I know this sounds like a SuperUser question, but I would rather ask here first.
- The drives are identical Seagate SATA2 drives. They are 250GB each.
- Windows XP Pro SP3 is installed on one drive, and the other is now empty (updated).
- I do not own a RAID controller yet, but there are software RAID utilities which I am perfectly fine with.
I would be willing to try hot-partitioning software if someone has a real solution to this problem.
Edit: We can pretend the second drive is empty. I only stored a backup image there because I was moving and it seemed I couldn't mirror my drive without reformatting.
Update: I have successfully converted the OS disk to a dynamic disk.
The friend whose house I'm staying at tells me he has a large external hard drive. So, if this is becoming a can of worms I will simply try to create an image on his external and proceed from there.
Latest update (please read):
Here is a screenshot of what is happening:
I have deleted the partition on the target drive, but I still cannot mirror the original. It appears I have only an 8MB partition from which I can create a new volume (on the system disk).
Should I somehow copy/clone my files over to the empty disk and try to mirror that one? Thank you for any help. I am sorry this issue has developed since my original post.
Best Answer
You have 2 options. The first would be:
Change your paging file to be on the first drive
Image your current system to an external source.
Create the mirror on your (future) RAID card, unless your motherboard supports it, do it now.
Restore the image you took in step 1 to your new mirror.
The second:
Use your hack, and setup your disks to be dynamic. Once that is done, delete the partition on the second drive, destroying all data, and set it up as a mirror. Then rely on a hacked XP install to serve you with software mirroring.
I would recommend the first.
What this is telling you, is that the destination drive, that will be the mirror, will lose all data.