Boot from Raid 1

[igeorge]

I have a computer whic initialy booted from C: . Then it crashed and

i installed Win XP pro on D:. Later i added a Raid 1 and installed on

it XP pro again- the letter is H. Under computer, manage, disk

management i have c: = Boot, D = System and H is just healty with no

status. The boot.ini and ntldr are on drive D only.
I WISH that i can make H the boot , because it is a raid 1 , then

later on i will remove the disk 1 which is C and D.
The raid is Sata , and the old C&D is IDE 3 yaers old.
An Interesting question is also , is that i believe the Raid or H or

the two hard drives , do not have a boot sector on them.
On the recovery console i tried to fix the MBR, and the only one

listed was for disk one C&D, and disk two was not there.
I have too much on the H to reinstall windows again and then to make

a raid by adding an extra disk.

Boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

Professional Drive H" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP

Professional Drive D" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
Can you help please ?
Thank you

 

[DelJo63]

NO NO NO. Even Microsoft suggests to avoid booting from Raid-1.

see https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?p=597010

 

[igeorge]

Thank you very much.
My primary goal to achieve is to put somehow the operating system in a raid 1 configuration , to avoid loading all the programs again in case of failuyre... get software, license ... and the rest.
Maybe the way i am now it is in the end a good solution. I will read more.
Can you suggest ?
Thank you

 

[DelJo63]

recovery from total system failure is an easily misunderstood issue.

many naively believe that ANY backup will protect them -- not so

I'll refer you first to this: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic54667.html#2

Secondly, a Raid-1 is NOT a substitute for backup -- it only replicates what's present,
both good, corrupt, and even what is missing!

Raid-1 is intended for server systems (not home users) to avoid a lost of the server
upon a HD failure. This gives service to users while the mirror is replaced.

Forget those onboard raid controllers, they just don't cover the bases.
A real Raid-1 is via a PCI SCSI card where the operation is no performed by the
operating system, but rather by the SCSI controller. In addition, you get true
hot-swap capability (if you choose well) which can never be performed by the SATA or IDE onboard controllers.

As noted in the link cited above,

1. use your MS Install CD to get the OS running (ie forget backups of C:\)
2. use the original purchased software installer(s) for \Program Files
3. and you can then focus entirly on backups of
   \Documents and Settings where all your user data is located

 

[igeorge]

Thank you very much for info

 

[DelJo63]

your welcome -- glad to help you avoid wasted time, effort and $$$