RAID prebuilt PC

[imported_ChrisCO]

Hi guys, I've been out of the project type stuff for awhile and mostly concentrate on the enterprise level concerns which brought me here. I must say, great site! So, my question is....How are you guys setting up a RAID 1 on a new box system....say HP desktop that has the OS pre-installed? Thanks in advance.

 

[imported_ChrisCO]

After 28 views and no replies I take it this is a difficult question. Well, thanks for at least taking a look.

 

[sgrinavi]

Worse case sceniario is you may have to add a RAID card and reinstall the OS.

 

[Emulex]

well if the drivers/bios and card are setup right why not ghost the image ; create the raid; then restore image to raid and expand

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: Emulex
well if the drivers/bios and card are setup right why not ghost the image ; create the raid; then restore image to raid and expand

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but every time I have tried that I end up reinstalling all the apps (that have a key) anyhow....

The other thing that I find amusing is that every time I reinstall the OS I use less and less space LOL..

(sorry about the minor thread jacking)

 

[RebateMonger]

The least troublesome way is to back up the system with a backup program that is designed to do a "hardware-independent-restore". ShadowProtect Desktop has this feature, as does Acronis Desktop with their hardware-independent recovery option.

Another way (using XP) is to make the controller change and then perform a "Repair Install" of XP.

Vista's Complete PC Backup program is supposed to be able to handle this under many conditions. You do a full system image backup and then restore the system to the new disk controller setup, adding the appropriate RAID controller driver during the restore process. While this is supposed to work, I haven't been successful in doing it so far. But I've seen accounts of it working.

 

[imported_ChrisCO]

So, out of the box pop in the 2nd drive, boot to the recovery disk, F6 for 3rd party raid/scsi driver and go from there? Sounds fairly simple.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: ChrisCO
So, out of the box pop in the 2nd drive, boot to the recovery disk, F6 for 3rd party raid/scsi driver and go from there? Sounds fairly simple.

Sorry, you got a "late-night" answer.

Actually, to do it this way with XP, you'd need a RAID controller that can "clone" a single disk to a new RAID 1 array. Some RAID controllers can do this, others can't. If your controller can do it, then you'd do so first and now you'd have Windows on a RAID 1 array. NOW you could run a Repair Install of XP, adding the RAID drivers to the Windows no sitting on a RAID 1 controller. After the Repair, it should boot as a RAID 1 array.

Or you could do it as Emulex mentioned. Ghost (or other imaging backup) the single drive, create an empty RAID 1 array, restore the Ghost image to the new RAID 1 array, and do an XP Repair Install of the XP image on the RAID 1 array.

 

[imported_ChrisCO]

You suggest ghost, raid it and then ghost it to the new raid array...then complete an XP repair? Why would I complete an XP repair after restoring from a ghost image?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: ChrisCO
You suggest ghost, raid it and then ghost it to the new raid array...then complete an XP repair? Why would I complete an XP repair after restoring from a ghost image?

Because the Ghosted image would be configured for the previous non-RAID configuration. It won't boot. As far as I can tell, Ghost isn't capable of injecting new disk drivers into the image when restoring to different hardware. Acronis' and ShadowProtect's backup software can do this.

The XP Repair Installation provides the opportunity for XP to set itself up for the new RAIDed configuration, including the opportunity to install the needed drivers in XP.

The Ghosting process will let you move the IMAGE from a single drive to a pair of RAIDed drives, but it won't fix the image itself. When you try to boot, Windows won't be able to find the hard drives.

 

[imported_ChrisCO]

I absolutely agree and did not consider that. I appreciate all the help and will spread the word about this site throughout my techs. Again, much thanks.

 

[ecom]

Have you considered purchasing the system with RAID 1 out of the box. Dell Optiplex 960 can be ordered with 2 drives in RAID 1 or 0.