XPS 435T 9000 w Raid controller - not in raid - can it be reloaded as Raid 1

Hi Datamaker,

Not sure I understand. You're adding two drives, so you'll have four. What configuration are you trying to achieve?

By the way, I assume you've got a DVD copy of the factory image. If not, make sure you create one.

Osprey4, Thanks for the quick post.

Currently the machine has one drive and is not configured for raid.

I have added 2 - 1TB drives to the machine but currently are stand alone drives.

My goal is to configure the added 2 - 1TB drives in a raid one configuration, and reload the original factory image to that raid one set. The original 1 tB drive would be used as a stand alone drive after the reload.

This in my estimation would allow me to keep the original drive in in's original state for access to anything that may not be in the original factory image, (data, downloaded programs, etc that could be used to bring the system back close to it's current state. It would also retain the current drive "as is" so I could change the controller back to it's current raid "0" state install the original drive and have the machine back to it's current state if problems or issues are encountered during the config change and reload.

Thanks!

Datamaker

First, if you only have one drive, it's not regarded as a RAID configuration.

What I suggest you do is install the two new drives, configure for RAID 1 (mirroring), then perform a clean installation of the OS. Then keep your original drive in a safe place.

The onboard Intel RAID controller indeed cannot handle single disks in RAID, although many other RAID controllers do (the Dell PERC requires single disks be configured in single-disk RAID 0's in order to use them, for example).  As that is not the case with this controller, that tidbit may important to note, as the question will probably come up at some point during the process.