The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/ThatFeel_IKnowIt on 2024-12-27 02:44:02.

I am massively confused by reading people’s experiences with Windows Mirrored Volumes. There are 2 things that are confusing me. I will list them below. But first, I will also list my setup:

My setup: I have 2 internal HDDs in my PC with files on them. The disks are set up as dynamic disks with mirrored volumes. I was under the assumption that if one disk fails, the data will still be on the other. DISCLAIMER: I also have offsite backups. This is NOT my primary backup method. It’s just a data protection method. Also, my OS is NOT on these HDDs. It’s on a NVME SSD.

Confusion Point #1: I see people saying that if one disk drive dies, then you CANNOT access your data on the other mirrored drive? You have to have BOTH disks active? That makes no sense and defeats the purpose of mirrored volumes, and even goes against what Windows says on their website?

Confusion Point #2: People claim that if you were to reinstall windows or move the two mirrored disks to another PC, it cannot be accessed since you need to have the original disks on the original OS install to access them, plugged into the original SATA ports you used when making the mirrored volumes? This also makes no sense and I am like 99% sure I have indeed reformatted before and had no issues accessing the disks after?

Can anyone help explain these two confusion points to me?

Also, I realize that disk management mirrored volumes are technically “deprecated” however they still seemt to work? Storage spaces is newer but I’ve heard horror stories with that too…