Dell Raid Questions

I'm a software developer but when it comes to hardware I get lost in the
jargon.
I have a few dell Precision machines I got cheap at the auctions, I'm using
as cheap web servers with Win2003 and one with WinSBS 2000, I also have one
with Vista.
They have SATA 80 gig hard drives in them, they are configured in the bios
raid section to use combination mode.
I have several Sata hard drives of the same make and model and I want to set
up a simple raid 1 system for redundancy.
If I try to change the raid configuration to the default auto detect raid, I
get a warning that I may not be able to boot and that I may need to
reinstall, so I have not done so.

My questions are
Will I lose my data if I switch to raid auto detect?
What is raid Auto detect?
Is this a built in raid system?
If so what do I need to do, just plug in 2 disks?

If anyone has any info on Dell precisions and raid I would appreciate any
info you can give
Thanks

"Just the Facts" <me@whereever> wrote in message
news:47a09836$0$22559$...
> I'm a software developer but when it comes to hardware I get lost in the
> jargon.
> I have a few dell Precision machines I got cheap at the auctions, I'm
> using
> as cheap web servers with Win2003 and one with WinSBS 2000, I also have
> one
> with Vista.
> They have SATA 80 gig hard drives in them, they are configured in the bios
> raid section to use combination mode.
> I have several Sata hard drives of the same make and model and I want to
> set
> up a simple raid 1 system for redundancy.
> If I try to change the raid configuration to the default auto detect raid,
> I
> get a warning that I may not be able to boot and that I may need to
> reinstall, so I have not done so.
>
> My questions are
> Will I lose my data if I switch to raid auto detect?
> What is raid Auto detect?
> Is this a built in raid system?
> If so what do I need to do, just plug in 2 disks?
>
> If anyone has any info on Dell precisions and raid I would appreciate any
> info you can give
> Thanks
>


Could you please post the specific model number of the Precision
workstations in question? That'll help a lot.

My initial feeling is that you may probably be able to add a second drive
and with the proper BIOS settings, allow the RAID1 configuration to be
"rebuilt", though I am not positive.


Stew

"S.Lewis" <> wrote in message
news:y_0oj.87966$. ..
>
> "Just the Facts" <me@whereever> wrote in message
> news:47a09836$0$22559$...
>> I'm a software developer but when it comes to hardware I get lost in the
>> jargon.
>> I have a few dell Precision machines I got cheap at the auctions, I'm
>> using
>> as cheap web servers with Win2003 and one with WinSBS 2000, I also have
>> one
>> with Vista.
>> They have SATA 80 gig hard drives in them, they are configured in the
>> bios
>> raid section to use combination mode.
>> I have several Sata hard drives of the same make and model and I want to
>> set
>> up a simple raid 1 system for redundancy.
>> If I try to change the raid configuration to the default auto detect
>> raid, I
>> get a warning that I may not be able to boot and that I may need to
>> reinstall, so I have not done so.
>>
>> My questions are
>> Will I lose my data if I switch to raid auto detect?
>> What is raid Auto detect?
>> Is this a built in raid system?
>> If so what do I need to do, just plug in 2 disks?
>>
>> If anyone has any info on Dell precisions and raid I would appreciate any
>> info you can give
>> Thanks
>>
>
>
> Could you please post the specific model number of the Precision
> workstations in question? That'll help a lot.
>
> My initial feeling is that you may probably be able to add a second drive
> and with the proper BIOS settings, allow the RAID1 configuration to be
> "rebuilt", though I am not positive.
>
>
> Stew
>

the machines are Dell precision 370s and 360s