Question

Replacing RAID0 disk or restoring from backup

Asked by: adamdrayer

User has an XP home computer with a SATA Intel Matrix RAID0 setup (2 drives).  One drive seems to be hiccupping, and we want to replace it.  The drive still functions ok, but constantly have to mark the drive as normal.  I don't see a way to transfer the data from the failing drive (Drive2) to the new drive, so I was trying to weigh my options.

1. I can try to clone the drive using a sector-by-sector imaging program, but I'm not sure that will work.  The new drive is not the same model and is larger than the drive being replaced.

2. I can kill the raid, add the new drive, recreate a raid, and restore from a backup... in which case I am somewhat ashamed to say I don't know how to restore a full system backup of XP to a new drive.

Is there anything else I can do short of reinstalling everything?  The system is working well, it's just that one drive keeps getting flagged as dirty once a week.

Thanks,

Adam Drayer

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Asked On
2007-07-18 at 13:22:05ID22705432
Tags

raid

,

disk

,

replace

,

drive

Topics

Storage Technology

,

Backup & Restore Software

,

Computer Hard Drives

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Answers

 

by: chuckyhPosted on 2007-07-18 at 13:42:01ID: 19517180

I would use ghost or Acronis TI to make an image of the raid0 array, verify that it works. Break the array and switch out the drive, then put the image on the new array.

 

by: JustUNIXPosted on 2007-07-19 at 08:53:08ID: 19523144

RAID 0 is a stripe -- no redundancy available.

If you hava additional drives available and ports on your RAID adapter, you may be able to create a RAID 0+1 device by mirroring the existing stripe to another (at least same size) stripe on new disk(s).
In this case, you can swap the broken drive for a new one while the system is "live".

I cannot judge, if this is possible with your hardware/software -- I've done this quite often with Solaris servers (Suns and/or PCs).

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2007-07-19 at 08:53:50ID: 19523157

Also - double ceck the Riad Version.

If it is doing mirroring, then great, each drive is the same.
If it is doing spanning ( 1 volume spanned over two physical disks ), then you need to be very careful since recovery can be very difficult.

Check the volume size in windows to see which is being used.

If spanning is used, you may need to do a backup from within windows to get the a proper backup, rather than via DOS.

In any case, I would consider replacing both drives.

I hope this helps !

 

by: JustUNIXPosted on 2007-07-19 at 09:05:51ID: 19523291

spanning = RAID 0 (striping or concatenation)

 

by: adamdrayerPosted on 2007-07-19 at 11:28:56ID: 19524717

I'm aware the differences between RAID levels.  Imagine that both drives are perfect, but for some reason I want to replace one of them.  Chuckyh had a good idea about making an image of the striped partition.

If i end up having to restore an image I assume I'd have to install windows first?

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2007-07-19 at 12:10:30ID: 19525117

Yes, you will probably first need to install windows, unless the Imaging program can boot from a CD.

It also depends if you do the single drive or the entire spanned volume.

 

by: JustUNIXPosted on 2007-07-20 at 00:26:05ID: 19529272

even if you have a image program you have on a boot disk you may not be able to create a stripe when booted with it. Therefore you wil have to install Windows and create the stripe (spanning) first.

 

by: adamdrayerPosted on 2007-07-20 at 09:06:40ID: 19532454

>>Yes, you will probably first need to install windows, unless the Imaging program can boot from a CD.

That's what I wanted to know.  If any of the imaging programs can boot from a CD.  I understand the theoretics, I was curious if anyone had experience actually performing something like this.  A bare-metal restore.


>>even if you have a image program you have on a boot disk you may not be able to create a stripe when booted with it. Therefore you wil have to install Windows and create the stripe (spanning) first.

The striping is done on a hardware level by the controller in this case, not by software or the OS.  Theoretically, is should be transparent to the software, but I was interested in whether this is the case.

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2007-07-20 at 09:46:31ID: 19532845

Acronis should work OK, but I would test to see how Symantec Ghost and others see the Hard drive RAID from a boot CD.

Most have Evals that you can test with.

I hope this helps !

 

by: RockChalkPosted on 2007-07-28 at 18:29:50ID: 19586638

You said that one of the drives is "hiccuping."  When this happens, I assume that the volume goes degraded?  When this happens, first make sure that your new, third disk is in the system.  Open the Intel Matrix Storage Console, and right-click on your new clean drive.  You should be able to rebuild your RAID0 volume to this drive.

Another option is to add the new drive to the system now, right-click on it in the Intel Matrix Storage Console, and mark the drive as a spare.  The next time the driver detects a problem with one of the disks in your RAID0 volume, it will automatically start rebuilding to the new drive.

Note: there seems to be some confusion on this thread about whether the RAID is being done by Windows or by Intel Matrix RAID.  Given that you stated the system had only two disks, I'm assuming that it is Intel RAID, as you cannot boot to a Windows RAID volume.

 

by: Computer101Posted on 2007-10-07 at 18:48:30ID: 20031792

Forced accept.

Computer101
EE Admin

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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