I have a Latitude D630 and purchased a hard drive adapter caddy that lets me install a second 2.5" hard drive in the modular bay (normal location for CDROM drive). I installed two identical drives, one in the normal drive bay with the Windows 7 OS and my data and applications, and an empty one in the modular bay. I converted the system drive to dynamic and added a mirror specifying the drive in the modular bay. Synchronization occurred, but there was an error message stating that bootcfg would need to be run. If both of these drives are installed at the same time, the system will not boot. It gets to the "Starting Windows" display, then either reboots (if the bios is configured for auto reboot), or blue screens otherwise. What is interesting is either drive will boot if it is the only one installed. So, I have a great software raid system that works until the first time that the disks are synched, then I can only install one of the drives. I've tried changing the bios selection from ACHI to SATA, but that did not help. I tried a driver from Dell that seemed to be somewhat related; I didn't expect it to work and my expectations were met (the driver install didn't help). Either of the two drives works and seem to be identical; it's just that the system won't work if both are installed. How can I get this to work so I can have a synchronized pair of drives installed? Thanks.

If you are looking for fault tolerance for you portable, I suggest cloning. Seagate and WDC both have free software that can clone a system disk to another HD The advantage is if the system disk dies, the clone is ready to use I am using cloning to backup my desktop and my netbook My web server is synced so I have redundancy already. My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Yes, cloning is exactly what I'm trying to do and have successfully done with the Windows 7 disk mirroring. I also want to keep both drives synchronized real time, so that as I make changes to the primary, those are reflected on the mirror/clone. The Acronis product used by Segate and WD seems to be a one time clone, then a backup/recovery setup that probably runs on a schedule. The Windows 7 mirroring system looks like it is setup to do what I want, and indeed others are using it on desktops and servers. I just have to get around this problem where it won't boot with both drives installed (however, either drive will boot if it is the only one installed). Note that this failure to boot occurred only after synchronization. Thanks.

This issue is not related to Windows 7. It should be related to hardware compatibility. I suspect that your motherboard cannot support two identical drives in that way. I suggest you contact Dell support for more information. Meantime you may try to upgrade the BIOS and see if it helps. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi Randy. I am having the same problem on a Dell Latitude 740. I set up a drive for mirroring and after getting all done I get a gray window over and over that asks to choose the primary or mirrored drive. No matter what I do this same gray window comes up. Is that what yours does? I plan to try the bios upgrade too but haven't done so yet. If it solves the problem I'll let you know. Ken Rogers

Hi Randy. I am having the same problem on a Dell OptiPlex 740. I set up a drive for mirroring and after getting all done I get a gray window over and over that asks to choose the primary or mirrored drive. No matter what I do this same gray window comes up. Is that what yours does? I plan to try the bios upgrade too but haven't done so yet. If it solves the problem I'll let you know. Ken Rogers

Periodic disk imaging would be a better solution. If you pick up a virus or coorupt the OS using miiroring, the mirror will will have the same fault. If you perform weekly or nightly imaging, one of your images should be clean with the same faults. The images should be stored on an external USB drive that is disconnected between image backups. Jerry

jwitalka You're probably right. In addition to not working, the efficiency would be 50% per diskmgmt window . These machines are already struggling with W7 Pro (we upgraded from XP Pro). I would be happy to have it image the system daily startup or shutdown. I'll look into the software for this sort of thing. Recommendations?