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To configure software RAID in Windows
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To configure software RAID in Windows

Configuring a software RAID array in the Windows environment has its own peculiarities in contrast to the configuration under Linux systems.

Software arrays can only be created on dynamic disks. Windows can be installed or booted from a dynamic volume only if the disk has been converted from a system or boot volume. That is, if several OS instances are installed, then after the disk is converted to a dynamic disk, only the instance that is on the boot partition can be booted. Only mirror array (RAID1) can be created for boot and system volumes, other types of array cannot be created, as they imply installation of the system on a pre-created partition.

Working with software arrays and dynamic disks is done through the binder Storage — Disk management in Server Manager.

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This operation is irreversible, you cannot repartition the boot disk, as it will no longer be bootable, but you can expand the volume using the unallocated space.

  1. To convert disks to dynamic disks, right-click the mouse and select the Convert to dynamic disk. You can convert multiple disks at once.
  2. To create an array, right-click on the desired volume and select the desired option from the drop-down menu. In case of system and boot volumes, the option will be the same — mirror.
  3. Select a disk to host the mirrored volume. When the array creation is complete, the array will immediately start resynchronizing.
  4. You can either merge multiple disks into a separate volume or create RAID0, 1 or 5.

BIOS⁠

The following procedure describes how to manually configure disk mirroring (RAID1) in Windows Server operating system:

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

After the steps are completed, synchronization of the disks will begin. Synchronization will take some time, which depends on the size of the disks.

UEFI⁠

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