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I'm using an old pc as a storage space and I have two 2TB HDD drives. I want to use them in a way that when I place a file or a picture in hard drive 1, the same files are saved in hard drive 2 in real time. How can I do that?

Joshua
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    What OS are you using? Windows 2000 and higher can create a software mirrored partition. – LPChip Jun 30 '16 at 15:55
  • I'm about to write you an answer on how to do this on windows. I will be using windows 10 in my example, but the screens haven't changed much since 2000 and 2000 will likely perform well on your old pc. – LPChip Jun 30 '16 at 16:00
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    It is possible the answers so far, which involve mirroring, are not what you want. Mirroring is a reliability feature, but the user sees only one file system. Only if you remove the "copy" hard drive from the mirror (RAID set) do you see the same file in two different places. And then of course the copies won't happen. So if you want to have the same file appear in two different places (e.g., two different file systems) or on one permanent (installed) drive and one removable drive ... you'll need to clarify your question. – davidbak Jun 30 '16 at 17:13

3 Answers3

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Raid mirroring of the drives (RAID 1) would accomplish this easily, there are other ways however I'm not familiar enough with them to attempt to explain how to manage it.

djsmiley2kStaysInside
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    Although this is technically correct, the fact that he mentions its an old pc makes me assume the pc does not have a RAID controller, and thus this is not possible. – LPChip Jun 30 '16 at 15:52
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    If he installs a Linux then he can create a software raid... perfectly achievable on an old PC... and free... – Kinnectus Jun 30 '16 at 15:54
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    How can I do that in Linux? What do i need? – Joshua Jun 30 '16 at 15:55
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    Windows 2000 and higher also offer this – LPChip Jun 30 '16 at 15:55
  • @LPChip: Perhaps not real hardware RAID, no, but my previous desktop from 2006-ish had _two_ FakeRAID chips [though I hadn't used them]; it's a relatively cheap feature, since the OS driver ends up doing all the work anyway. – u1686_grawity Jun 30 '16 at 16:01
  • @Joshua: For modern filesystem-level RAID, either zfs or btrfs; for traditional disk-level RAID, either mdadm or dmraid. – u1686_grawity Jun 30 '16 at 16:02
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    @Joshua In Linux, you make do software raid with the `mdadm`command http://www.ducea.com/2009/03/08/mdadm-cheat-sheet/ – Narzard Jun 30 '16 at 16:02
  • @Joshua Please edit your post to include system specs (including chiefly motherboard, CPU, drive identifications) and preferred OS to avoid future users having to guess and possibly posting non-applicable answers. – underscore_d Jun 30 '16 at 18:00
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If you use Windows 2000 or up, you can create 1 mirrored partition that spans 2 or more drives, where data written to this one partition is stored on those disks simultaneously.

In order to do this, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.

Open Disk Managemententer image description here

Depending on which OS version you are using, you may need to convert the disk to a Dynamic disk. If New Mirrored volume is missing or greyed out, convert, otherwise skip this step.

enter image description here

Now, Right click one of the empty disks, and choose New Mirrored Volume...

enter image description here

Select the other disk and press Add... then Next.

enter image description here

Assign a drive letter to this new partition and press next.

In the next screen you can choose the volume name and type of the partition. Change if you want, or leave it with the default settings. Using NTFS is recommended. Then press Next, and finish.

enter image description here

LPChip
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  • I've heard that this implementation is quite slow however, even compared to other kinds of software RAID. Even Windows 10's "Storage Spaces" are said to have better performance. – u1686_grawity Jun 30 '16 at 16:15
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    @grawity I'm using this setup and it outperforms a normal setup. Okay, it is likely not going to be as fast as a raid controller. I haven't actually tested that as I was not able to utilize this. – LPChip Jun 30 '16 at 16:19
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    Also, if OP is already on windows, this is by far the easiest way to get results. – LPChip Jun 30 '16 at 16:21
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RAID does allow that, but it needs dedicated additional hardware (controllers); another option is Shadow Copy, which is a Windows feature.

Google those key words for details and conditions, there is a lit of information to know.

Aganju
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  • Can you name the hardware needed please? – Joshua Jun 30 '16 at 15:53
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    RAID controller ;) – Kinnectus Jun 30 '16 at 15:54
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    Downvoting for false info. As noted above, software-based RAID exists. This will require no additional hardware such as specialized RAID controllers. Such RAID controller functionality is also built into some motherboards/BIOS/whatever. The primary reason why additional hardware is often used for RAID has more to do with specialization benefits, such as enhanced speed (and maybe safety features, like a batter and speaker that alerts when a drive drops), not because extra hardware is frequently an actual requirement to make this technically work. – TOOGAM Jun 30 '16 at 19:10
  • My 5-year-old motherboard has RAID support built in, OP may not need additional hardware. – TMN Jun 30 '16 at 20:17