Complicated raid question

[f1nal_0men]

I doubt this is possible but I thought I would ask. Is it possible to move all my data to a single harddrive while still in raid0 and then break the raid? Uh, let me try explaining it one more time to make sure I am making sence.... I want to keep all my data from the raid, at the same time break my raid so I have 2 seperate harddrives. I am using 2x WD 2500ks on an Abit NF7-S onboard raid in raid0. Thanks for any help.

 

[allred]

As far as I know you could only do this by backing up the array to a extra single drive, disconnecting the array and whiping the array's hard drive and then reinstalling windows (or whatever OS you use) onto one of your old raided drives and using the backup to return it to its old state.

 

[f1nal_0men]

I figured, but I only have the 2 HDDs..

 

[deweycd]

Yea, In raid 0 setup, you can't keep the data on the drives and convert between an array and not array without losing it all.

 

[rwpritchett]

I doubt this is possible but I thought I would ask. Is it possible to move all my data to a single harddrive while still in raid0 and then break the raid? Uh, let me try explaining it one more time to make sure I am making sence.... I want to keep all my data from the raid, at the same time break my raid so I have 2 seperate harddrives. I am using 2x WD 2500ks on an Abit NF7-S onboard raid in raid0. Thanks for any help.

You will have to backup everything before you break the RAID. What exactly is your goal? You could use something like Partition Magic to split your RAID into two partitions which would give you the functionality of having your OS separate from your data... if that's your goal. You would still have a RAID but it would 'appear' as two hard drives in My Computer.

If you truly want to break the RAID, perhaps you could make a compressed image of your array and then put the image onto one of the drives after you break the RAID and setup the HDD's separately. I've never tried that before, does anyone know if that would work?

 

[gudodayn]

I doubt this is possible but I thought I would ask. Is it possible to move all my data to a single harddrive while still in raid0 and then break the raid? Uh, let me try explaining it one more time to make sure I am making sence.... I want to keep all my data from the raid, at the same time break my raid so I have 2 seperate harddrives. I am using 2x WD 2500ks on an Abit NF7-S onboard raid in raid0. Thanks for any help.

You will have to backup everything before you break the RAID. What exactly is your goal? You could use something like Partition Magic to split your RAID into two partitions which would give you the functionality of having your OS separate from your data... if that's your goal. You would still have a RAID but it would 'appear' as two hard drives in My Computer.

If you truly want to break the RAID, perhaps you could make a compressed image of your array and then put the image onto one of the drives after you break the RAID and setup the HDD's separately. I've never tried that before, does anyone know if that would work?

However, he would still need a extra drive to store that image on, break the raid array and then throw the image data back on there!!!

As you have 2 x 250GB drives, my question would be.......is you raid 0 config packed with data...say right up to 500GB worth??

That could be a problem as you need a extra drive to back it up, break the raid and chuck everything back on there.....so that backup drive needs to be 500GB!!!

If not, just borrow a 2.5 inch 80GB USB drive and copy everything you need.....break the raid and copy everything back on there!!

As far as I know in a Raid 0 configuration, what you want to do is not possible......you need a third hard drive to copy the data you want to keep!!!

 

[f1nal_0men]

I need to backup about 350gb, and ya, I don't have the resources to back it up seperately 'cept burning a lot of dvds -_-. I want to break the raid because I think my raid is slowly coming apart, files are getting to be corrupt. i need to run a chkdsk before I decide to do anything but I'm pretty sure thats what I plan on doing. Besides, raid doesn't seem to give me a huge performance gain anyways, I can live without. And data stability is what I need. And no, I'm not doing raid1 =P

 

[gudodayn]

I need to backup about 350gb, and ya, I don't have the resources to back it up seperately 'cept burning a lot of dvds -_-. I want to break the raid because I think my raid is slowly coming apart, files are getting to be corrupt. i need to run a chkdsk before I decide to do anything but I'm pretty sure thats what I plan on doing. Besides, raid doesn't seem to give me a huge performance gain anyways, I can live without. And data stability is what I need. And no, I'm not doing raid1 =P

I'd compress the 350GB worth of data you have and the compression will vary depending on the type of files you have on there......copy them to a borrowed drive or drives (multiple 2.5 inch 80GB drives).

Re-install your OS in normal single drive array, copy the your data back.....all this could be done within a day.

Now you just need to find friends that have drive(s) that they can loan you for 24 hours!!

I run a raid config on my system as well.......I do a lot of video editing / converting and host internet FPS games with 5~10 friends connecting to my PC, I find the raid 0 config helps in my situation.
I have 3 partitions and I've re-install the OS before but never broke the raid 0 array to go back to single drives before though!

 

[MadHacker]

easiest solution is to buy a hardrive at future shop or circut city... then back up your data on it... split up your raid...
then coppy the data back...
afterwards return the drive... under their not "100% satisfied"

nobody ever said i was moral...

 

[f1nal_0men]

easiest solution is to buy a hardrive at future shop or circut city... then back up your data on it... split up your raid...
then coppy the data back...
afterwards return the drive... under their not "100% satisfied"

nobody ever said i was moral...

You must be Canadian, isn't Future Shop Canada only? Hmmm, and ya, I've done that before :twisted: Thats what they are there for! Good ideas from everyone, thanks for all your help.