps Taken to Attempt Mirroring Drive
Preamble
I have a Dell XPS 8930 Desktop computer with a 2 TB hard drive. I have recently added a second 2 TB hard drive that I would like to act as a mirror (RAID 1) for the original drive as a dynamic backup system. I have downloaded a number of different instructions for performing this mirroring process. Shown below are the documents I have examined and my attempts to perform the mirroring using the best instructions I could find. I have also detailed the problems I have encountered, and would appreciate any help I can obtain to complete this task.
Links to Instructions Examined How to Mirror Hard Drives
How to Mirror Hard Drives (chron.com)
These instructions would not work for me. Right-clicking on the drive did not show an “Add Mirror” option.
How to Set Up a Mirrored Volume for File Redundancy on Windows 10
How to set up a mirrored volume for file redundancy on Windows 10 | Windows Central
This also did not work since I couldn’t find an “Add Mirror” option.
How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 (Legacy or UEFI)
How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 (Legacy or UEFI) - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos
My Attempts and Problems
Since I have a UEFI system, I attempted to follow the instructions for Case B: How to Mirror Windows 10 Boot Drive on UEFI Based Systems (GPT). The problems I encountered are due to the complex partitioning scheme used by Dell on my XPS 8930 Desktop Computer compared to the instructions in the document. The partition setup in the instructions looks like this:
| Partition ### | Type | Size | Offset |
| Partition 1 | Recovery | 499 MB | 1024 KB |
| Partition 2 | System | 99 MB | 500 MB |
| Partition 3 | Reserved | 16 MB | 599 MB |
| Partition 4 | Primary | 930 GB | 615 MB |
So Part 1 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the Recovery Partition on Windows 10.
Part 2 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the EFI System Partition on Windows 10 (plus the Reserved partition).
Finally, part 3 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the Operating System Partition on Windows 10, which actually mirrors the Operation System Volume (C
, which is Partition 4 above and involves converting the original drive (Disk 0) and the new drive (Disk 1) to Dynamic Disk. The conversion to Dynamic can’t happen until the Recovery, System, and Reserved partitions have been created on the new drive.However, my original drive partitioning scheme is more complicated as shown below:
| Partition ### | Type | Size | Offset |
| Partition 1 | System | 650 MB | 1024 KB |
| Partition 2 | Dynamic Reserved | 1024 KB | 651 MB |
| Partition 3 | Reserved | 127 MB | 652 MB |
| Partition 4 | Dynamic Data | 1845 GB | 779 MB |
| Partition 5 | Recovery | 990 MB | 1846 GB |
| Partition 6 | Recovery | 14 GB | 1847 GB |
| Partition 7 | Recovery | 1144 MB | 1861 GB |
Partition 4 is where drive C: is located. There are three Recovery partitions instead of one and they occur at the end of the Disk 0.
So far I have been able to create the following partitions on Disk 1 using the DISKPART utility in a Console window run in Administrative Mode. I have tried to duplicate the original drive partitioning above.
| Partition ### | Type | Size | Offset |
| Partition 1 | System | 650 MB | 1024 KB |
| Partition 2 | Reserved | 1024 KB | 651 MB |
| Partition 3 | Reserved | 127 MB | 652 MB |
One problem I can see on the original drive is the existence of the partitions whose types are Dynamic Reserved and Dynamic Data. I’m pretty sure this was because I converted Disk 0 to Dynamic before I was supposed to do so. However, I don’t know how to convert it back to Basic (or Simple) without deleting its data which is a definite non-starter.
Here are some questions that need to be answered before I can proceed.
1. 1. Do I need to convert the original Disk 0 so it is no longer dynamic and then Clear Disk 1 and start over?
2. 2. If so, how do I convert Disk 0 and to what do I convert it without deleting data?
3. 3. Assuming I can go forward from here, do I need to create the Recovery partitions first, using the Offset values so they are positioned at the correct place on the disk?
4. 4. In creating partitions using Size and Offset, how do I specify the Size and Offset when they are in gigabytes. The DISKPART utility expects those numbers to be megabytes. To specify 1 GB do I enter 1000 MB or 1024 MB?
5. 5. If I use Offsets to set up the Recovery partitions, will they be numbered 4, 5, 6 or 5, 6, 7 (as on the original Disk 0)?
6. 6. Should I first create a Primary partition of 1845 GB and then create the Recovery partitions so that the partition number order is preserved?
7. 7. Anything else I’ve missed?
Continue reading...