Moving Raid array onto single disk

[RobertPters77]

I have 2 hitachi deskstars 400gb hd's running in Raid. One of the harddrives is beginning to die and I want to transfer the data of both drives over to a single hard drive of larger capacity. Is it possible to do so and have windows xp recognize the hard disk with no problems?

 

[Zap]

Is Windows installed on the array? If not, then just copy the data over. If so, then you need some cloning software such as Acronis.

 

[RobertPters77]

Yes it is. What about the software that HD and Seagate include on their hd's will that work?

 

[Gillbot]

If you can use a branded software then yes. One such as Seagate's Disc Wizard or WD's Acronis tool will work if you have their respective drives in your system. You can also try GParted which is a free ISO download to make a bootable disc.

 

[RobertPters77]

If you can use a branded software then yes. One such as Seagate's Disc Wizard or WD's Acronis tool will work if you have their respective drives in your system. You can also try GParted which is a free ISO download to make a bootable disc.

Thank you! I'm about to purchase another 1tb drive and wasn't sure which brand's software would allow me to and subsequently which brand to purchase. So either one is fine right?

 

[pitz]

You could just add the new disk as a 3rd disk to the machine, add the disk to the mirror (so a triple mirror), and then remove the failing disk. Assuming, of course, that everything is still up and running.

This way, you still have the RAID redundancy that you're looking for, with the remaining good 400gb drive + the new 1Tb drive. You could then partition the balance of the 1Tb drive for a 600gb non-redundant drive.

 

[Emulex]

if you clone an intel matrix raid. you will clone the signature. think long about that..

 

[corkyg]

I have cloned RAID1 arrays to a single backup USB HDD with no problem. I did use Acronis TI - it sees an array as a single lettered drive.

 

[Emulex]

nah its when you put two drives back in a system with that one cloned you'll see what i mean

 

[manko]

if you clone an intel matrix raid. you will clone the signature. think long about that..

nah its when you put two drives back in a system with that one cloned you'll see what i mean

I guess you're hinting at something like this(?):

http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2001

The disk is offline because it has the same signature (it's a clone) of the disk you imaged. Windows won't allow you to attach two disks with the same signature. By forcing the disk 'online' Windows updates the disk signature. Unfortunately, this will corrupt the boot process on the disk by invalidating the Boot Configuration Data (BCD). Also, you cannot boot the single disk while the BIOS is configured for Intel Matrix RAID. You need to turn off RAID in the BIOS. You will also need to use the Windows PE 'Fix Boot Options' (or the Start-up Repair option on the Windows Installation DVD') to repair the disk signature change.

Your problems are caused by mixing RAID and non-RAID disks and attaching cloned Windows drives to the same PC.

 

[RobertPters77]

if you clone an intel matrix raid. you will clone the signature. think long about that..

The motherboard is a P5AD2-E Premium. Do I need another intel chipset or can I go amd?

nah its when you put two drives back in a system with that one cloned you'll see what i mean

Both drives are dying. And the system is almost dead. I plan to transfer everything into a new system.