Help on Raid O: how to use a ghost image of current OS (which is not Raid O) and transfer it to the Raid stray?

[ruud]

Dear all,


My current configuration is (built in September 2006)


- a dual Xeon (5130, dual core, 2.0 Ghz) based on a Supermicro motherboard X7DAE (Chipset Intel 5000X), see specs on the following link:

supermicro motherboard

- 4 Gig of RAM (FB-DIMM)
- my graphic card is a PNY Nvidia Quadro FX 540
- 1 Raptor HD for system and applications
- 2 Caviar (500 and 750 Gb) for data
- OS : Windows XP 64bit

Time to upgrade my HD system:

- I just purchased 2x WD VelociRaptor (150 Go) to be mounted as Primary Master under a Raid 0 configuration on which there will be OS (Windows XP 64 bit) and softwares (most Adobe);

- the Supermicro has two possible Raid solutions : Intel ESB2 Sata controller and Adaptec HostRaid.


What I would like to do: not to have to reinstall every single software (starting with Windows!).

Do you know if it possible to ghost current primary (OS and soft) which is not Raid 0 configured and to duplicate it to the Raid 0 stray (composed of the two new Velociraptor) once configured?

I would like to proceed as follows (and avoid painful reinstallation of windows and all soft) :

- first install one the two Velociraptor, and with Norton Ghost copy the content from the Raptor (my current primary master with OS and soft) to this first Velociraptor.

- second (if it is possible) to migrate the VelociRatpor to a Raid 0 array by adding the second virgin VelociRaptor.

- the old Raptor will be converted as a scratch disk for Photoshop.

Any idea?

Thank you very in advance for your help.

Best regards,

 

[vailr]

AFAIK, Norton Ghost doesn't include needed DOS mode Raid drivers.
Couldn't you:
1. Boot from the existing working HD, with the 2 new HD's also connected.
2. Format and partition the velociraptors as a Raid 0 drive pair (while booted in Windows).
3. Use Ghost while booted in Windows to copy data to the new Raid pair.
4. Power down and disconnect the old drive.
5. Boot from the Windows install CD and "repair install" the Raid 0 pair (supplying the x64 Raid drivers with a floppy disc).
6. Boot from the Raid 0 pair.
7. Power down & re-connect the old drive, which remains bootable depending on bios setup selection.

Note: If your Windows CD doesn't already include the updated Service Packs, first slipstreaming those would be worthwhile.

 

[mooseracing]

If I was going to do it, I would use Acronis to image your current setup. Then setup the RAID 0, then use Acronis to restore the image to the raid. You would more than likely need to use the Universal Restore so you can insert your drivers diring restore.

 

[Madwand1]

Let's call the drives O, N1, N2 for old, new 1 and new 2 respectively.

Do a full image copy of O to N1.
Disconnect N1.

Now you can do all the following with N1 as a fallback:

Enable RAID in the BIOS.
Boot with O. If needed, attach O to a different controller to boot.
Install the RAID drivers on O.
Confirm that you can boot with O on the RAID controller, and access the RAID utility from the OS.

Install Acronis or some other imaging software which handles RAID.

Now you're going to be at a small risk of losing everything:
Connect N1 and N2 to the computer, and create the RAID array R on it.
From Windows, image O to R.

Shutdown, disconnect O and set R to be your boot drive.

Read the fine print: RAID 0 is inherently risky, and the above operations are also inherently risky (I might have been unclear or mistaken, or you might make mistakes during the process), so you stand a chance of losing everything during the process or afterwards. There are also bugs -- hardware/software and compatibility issues which sometimes arise. Even with a successful installation, something like a bad driver update could cause you to lose access to your RAID 0 array, and then with no ability to boot the OS and fix it, you would be toast. It's generally much safer to have the OS on a separate simple drive, and if desired a RAID 0 array for the data, with external backup for at least everything that matters.

 

[0roo0roo]

driveimage xml?