KT7 RAID and Ghost software works or not?

[Guest]

I used Ghost Software to make a backup of my C drive (partition) which is connected to the RAID controller (RAID 0 for speed) the image file is only 500 Mb while there is 1,2Gb on the partition. I used high compression.
I used the same program on my girlfriends pc, which has no Raid, and made a backup of 1,0 Gb of almost the same data. I used high compression again, but her image file is 900Mb!
I am wondering if this Ghost software backs up my entire C drive (both parts of the RAID configuration), or only one of the two RAID drives?

I am using an Abit KT7 Raid mobo, two 30Gb IBM 75Gxp 7200 U100 drives, RAID 0, and Windows 98 (not 98SE), Thundebird 800.
She is using an AOpen KT33 (or KX?) mobo with a maxtor 27Gb 7200 rpm U66 drive, Duron 700.

Has anyone got experience with this?

i want to make a good backup while it works, and i am not going to try this one out because it cost me hours and hours before i got everything to work properly....

 

[uncoando]

Excellent question. The size of the image file is contingent on the amount of data being compressed: Ghost will preserve the disk structure autonomous of its size.
You should be able to determine if the RAID structure is intact when running Ghost, is Ghost accurately reporting the size of the array?
I would go to Symantec's site and do some research...
Let us know what you find out.

<b><font color=blue>Brainy Sturgeon</b></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

So, you are saying that the size of the image file says nothing about the amount of data that it actually contains? Hmm, could be.. this is getting interesting...

I believe that the size of the different partitions is being displayed correctly. The amount of data was displayed correctly too i think, so that would indicate that the image file would be correct?

Hmm...

I installed the same programs on my girlfriends PC, which has only one hard drive with three partitions, 5Gb, 10Gb and 10Gb.
I also have got three partitions, 15Gb, 15Gb and 30Gb. I only backed up the 15Gb C-drive (primary DOS partition) on my pc and the 5Gb C-drive (primary DOS partition) of my girlfriends pc.
There is about 1Gb of data on each drive, but, like i said, i have RAID and she doesn´t. My clusters or sectors are larger too, since my partition is 15Gb and hers is 5Gb. Perhaps the image file size is related to that?

I will verify it as soon as i have time for it. I´ll keep you updated.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[uncoando]

The size of the image file reflects the amount of data, not the size of the partition...
I'll go to Symantec after I get home tonight and see what I can find.

<b><font color=blue>Brainy Sturgeon</b></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Oh, i misunderstood you then. It sure does sound more logical that the size of the image file is directly related to the amount of data, but nowadays, everything is possible..

I hope i figure it out before my pc crashes..

 

[uncoando]

Hi Arien,
Check this out...
<A HREF="http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/c92aa8e61de62ad08825694a0011cf3b/7205dc44f3434700882566f10077bfd2?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,RAID,0" target="_new">http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/c92aa8e61de62ad08825694a0011cf3b/7205dc44f3434700882566f10077bfd2?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,RAID,0</A>

<b><font color=blue>Brainy Sturgeon</b></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

I found that site myself too...

So, i think it is not going to work... are there any other alternatives? Will they run from DOS? because this Ghost 5.0 is like 400 kilobytes and runs under DOS, but Ghost 6 is like 25 Megabytes!! That won't fit on a floppy!!

 

[Guest]

There's another alternative you're not consdiering here. Use Ghost Explore to compare the contents of the partition to the image file. Your girlfriends .img could be larger also due to the type of files that she has stored. Not all files compress at the same ratio.

As far as the partition information/size. That doesn't matter at all. Ghost deals strictly with the data, but it does contain partition tables. Thing is these can be changed on the fly with ghost.

Hope I'm not just restating what someone else has already posted.

Arien: That's not really true. The only file you need is the ghost.exe which fits easily on a floppy. The other 24.5 meg is all GUI and support files. Simply copy ghost.exe to a floppy and use a boot disk. Another thing I've done was to create a network boot disk and back the .img file up to another machine for large deployments. GL.

Pirates4ever

My Toy: Abit Kt7-Raid, Athlon 800, 256 PC133 RAM, LeadTek Geforce SDR, SB !Live.

 

[Guest]

I have installed the same software on both machines at the same time. The only difference is some drivers. Since my image file is almost half the size of her image file there must be something wrong.
I already found out that Ghost is not RAID compatible. And with checking the image file, it might make the same mistake again and report that the image file works ok.
I firstly thought that imagefile size was related to the amount of data, but then i got confused by the first reply, because i misunderstood it. So then i thought it might also be related to clustersize, but this is not true. Obviously...

Is there any other similar program that does the same trick and also supports RAID?

 

[Guest]

OK, I've come up with two lines of thought here:
1) The reason your .img file might be half the other is that it's only imaging literally half the data in the RAID 0 config. Since the data is divided between the two disks, maybe it's only getting data from one disk. Just thinking out loud.
2) Ignoring what I said above, if this is hardware raid, which it is, Ghost should see it as a single drive. This may sound extreme, but what I would do is format my disk, and use the image to restore. At least this way you'll know whether or not it works.

Beyond that, I checked the Drive Image Pro site and it said NOTHING about imaging raid arrays. But they do have a seperate product for servers that do support RAID.

The last solution I can think of is to pick up another cheap HD and set up a RAID 1+0. That way you're covered no matter what.

Pirates4ever

My Toy: Abit Kt7-Raid, Athlon 800, 256 PC133 RAM, LeadTek Geforce SDR, SB !Live.

 

[Guest]

I do have a 4Gb harddrive lying around somewhere.. perhaps i could plug that one into my pc, unplug the two raid disks and restore the image file. But i am afraid that will mess up my settings. I don´t want to stay up all night again trying to get my pc to work...
The RAID controller has a bios too, and if it misses the two harddrives while booting up, things might get messed up...

and yes, i also think the image file contains only data from one of the RAID 0 disks.

 

[uncoando]

I would reverse RAID configuration, run Ghost, burn image file, re-establish the RAID 0 array. If there are real mode drivers for your RAID, Ghost should work. Let us know how things turn out.

<b><font color=blue>Brainy Sturgeon</b></font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Ok, how do i reverse this RAID configuration without my data being lost? and what are these real mode drivers?