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Configure software RAID in Windows

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Configuring a software RAID array in a Windows environment has its own specific features compared to configuration in Linux systems.

Software arrays can only be created on dynamic disks. Installing or booting Windows from a dynamic volume is possible only if the disk was converted from a system or boot volume. That is, if multiple OS instances are installed, after converting the disk to dynamic, you can only boot the instance that is on the boot partition. For boot and system volumes, it is only possible to create a mirrored array (RAID1); creating other types of arrays is impossible, as they imply installing the system on a pre-partitioned drive.

Work with software arrays and dynamic disks is performed via Storage — Disk Management in Computer Management.

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This operation is irreversible; you will not be able to repartition the boot disk as it will no longer be bootable, though you will be able to extend the volume using unallocated space.

  1. To convert disks to dynamic, right-click and select Convert to Dynamic Disk from the menu that appears. You can convert several disks at once.
  2. To create an array, right-click the required volume and select the required option from the drop-down menu. In the case of system and boot volumes, there will be only one option — mirror.
  3. Select a disk to place the mirrored volume on. Once the array creation is complete, its resynchronization will begin immediately.
  4. You can either combine several disks into a separate volume or create RAID0, 1, or 5.

BIOS

The procedure for manually configuring disk mirroring (RAID1) in the Windows Server operating system is described below:

  1. Go to Start → Control Panel → System And Security → Administrative Tools.
  2. Select Create and format hard disk partitions.
  3. Right-click Disk 0 and select Convert to dynamic disk.
  4. Repeat the procedure for Disk 1.
  5. In Disk Management, right-click the C: disk and select Add mirroring.
  6. In the next menu, select Disk 1 and click Add mirroring.

After performing these steps, disk synchronization will begin. Synchronization will take some time, which depends on the volume of the disks.

UEFI

Every system with UEFI contains a system partition (UEFI System Partition). This partition cannot be mirrored by automatic Windows tools and requires manual copying and configuration on the second disk:

  1. Create a UEFI System Partition on the second disk and format it to FAT.
  2. Copy data from the UEFI System Partition from the first disk to the second.
  3. The remaining partitions can be mirrored as described above ( Disk Management → **Add mirroring **).