Cloning my HD, questions about switching RAID config

[Vox_Ambsace]

Hi All -
Sorry for the basic nature of the questions. I read the FAQ but didn't see anything that gave me what I was looking for, so I figured I'd appeal to the collective brainpower of the forum.

I currently have a system that is set up as a RAID 0. I am running out of storage space though, and I currently have no backup of my HD (playing with fire), so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and migrate my HD to a larger capacity one and switch to RAID 1. I want to make sure that what I would like to do is possible... I have Acronis True Image to handle cloning the drive - I plan on moving from 360Gb RAID 0 to 1Tb RAID 1. The big question is once I clone the drive, how will the RAID controller react when I attempt to use the new drive as the boot drive? Since it will still be setup as RAID 0, but I am putting in a new drive (to test the validity of the HD image), I am worried about wonking things up. And if the validation fails, will the controller be able to go back to the old drive(s) to boot without any data loss?

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[GhislainG]

Knowing which RAID controller would help, but you should normally be able to add the new RAID 1 and then use Acronis True Image to backup the old RAID contents and restore it to the new one. Then switch the primary boot drive from the old RAID to the new one. If you're worried, why not use True Image to backup to an external drive? Backups should be performed even when using RAID 1 as it won't provide protection against human errors or malware.

 

[Vox_Ambsace]

It is an Intel 82801 GR/GH SATA RAID Controller - I have had this PC for a while! I was actually planning on backing up True Image to one of the Tb HDs via USB before setting up RAID 1. So, once I back it up to the external drive, then I just pop it into the case and tell the machine to boot from the new drive? That is where I am uncertain, because if the controller is setup as RAID 0, what will happen? I hadn't considered a second backup, but that makes sense, and I will take that advice!

Does knowing the controller make a difference in your recommendation?

 

[GhislainG]

I now know that you have an ICH7R. To start with, the controller is configured in RAID mode and then you decide how hard disks are assigned (RAID 0, 1, 5 or none). In your case, you'll add the 1TB drives as members of the new RAID 1.

So, once I back it up to the external drive, then I just pop it into the case and tell the machine to boot from the new drive?

You could do that to make sure that the disk image works, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you then try to amke the drive a member of a RAID 1. I would instead install 1TB drives in a RAID 1 config and then restore from the external disk. Don't you want to keep an external drive for your backups?