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I struggle to find modern documentation here.

So far we have been booting our servers from the main RAID controllers. Worked nice, but not we get the first of a new generation that hs in the back 2 slots for SATA hard discs, meant to be used as local boot systems. This is not bad - factually - as it means we dont ahve to waste precious SAS slots for that.

Last time I tried redundancy with the windows OS levels was a long time ago - likely around 2003. At that time it was tricky, one had to manually install an MBV on the second drive.

So, assuming I have 2 SATA discs that I Want to use as (windows OS system functionality using) mirror drives. What are the steps to do that?

I see: * Convert discs to dynamic discs. * Create mirrr for the boot partition and the "System Reserved" partition.

Anything else needed? Or will windows automatically install a MBR on the mirror disc?

I Tried my google fu, but it is failing - alos artially because most references are either for UEFI issus (We dont ahve UEFI) or for older versions (2003, 2008).

If anyone wants to warn me from this - please give me reasons. THe mobo also has raid (SP5100, AMD, some Adaptec stuff on board) but I seriously consider avoiding that - also because the last drivers I could find where for longhorn... and now we move to 2012 R2...

TomTom
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  • The servers don't have an on-board RAID controller for the SATA slots? – Mathias R. Jessen Oct 12 '13 at 13:13
  • It does, but I am not sure I want to install that software - not if I can avoid it. Would make 2 raid controllers active on the mobo.... I will give it a try, but in general I would prefer to do this with the OS mechanisms. – TomTom Oct 12 '13 at 13:18
  • We use desktop class hardware to run Server 2012 R2 for some workloads. I'm also curious about this. Would Windows software mirroring be an easy way to get some redundancy/easy recovery on basic hardware with only 2 SATA HDDs? – Matt Varblow Aug 16 '14 at 20:11

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I know its a old post, but here is the official MCS white paper how to create a mirror for boot drives.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/tip_of_the_day/archive/2014/10/10/tip-of-the-day-configuring-disk-mirroring-for-windows-server-2012.aspx

Zarko
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