Disk Imaging Raid 0

lex-luther

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I am interested in setting up a RAID stripe on my computer but I am concerned about the ability to fully backup the data. In a past setup, I had used Norton ghost to image the RAID array to a backup disk. When one of the disks in the array failed, I was unable to properly restore from the disk image. Windows XP would boot up and then hang during the loading screen. Ever since then I have been hesitant to run a RAID stripe again.

Has anyone else had success disk imaging with RAID? If so what imaging tools did you use and was there any difficulty in rebuilding the array?

 

lex-luther

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I wanted to avoid the need for four disks in the case and RAID 5 would require purchasing a IO controller which is also undesirable. Is there any disk imaging software compatible with RAID stripes?
 

lex-luther

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Sound like just the tool I needed, I am going to setup a RAID 0 mirror using my newly purchased 10,000 RPM raptors and see if I can: setup a raid array, install vista, backup, recreate array and restore. If this works as you suggest, it will be the perfect setup for my RAID stripe.

Have you tried a recovery using this method or just a backup?
 

honolululu

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:D Excellent question.

I did do a test recovery and it worked great. I have my image on a third drive, and it's 10GB with xp sp2, office, gimp, ff and some other utilities but no games. That's the uncompressed option.
 

al2suarez

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hello honolululu,

Can you further explain what you did after loading raid drivers through F6. Did you have to format raid-drive C or just partition it and then restore backup with DriveImageXML? Help!

Thanks Honolululu.

al
 

MadHacker

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I use norton ghost all teh time with my raid 10 partion..
as a developer I have 3 boot partions, and each one is ghosted so if it screws up....
I use a higpoint Rocket Raid 2320 and have no problems...
only time i need the driver disk is when I'm installing XP.
as for Ghost, well it works 100%
 

honolululu

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Did you configure the BartPE to have DriveImage XML integrated before burning the disc? Here's some instructions.

Yes the raid array has to be formatted and bootable. I did this with the XP install disc.

Once the raid is formatted then boot the BartPE disc, loading the F6 drivers. When BartPE loads you have to go to Start, Programs, and then DriveImage XML should be there. Choose Restore and then just select your backup file and the destination drive.
 

al2suarez

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Thank you Honolululu. Unfortunately my Windows 2000 test machine doesn't come with VSS so DRiveImageXML fails. I guess I will just create a backup of my Windows XP machine and hope the backup works when my raid-0 fails and I have to restore it.