Going from one drive boot too 2 drives raid

WINTERLORD

February 8, 2011 3:58:25 AM

ok, i have one raptor 10k rpm and just got the other back from rma so 2 drives now, from one

i dont want to waste much time since im going to be getting an ssd drive soon. but i was wondering if there was a quick way i could take this entire drive 36gb raptor and switch into a raid of 2x 36gb raptors both drives are same revision number ect.

i dont really want to do a full reinstall because soon imma wipe it all and go to ssd. but for now would like to add another drive have 2 drives in raid. so backup. and then reput it on the drive or?

iv never really used backup so a little help would begreat. i do got paragon drive backup and of course windows 7 backup. problem is if i format both drives i can put the backup somewheres but what would i do to get it to boot afterwards and copy then boot like i never switched from 1 drive to 2drives in raid.

thanks
winter

More about : drive boot drives raid

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Emerald

February 8, 2011 5:28:06 AM

setting up a RAID usually requires a complete reinstall

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vvhocare5

February 8, 2011 3:27:35 PM

You should be able to insert the drive, go into your RAID bios (CRTL-I?) and create a RAID0 array and let it run. And whiloe I havent done it this way, you should also be able to boot into windows and run the Intel Raid Manager and doo the same thing...

It is quite easy.

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Paperdoc

Storage Expert

February 9, 2011 7:23:03 PM

Read the manual for your particular RAId system very carefully. Many such systems do NOT allow you to migrate easily from a single drive to a RAID0 array, and for two very good reasons.

ONE: migration requires re-organizing ALL your data, OS, etc - EVERYTHING - to split it between two drives, sector by sector, and even if it can be done, there is certainly a risk that an error will lose some or all of your data. So don't even consider this until you are sure you have a safe backup on a completely separate medium somewhere.

TWO: Your OS - and this means ALL versions of Windows - proably cannot boot from a RAID0 array unless you re-install it and, in doing so, install (through the special F10 key process early on) the RAID device drivers. Thus, even if you successfully split all your original single disk's contents into the RAID0 array, you still could not boot from it!

IF you are SURE your RAID system can do the migration for you, IF you have a proven good backup, and IF you are sure you can make it boot from your RAID0 array, you can go ahead. But the easiest path may be to wait. Wait until you get the SSD you're planning and re-install your OS to that. Then make a complete backup of all your old drive, VERIFY that you have all its data readable, then wipe the drive. Then install your second drive, create the RAID0 array, install the RAID drivers in the Windows OS you have running, then restore all your data from the backup. Now you have a single drive to boot from (your SSD) and a data "drive" on the RAID0 array.

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