Windows Server 2012 Raid 1

Question

I have a question that might seem like a very basic or noob question but here it goes.

Quick back story: Our company has an HP server that holds the databases etc for our POS PC / Cash Registers. The server and our 4 POS systems have been on a lease for almost 3 years and in March the lease comes to an end which means that our company will own it after that.

The server only came with One 1 TB Harddrive with no option to have them add another one. I obviously explained my concern if the drive were to fail and we would have no backup. The simply said that it won't and left it at that.

But since we're now going to own the Server etc from March I'm going to install an additional 1 TB drive into the server as having a drive failure with no back up would be pretty bad, considering we wouldn't be able to use our POS Systems.

So my question: Is it possible to add an additional 1 TB drive and configure the drives in RAID 1 without a fresh install of Windows Server 2012? I obviously need to have the current data copied over to the new drive as well and have the drives work in RAID 1 from there. So would it be possible to have the system "rebuild" the RAID with the current data on the first drive?

Also since there's currently only 1 drive in the system, how would this work as the OS is installed on the same drive?

Thank you!

Answer 1

1. Consider and implement 3-2-1 backup rule. RAID is not backup.
2. Backup the data using Veeam Endpoint or make a clone image using Clonezilla.

You could make RAID rebuild if you had RAID configured first. Probably it's not.

3. Install a new drive and build RAID 1.
4. Restore the system from backup or image.