a secondary volume of a mirrored volume pair is replicated by suspending the mirroring operations , associating a selected volume identifier with the secondary volume , replicating the secondary volume to a backup volume , and associating the original secondary volume identifier with the backup volume . in some embodiments the original secondary volume identifier is written to a hidden field on the secondary volume and the hidden field is copied to the backup volume identifier field after the replication . in some embodiments the actions of suspending the mirror operations , managing the volume identifiers , replicating the secondary volume to a backup volume , synchronizing the secondary volume with the primary volume , and reestablishing the mirror pair are performed as an automated sequence . the resultant replication method is less costly and error prone because it may be created by an automated process rather than manual commands issued by a system administrator .