RAID Configuration help

[firehawk_1]

Trying to figure out the RAID 0 configuration and set it to my needs. I would like some suggestions and answers please:

I have: 2x2TB HDD's
I have: 1x3TB HDD (this is to backup the 2TB HDD using acronis).

Given the fact that a bootable RAID of more than 2TB is not supported, what if I created a RAID of 2TB (1TB from each drive)? Would this work?
What would happen to the rest of the space? (the remaining 2TB). Would it still be accessible/usable?


if worst comes to worst....

if I create a single OS Boot drive and use RAID for data storage (4TB), then would I still be able to backup that data storage unit + the OS boot onto my 3TB HDD using acronis? I mean, would I have issues when restoring? (if anyone knows!)

I just want to make sure that the restoration and backup process is smooth and effective but importantly for the overall system usage that I get alot of perf gain in terms of HDD response.

Many thanks!

 

[Hawkeye22]

Your boot drive must be MBR unless you have a EFI(UEFI) motherboard. That being the case, Your boot drive won't see anything over 2Tb.

If I remember correctly, Acronis can not backup GPT disks unless you have the addon pack. You can check into this... actually you do need it.

Dynamic Disks and GPT Support
Is available with Acronis True Image Home 2011 Plus Pac

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/#features

 

[firehawk_1]

yeh wouldnt surprise me to be honest from acronis. I have advanced server version.

well yes unfortunately my system doesnt have EFI.

so the situation then is to have an OS boot disk (I have a 500GB disk I could use).
I then need to create the 2x2TB into RAID 0

what about in terms of backing up the RAID? I could backup the image onto the 3TB disk? what about the OS partition? Same thing? And when it comes to restoration... what should I do?

 

[Hawkeye22]

As long as you have the addon pack you should have no problem backing up/restoring a 2Tb (GPT) raid. Remember, since the raid volume is larger than 2Tb, you will need GPT partitioning. With intel matrix raid, I beleive you could use the remaining space on the raid, otherwise I think it's just remains unused, so to utilize all the space you will need a 4Tb raid 0. Other may be more informed than me on this one.

 

[firehawk_1]

Thanks.

ok, one thing is for sure then is that I need a bootable OS drive. The rest would have to be a RAID 0 for data storage and apps/programs.
That is the drive I would need to backup onto my 3TB disk. would this be possible? And would it be possible to restore it again?
from what you are saying and I understand is that I need GPT on the RAID if its > 2TB. Infact you could still use it as MBR but not as a bootable partition?

 

[Hawkeye22]

You can't use MBR on the raid because raid 0 will make it 4Tb which is well over the 2 Tb limit of MBR. Remember, the raid controller displays the volume as a single drive to the OS, in this case, a 4Tb volume. You also never mentioned which OS you are using. Win 7 can boot from a GPT disk if it has a UFI motherboard. I don't think vista or XP can boot from GPT at all.

Anyhow, as long as your backup drive is the same size as the total of the drives you are backing up or larger you should be fine. I know backup compression helps, but some files just don't compress as well as others.

Also, I wouldn't use a raid 0 as a storage drive. A storage drive usually holds all your most important data and i wouldn't trust it to a raid 0 without backing those files up often. Remember, if a drive in raid 0 dies, it takes out the whole array and all data is lost.

 

[firehawk_1]

Thanks hawkeye.
I will be using WS2008R2 (and later in future)

Well the problem is there already.... "backup to the same size or more of the RAID array". there are no physical disks which can be more than 3TB at the mo.

I would be backing up the RAID 0 array once a week so thats not much of an issue. The issue is... the size of backing up :-/

 

[r0ck3tm@n]

I don't understand the issue, I have three RAID arrays on four HDD's. Can you not choose the size of your RAID partitions?

 

[firehawk_1]

yes I can. the issue is that I want some advice on the best way to set up a RAID 0 where I can also back that up to a 3TB HDD.
The other issue is that I am not able to create a bootable RAID of more than 2TB due to a limitation of the BIOS as its not EFI which sucks because I spent alot of money on a new board and have data (and bootable OS!) backed up to be restored onto this new system with a new configuration