Working out if my PC is using RAID

[Ruthieroo]

Starting a new post st my previous one deviated a bit from the original topic. I'm looking for some help regarding RAID. I have a HPZ22O workstation and have never consciously set up RAID with it. I am looking to install a new HD and want to make sure RAID isn't going to 'take over' as I don't really want/ need it.

Basically I bought a new HD a little while back, I didn't know anything about RAID possibly being active so I just stuck the new hard drive in with the old one and mirrored/ cloned it using Seagate's programme, then put the new one in the first drive bay and disconnected the old one. I noticed after a short while that the new one was very noisy all of the time (the noise it makes when 'working' but all of the time) and I can't remember the exact issue but the cloning software/ my computer seemed to be able to pick up some kind of issue with it. Because of this I cloned it to the old one and started to use the old one again thinking I'd buy another new one, but then the old one failed which wasn't entirely unexpected given its age (6 years plus) but now I'm wondering whether I essentially upset the drives by working with them not knowing my system was possibly using RAID...

What I'm trying to work out now is, if I've never manually set up RAID, whether the PC uses it automatically, if that makes sense; ie if I insert more than one HD does the computer decide to use RAID and so if I try to use those disks independently, having in the past been unaware that RAID may be being used, I run into problems. I'm not sure how to find out and I am hesitant about installing a new HD I have 'til I know. Ideally I'd like to put the new HD in and then put in a second one and set it up to clone the first one every few days or so so I have an easily bootable backup of everything if the first disk fails, if that makes sense, but I'm not sure if that's feasible or if the fact I've been trying to do that (perhaps unaware that RAID is somehow involved) is actually what's damaged the current HD in the first place. I suppose what I'm finding it hard to find out is, if I haven't consciously configured disks in a RAID array (and indeed when they were both installed and working they were as far as I can recall showing up as two separate disks, which presumably means they weren't in RAID) does it happen automatically, if that makes sense.

Thank you so much and I hope that makes sense!

[DGroves]

for a boot device on a z220 Raid is not the default, and unless you take specific steps to enable it you will use the normal SATA AHCI method of booting from one drive

i recommend you read the HP service manual in it's entirety  as it covers many useful things besides raid/HD setup

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04205252

[Ruthieroo]

Hi and thanks so much for that 🙂 I went ahead and cloned my existing drive to a new one but the new one still seems to be doing what the older one (which has some sort of issue according to Seadisk DiskWizard) was doing and making the 'working' noise all of the time; should I assume this is bad luck and there's something up with the disk or does it sound like it's to do with something I or the PC are doing to the disks? It functions but it makes its sort of 'working' noise almost all of the time even when the computer is idle... Very frustrating as I'm doing everything by the book, as it were