Here's a very quick question which there doesn't seem to be a solid answer to: if I split a RAID 1 (mirrored) pair in the Intel RAID utility, am I absolutely guaranteed that data will remain intact on both drives (well, one will suffice, TBH)? I can't afford to lose this data and backing stuff up at this point is not really an option due to sheer volume.

Nothing is guaranteed. Both drives could fail at the same time. A virus could wipe out both hard drives. You could drop your computer. Power surge. Fire. Theft.

Most of those are unlikely to happen but probably the biggest problem with RAID 1 is that if you delete something critical or get a shitty virus, you get it on both drives.

If data is CRITICAL you need to utilize multiple backup plans to decrease the chance of catastrophic data loss. That means RAID or local tape backup + offsite backup. The chances of something happening to your data or physical CPU/location AND something happening to an offsite location is pretty small.

I now employ 3 techniques in my backup. I use SyncToy (free MS utility) to backup data to an external hard drive ($75 for 1TB). I also swap data between my internal drives. Any extremely critical files go to cloud storage.

The chances that a fire wipes out my computer, backup, and something goes wrong on the cloud are small.

You misunderstand - my question was whether data will be properly and fully retained when I delete a RAID 1 array from an existing mirror thereby releasing the two drives

You misunderstand - my question was whether data will be properly and fully retained when I delete a RAID 1 array from an existing mirror thereby releasing the two drives

Not it wasn't. It was "[color="#1C2837"] if I split a RAID 1 (mirrored) pair in the Intel RAID utility, am I absolutely guaranteed [color=#1C2837][size=2]that data will remain intact on both drives (well, one will suffice, TBH)?"

The two questions are very different.
[color="#1C2837"]

[color="#1c2837"]As was pointed out, you have no absolute guarantees on anything. They could both already be different thanks to bad raid settings or other problems....

[color="#1C2837"]

[color="#1C2837"]... Either way, you will still have two disks with (theoretically) the same data. If you have any doubt, pull the drives, hook them up on another computer as read-only devices, inspect the contents. You can restore them to their old computer if there is an issue.

@frob: sorry, I wasn't aware that splitting and deleting a raid configuration was a different thing. My intended question was whether the act of configuration removal will affect data on the drives that are currently in the array.

I just need to get rid of the configuration so I can re-use one of the drives in a striped setup and use the other as for alternative purposes. To clarify further: if I'm not guaranteed that at least one drive will retain all data untouched when I delete the configuration, can I at least remove one or more of the mirrored drives physically and expect it or both of them to still be fully coherent (that is, does the RAID configuration (or changing it) affect anything that is actually on the drive?). I assume I can delete a RAID configuration from the setup utility regardless of whether both or any of the drives are present, which would suffice.

@frob: sorry, I wasn't aware that splitting and deleting a raid configuration was a different thing. My intended question was whether the act of configuration removal will affect data on the drives that are currently in the array.

I just need to get rid of the configuration so I can re-use one of the drives in a striped setup and use the other as for alternative purposes. To clarify further: if I'm not guaranteed that at least one drive will retain all data untouched when I delete the configuration, can I at least remove one or more of the mirrored drives physically and expect it or both of them to still be fully coherent (that is, does the RAID configuration (or changing it) affect anything that is actually on the drive?). I assume I can delete a RAID configuration from the setup utility regardless of whether both or any of the drives are present, which would suffice.

If the data is critical, I wouldn't screw with any of the settings BEFORE the data is backed up. Spend the $60 bucks to get a big ass hard drive and back up the data before you mess with the RAID settings. You're going to feel like an idiot if you do something to make the data unaccessible. The time you'll spend figuring out a way to get the data back will be well worth the money you spend buying a backup drive. If you don't have the money go on Ebay and get a used one for $20 and then throw it away when you're done.

Anything you do before backing up your data off the RAID is at the risk of losing your data. I have personal experience with this building my new rig.