Windows 10: Need help in setting up a mirror hard drive on my computer

This is a rather long request. Please bear with me.



Steps Taken to Attempt Mirroring Drive

Preamble
I have a Dell XPS 8930 Desktop computer with a 2 TB hard drive. I have recently added a second 2 TB hard drive that I would like to act as a mirror RAID 1 for the original drive as a dynamic backup system. I have downloaded a number of different instructions for performing this mirroring process. Shown below are the documents I have examined and my attempts to perform the mirroring using the best instructions I could find. I have also detailed the problems I have encountered, and would appreciate any help I can obtain to complete this task.

Links to Instructions Examined How to Mirror Hard Drives
How to Mirror Hard Drives chron.com

These instructions would not work for me. Right-clicking on the drive did not show an “Add Mirror” option.

How to Set Up a Mirrored Volume for File Redundancy on Windows 10
How to set up a mirrored volume for file redundancy on Windows 10 Windows Central

This also did not work since I couldn’t find an “Add Mirror” option.

How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 Legacy or UEFI
How to Mirror Boot Hard Drive on Windows 10 Legacy or UEFI - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos

My Attempts and Problems
Since I have a UEFI system, I attempted to follow the instructions for Case B: How to Mirror Windows 10 Boot Drive on UEFI Based Systems GPT. The problems I encountered are due to the complex partitioning scheme used by Dell on my XPS 8930 Desktop Computer compared to the instructions in the document. The partition setup in the instructions looks like this:


Partition ###


Type


Size


Offset


Partition 1


Recovery

499 MB​

1024 KB​

Partition 2


System

99 MB​

500 MB​

Partition 3


Reserved

16 MB​

599 MB​

Partition 4


Primary

930 GB​

615 MB​

So Part 1 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the Recovery Partition on Windows 10.

Part 2 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the EFI System Partition on Windows 10 plus the Reserved partition.

Finally, part 3 of the instructions were: How to Mirror the Operating System Partition on Windows 10, which actually mirrors the Operation System Volume C:, which is Partition 4 above and involves converting the original drive Disk 0 and the new drive Disk 1 to Dynamic Disk. The conversion to Dynamic can’t happen until the Recovery, System, and Reserved partitions have been created on the new drive.

However, my original drive partitioning scheme is more complicated as shown below:


Partition ###


Type


Size


Offset


Partition 1


System

650 MB​

1024 KB​

Partition 2


Dynamic Reserved

1024 KB​

651 MB​

Partition 3


Reserved

127 MB​

652 MB​

Partition 4


Dynamic Data

1845 GB​

779 MB​

Partition 5


Recovery

990 MB​

1846 GB​

Partition 6


Recovery

14 GB​

1847 GB​

Partition 7


Recovery

1144 MB​

1861 GB​

Partition 4 is where drive C: is located. There are three Recovery partitions instead of one and they occur at the end of the Disk 0.

So far I have been able to create the following partitions on Disk 1 using the DISKPART utility in a Console window run in Administrative Mode. I have tried to duplicate the original drive partitioning above.


Partition ###


Type


Size


Offset


Partition 1


System

650 MB​

1024 KB​

Partition 2


Reserved

1024 KB​

651 MB​

Partition 3


Reserved

127 MB​

652 MB​

One problem I can see on the original drive is the existence of the partitions whose types are Dynamic Reserved and Dynamic Data. I’m pretty sure this was because I converted Disk 0 to Dynamic before I was supposed to do so. However, I don’t know how to convert it back to Basic or Simple without deleting its data which is a definite non-starter.

Here are some questions that need to be answered before I can proceed.

1. 1. Do I need to convert the original Disk 0 so it is no longer dynamic and then Clear Disk 1 and start over?

2. 2. If so, how do I convert Disk 0 and to what do I convert it without deleting data?

3. 3. Assuming I can go forward from here, do I need to create the Recovery partitions first, using the Offset values so they are positioned at the correct place on the disk?

4. 4. In creating partitions using Size and Offset, how do I specify the Size and Offset when they are in gigabytes. The DISKPART utility expects those numbers to be megabytes. To specify 1 GB do I enter 1000 MB or 1024 MB?

5. 5. If I use Offsets to set up the Recovery partitions, will they be numbered 4, 5, 6 or 5, 6, 7 as on the original Disk 0?

6. 6. Should I first create a Primary partition of 1845 GB and then create the Recovery partitions so that the partition number order is preserved?

7. 7. Anything else I’ve missed?

:)

 

Help with external hard drive

Hi Debbra,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I appreciate your interest in windows 10 and also for trying the troubleshooting steps to fix the issue. I understand the inconvenience you faced. I will certainly help you with this.

I would suggest you to plug in hard drive then check in disk management you can see the drive or not.

Follow the steps to check Drive in Disk Management.

• 
  Go to the Control Panel then click on the
  Administrative Tools. .
  
• 
  Under the Administrative Tool Click on Computer Management.
  
• 
  Click on Disk Management and check the External Hard Drive.
  

Also check in BIOS whether External Hard Drive is listed or not.

For help with the BIOS settings, refer to the computer manual or contact the manufacturer.

If it doesn’t work then, I would suggest you to update BIOS for updating BIOS contact Lenovo Support.

Follow the link:

http://support.lenovo.com/in/hi/

Disclaimer :

Modifying BIOS/complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS settings
can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk.

Hope this information is helpful. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Thanks.

 

Mirror Hard Drive

I am trying to mirror my hard drive with an external hard drive. However the add mirror is greyed out. How can I get it ungreyed out.

I have created a volume for the external hard drive that didn't work. I tried creating a pool that didn't work. Why is it greyed out. Please help how can I resolve this?

 

My Drive Turned Into Dynamic Disk ! Please Help me !!!

If you right click the Pen Drive do you get either of the options, 'Break Mirrored Volume' or 'Remove Mirror'?

To break a mirrored set, follow these steps:

• In Disk Management, right-click one of the drives in the mirrored set, and then choose Break Mirrored Volume.
• Confirm that you want to break the mirrored set by clicking Yes.
• If the volume is currently in use, you'll see another warning dialog box. Confirm that it's okay to continue by clicking Yes.

To remove a mirror, follow these steps:

• In Disk Management, right-click one of the volumes in the mirrored set, and then choose Remove Mirror
• In the Remove Mirror dialog, select the disk from which to remove the mirror.
  
• If the mirror contains a boot or system volume, you should remove the mirror from the secondary drive rather than the primary. For example, if Drive 0 and Drive 1 are mirrored, remove Drive 1 rather than Drive 0
• Confirm the action when prompted. All data on the removed mirror is deleted.