Converting RAID Performance to RAID Mirror 2

[Jeep]

Hi: I am running XP Pro with an AMD 64 3200+ CPU on an MSI K8T Neo motherboard, with 512MB RAM, using two 40GB WD Raptor hard drives, operating in RAID mode, set for Performance, on the Promise Technology section of the motherboard. The two drives therefore appear as a single C: drive with 74GB capacity. My question is: Can I convert the present C: drive to a Security, or Mirror, setup, one drive being the mirror of the other, thereby reestablishing two hard drives, without formatting or losing the 8GB of data now on the C: drive? If not, could NTBackup be used to backup the 8GB of data to a backup drive and then restore the data to one of the two 40GB drives? Many thanks for any help someone may have.

 

[rclarke250]

you can't change the array without loosing all the data. a better way is using ghost to copy the system to a backup drive,then create your new mirror array,it must be created before adding data,my understanding is this is a limitation of the ide raid technology. then you can use ghost to restore your data. and the system would still only have one hard drive listed as c: at 36gb. the other would not be seen as it is a mirror that is transparrent to the system.

 

[Jeep]

RCClarke250: Thanks for your help. If I decide to use Norton's Ghost, do you see any problem if I ghost from an NTFS drive to a FAT32, and vice versa, as well as from a 10,000 rpm drive to a 7200 rpm, and vice versa? If not, then ghosting should prove no problem insofar as the involvement of a RAID drive is concerned, right? Thanks again.

 

[braddds]

As far I know, concerning ghost, is that when you create an image in NTFS then the new drive will be NTFS...to convert to FAT32 you'd have to use a different program, like partition magic. At least this is my experience when using ghost! There may be other imaging apps that will allow you to convert or newer versions of ghost may allow for this...but you'd have to research it online!

As for raid...sorry but I'm new to this myself as I'll be setting one up later today for the first time!

Cheers

 

[rclarke250]

If you have the space don't copy drive to drive,you can use ghost to make a backup of the partition. saves everything to one large file.

 

[darren97]

Hello Gurus.

I'm sorry to tag onto the end of this Q but my position is very similar. I have X2 40Gb Raptor hard drives set for performance (striping) at the moment. If I wanted to provide redundancy (mirroring) could I simply install a 80Gb+ drive and mirror, or is it not that easy.

Many thanks in advance
Darren

 

[jurgen36]

Yes it is that easy. I use one raid 1 array as my boot section, and every night I ghost that array to another raid 1 array. I have altogether 10 drives in 3 arrays. Works very well. Can boot from either array selecting in Cmoss. Regards

Jurgen

 

[darren97]

Thanks Jurgen, you've really helped me!