Raid question

[toant103]

I have one 80GB maxtor and 1 80GB western digital in raid 0.

But i just bought an identical 80GB max and want to take the western digital out.

Is there a way for me to do that without reformating?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Locate software that can make a bit-for-bit copy. However it may not work, due to the differences in drive structures between the brands (may not use the same densities, or have the exact same boundaries, stuff like that).

You can also do a simple full backup to some other drive using Ghost or something like it, change the drive, reconfigure the array, then use the software to copy the image back to the array with the new drive. No need to reformat and reinstall and that's not a bit-for-bit copy, just a partition copy.

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Locate software that can make a bit-for-bit copy. However it may not work, due to the differences in drive structures between the brands (may not use the same densities, or have the exact same boundaries, stuff like that).

You can also do a simple full backup to some other drive using Ghost or something like it, change the drive, reconfigure the array, then use the software to copy the image back to the array with the new drive. No need to reformat and reinstall and that's not a bit-for-bit copy, just a partition copy.

thanx, i'll try that but i have to get another computer.

 

[Thraxen]

I don't think ghost can clone to a dynamic disk. I recently tried to figure out how, but with no success.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Who said anything about dynamic disks?

 

[Thraxen]

Oh, is a RAID set-up not considered dynamic? Windows sees my RAID array as such, as did Ghost. Anyway, terminology aside, I still don't think Ghost can do it.

[EDIT] I guess I need someone to explain a dynamic disk and dynamic volume.

 

[ITJunkie]

If I remember correctly...from Windows 2000 forward you have to promote your harddrives from "basic" format to "dynamic" in order to utilize RAID.

 

[WeeWolf]

Is this hardware raid or software raid?

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: WeeWolf
Is this hardware raid or software raid?

this is hardware raid. highpoint controller built into my epox8k7a+.

I try ghosting it as a single drive but no luck. Man, guess i have to format it

 

[Lord Evermore]

You don't have to do anything with dynamic or basic disks to use hardware RAID. As far as the OS is concerned, there is only one drive visible. To do it with software RAID, maybe you need dynamic disks but I kind of doubt it.

 

[whovous]

My experience may not be helpful, since what I did is backwards from what you want to do, but here goes:

My Gigabyte GA-8IRXP has a RAID controller as IDE 3 and 4. For a very long time, I simply ran two HDs on IDE 1 instead, and did not try to RAID. When I finally got two drives to use for RAID 0 purposes, I also got the use of a third drive briefly. First, I used Ghost to clone my system to the third "spare" drive, and made sure it all worked before moving on.

Next, I set the spare drive aside, and reformated the original "C" drive, and also formated the new HD I planned to use with it for RAID, and used the RAID bios to configure the two HDs as a single RAID 0 device. I did not do anything regarding "dynamic" or "basic" disks, and do not even know what that means. I then put the third HD back on IDE 1 and kept the RAID 0 devices on 3 and 4, and booted with Ghost. It recognized the two RAID drives as a single larger HD.

I had some problems at this point that took me a while to overcome. Since my system had always used partitions, and since Ghost will permit partition to partition or disk to disk copying, but not partition to disk, I had set up the spare drive with two partitions (though the second was tiny and empty) thinking that I needed to do that in order to have partitions once I went to RAID 0. It turns out that thinking was wrong.

Anyhow, I made repeated efforts to do a partition to partition clone without success. It may be because it can't be done, or it may be the result of some other mistake I have made and forgotten.

In any case, once I told it to clone disk to disk, it worked just fine, and even gave me the added bonus of allowing me to create the second partition in RAID via Ghost.

Why am I telling this story? It seems to me that if I can clone from one disk to RAID with Ghost, that it should also be possible to do the reverse and clone from RAID to one disk. After all, Ghost sees RAID as one disk either way.

I think the original writer should make sure the third HD is fully reformatted and bootable, and then try a disk to disk clone. While I know just enough about such things to be dangerous, I really do not think there is any danger in trying this approach.