AN515-55-55M1 RAID 1 Procedural Particulars, please?

JohnPWalker

I've already done a bunch of reading on RAIDing this thing, but I still have a couple of questions about going from the stock 512 SSD to 1 (maybe 2) TB.

Essentially, I'd like to know the safest and/or easiest method. I'm hoping that I can put a 1TB into Slot 2, switch on RAID 1 from the BIOS, wait 'til everything copies/mirrors over, then remove the stock 512, move the 1TB into Slot 1, and throw a 2nd 1TB into Slot 2 and let the system do its RAID thing again.

Am I all wet and/or oversimplifying things? Do I need a mirroring app to ensure that everything is copied and that the 1TB is bootable, as is the stock 512 now? Do I need to repartition/reallocate the 2nd half of new 1TB and, if so, can I do this without destroying what's there? (I just need to expand it, right?)

As you can surely tell, I've not done much of this before. I'm basically proceeding with a lot of reading but not a whole lot of real-life application, here.

Any experienced help/instruction/links would be greatly appreciated. (And, if you wouldn't mind, please say which SSD is your fav and why.)

Thanks, everyone, very much.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/711805/an515-55-55m1-raid-1-procedural-particulars-please

The Nitro 5 AN515-55 is a 2020 laptop and its SSD1 and SSD2 drive slots are at an interface of Gen 3 x4 lane type M.2 drives, that have a max read/write speed of and up to a tested 3800MB/s/3700MB/s speeds and imo you don’t need RAID array especially RAID 1 as its the most expensive and wasteful of capacity setup , as in RAID 1 and if you have a 1TB and a 512GB drive your total capacity will be reduced to 512GB as with RAID 1 you're only getting the storage space of the smallest drive in the setup.

If you want to read a constructive article and guide on RAID read this article here “What RAID means and why you might want one?” as it explains everything including “Is RAID right for you?” as RAID was originally invented to cut costs of '80s storage prices while simultaneously accounting for high fail-rates of some early technology. RAID setups are still primarily used in large servers; think of corporations that require 24/7 access to their critical data. Now though, in an age of cheap bulk storage, RAID setups are often used privately in conjunction with specialized tasks and to avoid monthly fees and privacy concerns surrounding cloud storage services. Just my opinion, as I wouldn’t take the risk of RAID and the trouble of setting it up, as todays M.2 drives are quick enough. Good luck and hope this helps you out.

Extract from that article "What is RAID 1?"

A RAID 1 setup consists of at least two drives that are mirrored to contain the exact same information. This RAID setup includes fault tolerance, as one drive failing will not result in the other drives failing as well. There's no striping involved, so as long as one drive works, the array will continue to operate, making this a favourite of those who require high reliability. In most cases, read performance should be about the same as with a single disk, though there can be a detrimental effect to write speed and storage capacity.

When data is written to the array, it must be written to each drive independently. Write speeds will therefore only be as fast as the slowest drive in the array. Likewise, storage capacity is dependent on the size of the smallest disk, so having a 256GB and a 512GB drive means you'll lose half the storage space of the latter hardware. The solution? Stick with similar drives — both in performance and size — and you'll have a much better time with a RAID 1 setup.

RAID 1 is generally the most expensive choice since its efficiency can basically be measured as the number of drives divided by its own number. For example, if you have two drives (the minimum number for a RAID setup), you're only getting the storage space of the smallest drive in the setup. This equation is the same no matter how many drives you have. A 10-drive setup will still only have one drive worth of information stored within, though it would have some impressive data redundancy.

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