About RAID
2006-12-27
RAID-0 is when data is split into two parts, and each part is written to two disks simultaneously. It is fast because the process happens in parallel. But it is also dangerous—if one disk dies, you lose all your data.
RAID-1 is when data is fully duplicated across two disks. It is expensive because there are two disks, but reliable—if one disk dies, the other keeps working, and so does the computer.
Now to the point
I had a 400 GB disk with the OS installed on it, which was an “unfinished” single-disk RAID-0. Then I connected another 400GB disk and turned this fake RAID-0 into a real RAID-1. In nVidia terminology, this is called morphing.
I’m surprised myself that nothing died and everything worked on the first try.
Now we’ll wait for the unhurried mirroring process to finish.
By the way, due to a lack of space, I disconnected the old 80GBx2 RAID-0.
Disclaimer
I don’t recommend that anyone do this; it was rather risky. In general, I don’t recommend creating RAID using the motherboard’s built-in features. It can fail all too easily. It’s better to create a software RAID using the built-in Windows tools. Unfortunately, in XP only RAID-0 is available; the others are only available in the server versions of Windows.