Windows 7 - Migrate Software RAID 1?

[Modular]

Hi All,

I just built a new HTPC and want to migrate my working RAID 1 array over to it.

The RAID 1 is strictly my data array. I use an SSD for OS. It was built as a software RAID in Windows 7 x64 and will be going to a fresh Windows 7 x64 build.


Do I simply move both drives over and the array will be recognized, or do I have to re-enable it somehow?

The other option would be to ditch the RAID array altogether and just use backups (which I already do). In that case, do I have to do anything special to one of the drives when I move it over, or will it be recognized by Windows right away?

 

[alzan]

Hi All,

I just built a new HTPC and want to migrate my working RAID 1 array over to it.

The RAID 1 is strictly my data array. I use an SSD for OS. It was built as a software RAID in Windows 7 x64 and will be going to a fresh Windows 7 x64 build.


Do I simply move both drives over and the array will be recognized, or do I have to re-enable it somehow?

The other option would be to ditch the RAID array altogether and just use backups (which I already do). In that case, do I have to do anything special to one of the drives when I move it over, or will it be recognized by Windows right away?

At the very least the array would be recognized on the HTPC as a foreign array and would have to be imported to be usable.

I don't know enough about Win7 software RAID to tell you the steps involved; the articles I glanced at seemed to indicate that it's possible you could swap them over. Scour the Web for articles or how-to's on working with Win 7 RAID and moving the drives to a new system.

At least you've got a backup if things go kaflooie (that's a technical term.)

 

[Modular]

Thanks alzan. I was trying to find an article that talked about simply migrating the array over, but didn't really find anything specific to my situation.

I've actually decided to ditch the RAID array for the new build and instead use a backup software and NAS + Carbonite to ensure data security.

Will I be able to move one of my drives from the old RAID 1 array into my new computer and see all the files on it and use it as a slave drive with no issues?

 

[Modular]

Update: I simply moved the 2 drives over to the new install and individually imported them as a Foreign Disk. I could have imported the array and it would have been operational, but there was no information on doing this anywhere that I could find. Perhaps my google-fu just sucks.

If anyone is ever in this situation and runs across this thread here's some advice: import the whole array over as a foreign disk. This keeps the RAID 1 array operational.

I wanted to break the array and use a different strategy for redundancy, but I still should have imported the whole array and then broken the array using the Storage Manager in Device Manager.

Because I imported my disks individually, Windows said that they were failing their redundancy check, and I had no option available to rebuild the array in the drives. I ended up formatting them one at a time and swapping the data that I wanted between the drives as I did so. It was a bit of a pain in the butt.

There is surprisingly little information on this topic and even the people at Seven forums have had no answers for me. Anyways, all is well that ends well!

 

[alzan]

Update: I simply moved the 2 drives over to the new install and individually imported them as a Foreign Disk. I could have imported the array and it would have been operational, but there was no information on doing this anywhere that I could find. Perhaps my google-fu just sucks.

If anyone is ever in this situation and runs across this thread here's some advice: import the whole array over as a foreign disk. This keeps the RAID 1 array operational.

I wanted to break the array and use a different strategy for redundancy, but I still should have imported the whole array and then broken the array using the Storage Manager in Device Manager.

Because I imported my disks individually, Windows said that they were failing their redundancy check, and I had no option available to rebuild the array in the drives. I ended up formatting them one at a time and swapping the data that I wanted between the drives as I did so. It was a bit of a pain in the butt.

There is surprisingly little information on this topic and even the people at Seven forums have had no answers for me. Anyways, all is well that ends well!

Glad it worked out even though there were time-consuming workarounds.

I'm a little disappointed but unfortunately not surprised that there's little to no information on MS' software RAID, especially on MS support sites; if you're not going to offer support info, why offer the software and/or feature to begin with.

I've always worked with hardware RAID on dedicated controllers; a wholly different schema wrt support, whether specific or general.