Hello all,
I have a HTPC running Vista Ultimate (x64), and I am looking to upgrade to Win7 Pro (the Pro version because I get a deal through work). I am worried, however, on what this will do to a RAID 5 array.
The HTPC sports a BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. It has an AMD SB750 south bridge. HDD wise, there is an OS drive and 5 1TB drives in (fake) RAID 5 (filled with media). The array partitioned as one big GPT partition.
To upgrade the OS, I need to do a clean install. As the raid array is set up in BIOS and appears to the OS as a single drive, my guess is that I can wipe the OS drive and do a fresh install with no harm to my RAID array. Essentially, it will be right there waiting for me when the install is complete. Is that, in fact, the case?
I seem to remember installing a driver for the RAID array when I first set the computer up, where is that driver stored? Would wiping the OS drive kill that driver and the RAID drive in the process?
I, of course, anticipate the totally reasonable suggestion, "make a backup dumb-ass," but, unfortunately, I don't have anything else that can store 4 TB of data. If the array crashes, I do have the media on the original DVDs and BDs, but re-ripping all my stuff would be a royal pain. As data security is all about reducing risk to an acceptable level, I guess I am looking for the odds of failure. If the odds of killing my array are high enough, it may be worth my investing in 2 2TB drives, as opposed to living with the risk that I may have to spend time re-ripping discs.
One other question, if things go sour, how likely is it that reinstalling a pre-upgrade image of the OS drive would sort things out?
Thanks for the help
I have a HTPC running Vista Ultimate (x64), and I am looking to upgrade to Win7 Pro (the Pro version because I get a deal through work). I am worried, however, on what this will do to a RAID 5 array.
The HTPC sports a BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. It has an AMD SB750 south bridge. HDD wise, there is an OS drive and 5 1TB drives in (fake) RAID 5 (filled with media). The array partitioned as one big GPT partition.
To upgrade the OS, I need to do a clean install. As the raid array is set up in BIOS and appears to the OS as a single drive, my guess is that I can wipe the OS drive and do a fresh install with no harm to my RAID array. Essentially, it will be right there waiting for me when the install is complete. Is that, in fact, the case?
I seem to remember installing a driver for the RAID array when I first set the computer up, where is that driver stored? Would wiping the OS drive kill that driver and the RAID drive in the process?
I, of course, anticipate the totally reasonable suggestion, "make a backup dumb-ass," but, unfortunately, I don't have anything else that can store 4 TB of data. If the array crashes, I do have the media on the original DVDs and BDs, but re-ripping all my stuff would be a royal pain. As data security is all about reducing risk to an acceptable level, I guess I am looking for the odds of failure. If the odds of killing my array are high enough, it may be worth my investing in 2 2TB drives, as opposed to living with the risk that I may have to spend time re-ripping discs.
One other question, if things go sour, how likely is it that reinstalling a pre-upgrade image of the OS drive would sort things out?
Thanks for the help
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