Because of problems with the RAID config on my motherboard, I've decided to go the "easy" way and use software RAID.
So I made one big mirrored partition on my two identical hard drivers. I copies a bunch of files and felt somewhat happy and reassured.
I decided to try and see if my RAID really works so I stopped the PC and detached one of the hard drives. When I restarted the PC, there were a few things that had happened:
- Windows didn't warn me in any way that there was something wrong
- The mirrored volume was missing. But it is surely possible to work with one HDD only, isn't it?
- By firing up Disk Management I got the following explanation: because the disk was missing the RAID had failed.
Does anyone have experience with software raids. This kind of behaviour really freaked me out. It's both inconvinient and dangerous. Why, how would I be able to make some backup if one of the disk fails and I don't have access to the mirrored partition? Could anyone suggest something more reasonable?
To top it all, my new pair of 7200.12 Barracudas sound really distressing. On start or stop they make some very disturbing scratchy noise (not like jammed heads though, no clicking or anything). I'm desparate with the way things are going.
Thanks.