Windows – Is it possible to use software raid in Windows 7 on the boot partition

raid-1software-raidwindows 7

I want to use RAID 1 on my workstation configuration at work, and I've been looking at using the build in mirror functionality in Windows 7. When you click on the add mirror option it presents you with the following warning.

enter image description here

I've done some Google searching and the consensus seems to be that you cannot boot from a dynamic volume, but some forum posts seem to indicate that people have tried this with success (e.g. here).

With Google searches producing contradictory information I thought I'd ask you guys for an authoritative answer. Can I use the inbuilt Windows 7 mirroring for my boot partition? Or as I suspect, will it make it unbootable due to it being converted to a dynamic disk?

Best Answer

This message is telling you that if you turn the disk to dynamic, you'll only be able to boot that Windows installation. If you don't have other OS installed on your computer, don't worry about it.

More: with a dynamic disk you'll be able to do software RAID 1, but no RAID 0 to a Windows installation volume. You can get RAID 0 with a hardware controller o to another two disks that doesn't contain Windows installation.

enter image description here Windows Software RAID 0.

If you're buying a new PC, an optimal configuration is:

  • 1 SSD drive for Windows.
  • 2 HDD identical drives (optional) in software RAID 0 for installing software, games, files...
  • 1 HDD/USB for backing up important files, RAID 0 doesn't have fault tolerance. You can get it with RAID 10 (4 drives).
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